Star Formation in Red Spiral Galaxies
Michael Brown (Monash University)
It is often assumed that red spiral galaxies are produced when star formation is truncated in blue spiral galaxies. However, this picture must be flawed, as the largest red spiral galaxies are more massive than present-day blue spiral galaxies. We have used SDSS, 2MASS, NVSS, WISE, Spitzer, GALEX and HIPASS to identify and characterise nearby spiral galaxies with very low star formation rates. The vast majority of red spiral galaxies are detected in archival 21-cm data, and thus have reservoirs of hydrogen gas to fuel star formation. We find that all red spiral galaxies have mid-infrared PAH and dust emission, consistent with continued star formation.
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