The Morphological Transformation of Galaxies in Compact Groups
Iraklis Konstantopoulos (Australian Astronomical Observatory)
The majority of galaxies out there live in families of five or more members. As they slum it in the highest volume densities, compact galaxy groups (CGs) often strong-arm their members into living fast and spending their most precious currency, their gaseous reservoirs, on shiny new stars. We have initiated a detailed study of the behaviour of these abusive families, CGs, through the GAMA Survey and will be exploring two of the traits that fit neatly within the context of this conference. First, nurture wins over nature in CGs as they often show elevated SFRs, regardless of morphological type. This effect cultivates a sense of rebellion and brazen disregard of norms, landing spirals in the red sequence and forcing rapid morphological transformation. Second, the fast expenditure of gas in CGs build up their lenticular galaxy populations. Since roughly half of CGs are embedded in larger structures -- including clusters -- they should also be con sidered as the sites of industrial-scale lenticular production.