Astronomy and astrophysics

Southern African Large Telescope - status, plans, and star-forming galaxies

by Petri Väisänen (South African Astronomical Observatory)

Europe/Stockholm
FC61

FC61

Description
SALT is a 10-m class optical telescope in South Africa, it is the premier facility for optical/nir astronomy on the continent. It is on its 6th year or science operations, and has seen strong increase in science output making it perhaps the world's most cost-effective large telescope. I will give a brief description of the project with recent updates, highlights, and plans for future direction. I will then describe my own work using SALT together with other telescopes, involving star-forming galaxies and LIRGs, and galaxy-wide winds affecting the evolution of these systems. I will discuss a recently studied case of a likely triple galaxy merger in particular.