The epoch of galaxy formation

Abstract

Recent advances in technology have enabled astronomers to observe fainter, and more distant, galaxies and to study the processes of galaxy formation and evolution. Recent observations suggest that the bulk of the stars in the universe formed between z = 3 (∼1 × 10^9 years after the big bang) and the present. The star formation rate appears to have peaked at z ∼ 1–2 (∼ 2–4 × 10^9 years after the big bang). While galactic disks appear to form primarily around z = 1, the central regions of spiral galaxies and most elliptical galaxies appear to have been assembled at higher redshift.

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