The Arp@VST project is a public observing programme, conducted at the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory which aims to revisit the Arp catalogue of peculiar galaxies produced by Halton Arp in 1966. The catalogue contains 338 galaxies with distorted morphologies and/or interacting systems amd thanks to the excellent observing capabilities of the VST, we will be able to map the galaxies’ structure down to low surface brightness levels.

You can read details on the first release at the following link!

Ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) are extremely faint and diffuse galaxies whose nature is still unknown. Differently from bright giant galaxies, which maintain their equilibrium thanks to the rotation of the stars which follow nearly circular orbits, UDGs are believed to be dispersion-supported systems, e.g. systems that maintain the equilibrium thanks to the stellar random motions. Surprisingly, in the Hydra I cluster of galaxies, we have found for the first time UDGs with hints of rotation.

Have a look at my recent paper on stellar kinematics analysis of UDGs!

The majority of disc galaxies in our Local Universe, including our own Milky Way, have a stellar bar at their centre, which rbelieved could form only in the late stages of galaxies’ lives. Our recent study on the first most distant (and thus ancient) barred galaxy ever observed revealed that the bar shape can appear already during a galaxy’s infancy. 

If you are curious, read the full paper published on Nature Astronomy!

The fraction of baryonic and dark matter in central regions of barred galaxies has significant implications for the bar formation channels. Fast bars can form in isolated discs, while slow bars are born either from tidal interaction with a closer galaxy or can be fast bars slowed down by the interaction with a dense dark matter halo. In this study, we have revealed a link between the bar rotation rate and the dark matter content enclosed in the bar region.

You can found more information reading my work!