Adam Smercina - A New Era of Galaxy Evolution with Resolved Stars

The varied and dynamic evolutionary histories of galaxies give rise to their stunning diversity in the present-day universe. Inferring these histories requires accessing the information encoded in their longest-lived visible components: stars. In this talk, I will first summarize my efforts to chart the merger histories of nearby galaxies by surveying populations of individual stars in their outskirts. I will then discuss my efforts to trace the evolution of galaxies’ star formation and structure, as a consequence of these merger histories, by resolving individual stars in their main disks. In particular, I will highlight several large programs I am leading with JWST, which opens up an exciting new frontier for this science. Indeed, the next several years marks a turning point for the study of nearby galaxies, with a fleet of current and upcoming observatories capable of accessing the resolved stellar populations within and around them – such as the Roman Space Telescope. Over the next decade, my group’s pioneering cross-facility work will strive to transform our view of merger-driven galaxy evolution, allowing us to connect the merger histories of galaxies directly to both their individual evolutionary trajectories and to their present-day physical conditions. This work will pave the way for further paradigm shifts in resolved star science with future facilities, such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory.