Joint Astrophysical Colloquium
Resolving Stars, Gas and Dust in Galaxies at Cosmic Noon and beyond
Leindert Boogaard (Leiden Observatory)
Thursday 18/06/2026 @ 11:30, Sala Antonio Sollima (IV piano Battiferro)
To understand the build-up of galaxies over cosmic time, characterising the interplay between the gas, dust and stars inside galaxies is fundamental. Galaxies during the peak of cosmic star formation at cosmic noon (z=1-3) and beyond are found to have order-of-magnitude higher gas fractions than their local counterparts. Yet, the impact of these large gas fractions on the galaxies themselves is still poorly understood. The combination JWST with (sub)mm-interferometers like ALMA & NOEMA is now revolutionising our view of distant galaxies, by resolving both spatially and spectrally the structure in stars, star-formation, dust/PAHs and the cold gas emission at unprecedented scales. In this talk, I will present recent results on the structure of gas-rich galaxies at cosmic noon and beyond from new ALMA, NOEMA and JWST observations. I will show the discovery of a stellar bar in an extreme gas-rich disk at z~4 and its key implications for early galaxy assembly. I will discuss recent insights into PAH emission of distant galaxies and the tight correlation observed between CO and PAH emission in galaxies out to z~4. Finally, I will look forward to the ALMA Large Program HIDING in the HUDF, that will provide high-resolution, kpc-scale dust and gas mapping for a complete sample of typical gas-rich star forming galaxies in the HUDF at cosmic noon.