Analysis of galaxy spectra for purposes of morphological classification

Abstract

The classification of galaxies plays a crucial role in understanding the diverse nature of the universe and its evolutionary processes. In this project, I present a comprehensive study on the classification of galaxies based on their spectra, focusing on the analysis of galaxy spectra to discern distinctive features and patterns that differentiate various galactic types. My research employs a combination of obtaining data from publicly available surveys, pre-processing, and analysis of galaxy spectra obtained from SDSS. Through careful analysis and feature extraction, I identify key spectral signatures that provide insights into the physical properties of galaxies. These spectral features encompass emission lines, absorption features, and continuum properties, which serve as valuable indicators of galactic characteristics such as star formation rates. I analysed six(6) galaxy spectra and found out that three of these galaxies are star forming and the rest were AGN using Hα, Hβ, [O II], [N II], [S II] and [O II] emission lines.