Dr Marc Sarzi

Armagh Planetarium and Observatory
  • Armagh Observatory and Planetarium

Dr Marc Sarzi

“I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth” – Walter Schirra

Email: marc.sarzi@armagh.ac.uk

Research

Fornax 3D

Integral-field spectroscopic (IFS) data have been my bread and butter for a long time now, especially when it comes to extracting and studying the ionised-gas content of nearby galaxies. I was a proud member of the SAURON and ALTLAS3D collaborations, which led to a RAS group award in 2013 for essentially redifining our view of early-type galaxies. Following on these steps, I am now co-leading a new survey of the Fornax galaxy cluster with the MUSE IFS Fornax cluster.

Armagh Planetarium and Observatory

Galactic Nuclei

I’ve been long interested in the properties of galactic nuclei, from measuring the mass of central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) as inferred by the motion of stars and gas observed with HST, ALMA or 8m-class telescopes assisted by Adaptive Optics to  understanding for instance the role that SMBHs can have in regulating star formation in their host galaxies.

HST image of NGC4526 with its molecular gas disk overlaid in violet. The disk extends all the way to the center allowing to weight the central SMBH. From Davis et al. (2013)

Planetary Nebulae

Looking for extra-galactic Planetary Nebulae has been my pet project for some time now since I found out how neatly one can detect them using IFS. Having established my methodology by looking at our closest galactic neighbours, the Andromeda galaxy and its small companion M32, with my students Thomas Spriggs and Pablo Galan de Anta we are now pushing to measure the properties of the PNe population in galaxies 20 Mpc away and more!

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