Grant: Canada Research Chairs

By tracing the diversity of galaxies through cosmic time we write the history of our own Galaxy. In massive systems observed in distant universe stars are tightly packed within regions ten times smaller than our Galaxy's disk. Although they seemed to disappear with time, I discovered ultra-compact galaxies at distances when the universe was two-thirds its current age. I will use relative vicinity of these dense systems to map the evolutionary path(s) of their luminous and dark matter aggregates and to determine their relation to galaxies like our own.