Physics PhD Candidate, Léa Feuillet, recently had her paper “Core Revelations: the Star Formation and AGN Connection at the Heart of NGC 7469” accepted into The Astrophysical Journal. Her research utilized data from the James Webb Space Telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (JWST/MIRI) to investigate the impact of active galactic nuclei (AGN) on star formation in nearby galaxy NGC 7469.
Léa, originally from Annecy, France, received her Bachelor's degree in Astronomy from The University of Maryland, College Park, in 2021 and received her Masters in Physics from Catholic U in 2023. While at UMD, her undergraduate advisor suggested that she apply to CUA and talk with Dr. Steve Kraemer. Dr. Kraemer is a professor in the Physics Department, the director of the Institute for Astrophysics and Computational Sciences, and Léa’s advisor at CUA. According to Léa, “I thought the research was really interesting and that I would enjoy working with Dr. Kraemer and his collaborators. I also really wanted to stay in the area, and CUA was perfectly located.”
Léa says the research findings “reveal that the AGN’s feedback does not significantly affect the ring overall, except in the direction of a ‘hole’ in the star-forming region, where we hypothesize that the AGN-driven ionized winds are interacting with the galaxy's gas. This suggests that the effects of AGN feedback on star formation depend strongly on the geometry and orientation of the AGN’s ionizing cone. These findings contribute to our understanding of how galaxies evolve, and emphasizes that AGN feedback is not uniform.”
Read Léa’s full paper here: Core Revelations: the Star Formation and AGN Connection at the Heart of NGC 7469
Léa will be graduating in May of this year and is currently applying to postdoctoral positions to continue doing research for the next few years. She hopes to continue to use the James Webb Space Telescope in her research after graduation.
When she’s not studying stars and galaxies, Léa is a competitive ballroom dancer. She started, while at UMD, and has continued competing for the past 6 and a half years.
Congratulations to Léa for her accomplished research and we wish her luck as she finished her last semester of her PhD program!