A new study by Prof. Keller comparing Dragonfly telescope observations to simulation models of galaxy formation has been accepted in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

In 2020, a paper by Dr. Allison Merritt and the Illustris-TNG team reported a potentially serious problem in simulations of galaxy formation: simulated galaxies produced far too many stars in the outskirts of galaxy halos, the diffuse “cloud” of stars that surround galaxy discs.

Using simulations from the MUGS and MUGS2 suite of galaxies, Prof. Keller was able to show that these differences arise from the different choices for modelling small-scale supernova (SN) physics in these simulations. With stronger SN feedback in low-mass galaxies, the observed properties of real galaxies can be well-matched in simulations.