An international review article in which IAC researcher Jesús Falcón Barroso is a contributor, explains how the study of stellar populations in galaxies outside the Milky Way and the Local Group, using techniques which are called “extragalactic archaeology”, permits the reconstruction of the processes of formation and evolution of those galaxies. This article has been published in the Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics, one of the most prestigious journals in this field, to which only five researchers of the IAC have contributed during the lifetime of the Institute.
How did the galaxies we see in the Universe today form and evolve? The article "Extragalactic Archaeology: The Assembly History of Galaxies from Dynamical and Stellar Population Models" answers this question by reviewing the latest advances in extragalactic archaeology: a discipline that seeks to reconstruct the history of galaxies from the detailed study of their stars and internal motions. This work is co-authored by IAC astrophysicist Jesús Falcón-Barroso,along with Glenn van de Ven (University of Vienna) and Mariya Lyubenova (European Southern Observatory, ESO). The article has been published by invitation in the Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics, a publication reserved for internationally renowned researchers.
“Nearby galaxies act as true cosmic laboratories,” explains Falcón-Barroso. “By combining dynamical models with stellar population models and data provided by integral field spectroscopy instruments, we can uncover the ‘fossil records’ of their assembly history and better understand how they form and evolve in a cosmological context,” he adds.
The paper reviews advances in the use of dynamical models to measure mass distributions of galaxies—including their central black holes and dark matter halos—and stellar population models to decipher the ages and chemical compositions of stars. It also highlights the potential of their combined application to unravel the imprint of past processes, such as galaxy mergers or the formation of inner disks.
The research also stresses the role of nearby galaxies as bridges to knowledge: their proximity allows us to obtain detailed maps of their stellar properties and dynamics, with a resolution impossible to achieve in more distant galaxies. These results constitute a fundamental reference for calibrating cosmological simulations and relating detailed studies of the Local Group—which includes the Milky Way—with observations of galaxies in the early Universe.
"This type of reviews not only synthesizes current knowledge but also outlines future directions for work in a rapidly expanding field. This publication reinforces the IAC’s international reach and its leadership in the study of galaxy evolution," Falcón-Barroso emphasizes.
A publication of reference in Astrophysics
Founded in 1963, Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics publishes exclusively invited review articles, in which international experts summarize the current state of a research area and highlight its challenges and prospects. It is the highest-impact journal in the field of astrophysics for this type of work, with an exceptionally high citation rate.
In its more than six decades of history, only five IAC researchers have had their work published there: Carme Gallart and Antonio Aparicio (2005), Javier Trujillo and Tanausú del Pino (2022) and now, Jesús Falcón-Barroso (2025).
Article: Glenn van de Ven, Jesús Falcón-Barroso and Mariya Lyubenova: “Extragalactic Archaeology: The Assembly History of Galaxies from Dynamical and Stellar Population Models”, Annual Review of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 63:259-297, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-astro-052622-025659
