Program/Event
UofL 2025 Undergraduate Arts & Research Showcase
Abstract
Occulting pairs of galaxies, where a foreground galaxy partially overlaps a background galaxy, are becoming increasingly valuable for studying dust attenuation and other dust properties in galaxies. These occulting systems present a unique opportunity to derive attenuation measurements by modelling the light from both galaxies and inferring the missing light in the overlapping regions, leaving only the light attenuated by dust remaining. However, the current master catalogue of these pairs is still relatively limited in number, and expanding such a catalogue will provide significant advantages. To achieve this, we use galaxies classified as "overlapping" from Galaxy Zoo DECaLS (GZD-1, 2, and 5) along with images from Data Release 9 (DR9) of the DESI Legacy Survey in our own Galaxy Zoo project to classify these pairs directly. This new catalogue will not only provide a plethora of targets for future dust studies but will also allow for better insight into these pairs as a whole.
Recommended Citation
Butrum, Trevor A. and Holwerda, Benne
(2025)
"Galaxy Zoo: A Catalog of ~1000 Occulting Pairs in the DESI Legacy Survey for Dust Studies,"
The Cardinal Edge: Vol. 3:
Iss.
2, Article 24.
Available at:
https://ir.library.louisville.edu/tce/vol3/iss2/24