This talk will be live at the Martz-Kohl Observatory and available online via Zoom. You are encouraged to
come to the observatory to meet Margaret Verrico and join in our always lively Q&A after her talk. If the
weather permits, there will be public viewing opportunities. Dress for being outside as the telescope
domes are not heated.

The Universe is home to an incredible variety of galaxies—vast and awe-inspiring collections of stars, gas, dust, and dark matter. These galaxies come in all shapes and sizes: blue spirals like our own Milky Way, and red ellipticals that are often devoid of the gas and dust necessary for new star formation. But how did these different types of galaxies come to be? Why are there so few galaxies that fall in between these two categories? In her upcoming talk, Margaret (Maggie) Verrico will take us on a journey through the evolution of galaxies, explaining how they formed in the early Universe and how they’ve evolved into the
diverse population of galaxies we observe today. Maggie will discuss how astronomers study galaxies and make inferences about their past, present, and potential futures. She’ll dive into the processes that drive the transformation of galaxies, from their star-forming spiral stages to the quenching of star formation and eventual transition into elliptical galaxies. Along the way, she’ll also explore the intriguing role supermassive black holes play in galaxy evolution, including the monster black hole that lies at the center of our own celestial home, the Milky Way Galaxy.

Margaret (Maggie) Verrico is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,
where she focuses on galaxy evolution and the relationship between galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their centers. She earned her Bachelor’s in Physics from the University of Pittsburgh in 2021 and is originally from Buffalo, New York. Maggie is particularly interested in the ways galaxies “shut down” their star formation and the transient events that occur around supermassive black holes, which provide valuable insights into a black hole’s “appetite” and growth.

Zoom Meeting
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Time: Feb 19, 2025, 07:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: Margaret Verrico presents “Galaxies: From Spirals to Ellipticals.”
Meeting ID: 872 8988 3862
Passcode: program
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Meeting ID:   872 8988 3862
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