Cosmos Seminar

Early Environmental Transformation of Dwarf Galaxies in the Fornax Cluster: Insights from NGC 1427A

 

Dwarf galaxies are among the most environmentally sensitive systems in the universe, and their present-day properties retain the imprint of processes acting from cosmological scales down to local interactions. In dense environments, they can be transformed by a combination of tides, ram-pressure stripping, and encounters with other dwarfs, yet the early, comparatively weak cluster-processing phase remains poorly constrained observationally. My research focuses on this regime by studying gas-rich dwarf galaxies likely undergoing first infall into the Fornax Cluster, using VLT/MUSE integral-field spectroscopy in combination with MeerKAT H I data and ancillary multi-wavelength observations. The goal is to understand how environment shapes the gas content, star formation, kinematics, ionization, and chemical evolution of low-mass galaxies as they begin their transformation inside a cluster.

I will present recent results for NGC 1427A, a spatially resolved, multi-phase view of a Fornax dwarf in an early stage of environmental transformation. FUV-to-radio data reveal a strong decoupling between stars, gas, and dust, supporting a scenario in which ram-pressure stripping acts together with local tidal perturbations. Beyond establishing NGC 1427A as a compelling case study, these results provide a blueprint for extending this analysis to a growing MUSE sample of dwarfs on first infall into the Fornax Cluster.