Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics· 2013Q1· Review
Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
- 939citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2013year
Short summary
This review outlines the stellar population synthesis (SPS) technique, a method used to deduce a galaxy's physical properties from its observed spectral energy distribution (SED). It details what can be reliably measured from galaxy SEDs.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Galaxy SEDs encode information about star-formation history, metallicity, dust, and more.
- Stellar Population Synthesis (SPS) is the primary technique to extract these physical variables from observed SEDs.
- Key measurable properties include stellar masses, star-formation rates and histories, metallicities, and dust characteristics.
- The review covers what can be reliably determined from galaxy SEDs using SPS.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of galaxies are shaped by nearly every physical property of the system, including the star-formation history, metal content, abundance pattern, dust mass, grain size distribution, star-dust geometry, and interstellar radiation field. The principal goal of stellar population synthesis (SPS) is to extract these variables from observed SEDs. In this review I provide an overview of the SPS technique and discuss what can be reliably measured from galaxy SEDs. Topics include stellar masses, star-formation rates and histories, metallicities and abundance patterns, dust properties, and the stellar initial mass function.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2013 · DOI ↗
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Field: Instrumentation
InstrumentationPhysics and Astronomy