By Sean Swick

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Matthew Fleenor

Abstract

Understanding the role that dynamics plays in galaxy evolution involves an account of both internal and environmental indicators. In addition, galaxy indicators are often derived from direct observational data that involves a multi-step process. We utilize the SDSS DR7 database for original photometric and spectroscopic properties, while also relying on the MPIA/JHU database for stellar masses and star-formation rates (SFRs). Guided by multiple literature sources, we directly calculated the SFRs while also cross-comparing against their values. To gain perspective on the environment, we determined the peculiar velocity as a measure of environment by accessing the Cosmicflows collaboration distance calculator. The morphology from GalaxyZoo was cross-checked against the peculiar velocity and SFR. From this, we investigated the relationship between internal SFR and environmental peculiar velocity.