Ten Billion Years of Galaxy Evolution

Abstract

Observations in the Hubble Deep Fields have been used to study the evolution of galaxy morphology over time. The majority of galaxies with z < 1 are seen to be disk like, whereas most objects with z > 2 appear to be either chaotic or centrally concentrated ``blobs''. Such blobs might be the ancestral objects of ellipticals or of galaxy bulges. About 1/3 of objects with z > 2 appear to be in the process of merging. The region with 1 < z < 2 marks an important transition in the global history of star formation from a merger dominated regime at z > 2, to one at z < 1 in which most star formation takes place in galactic disks. It is speculated that the break in the Madau plot at z sim 1.5 might be related to the transition from merger-dominated star formation at z > 2 to disk-dominated star formation at at z < 1.