Goals

MAGNET (Mechanisms Affecting Galaxies Nearby and Environmental Trends) has the ultimate goal of understanding the relative importance and effectiveness of different mechanisms in affecting galaxy properties in all environments in the local universe, by combining multi-wavelength observations.

MAGNET will investigate the properties of an unbiased sample of galaxies in a wide range of environments, from galaxies in isolation, to pairs, filaments and groups, and covering a wide range of stellar masses and morphologies, to tackle the following questions:

i) is there clear evidence for hydrodynamical and/or tidal interactions and what is their relative importance? 

ii) are environmental interactions relevant compared to internal, secular processes? 

iii) what is the timescale of star formation quenching for galaxies undergoing different types of interactions? 

iv) how does the multi-phase composition of the interstellar medium change as a function of position within a galaxy under different types of interactions?

The field

We selected a 65 square degree region in the southern sky which includes a variety of environments, from galaxies in isolation, to pairs, filaments and groups. 

We carefully avoided galaxy clusters and their surroundings, to study galaxies in the environments where the vast majority of them are located and selected a region that benefits from a wide range of ancillary data.