Cosmic murder mistery: what killed that galaxy? – Thiago Gonçalves (Observatório do Valongo/UFRJ)

Galaxies are clearly divided into two main categories. One group shows ongoing star formation and blue colors, while the other contains mostly old stellar populations and red colors. The relative absence of objects with intermediate properties indicates that this transition must happen rapidly, and there should be an active mechanism to shut down star formation in many cases. In this talk I will give an overview of the observational projects our group has been conducting, emphasizing the need for deep spectroscopy and the relation between possible quenching mechanisms and timescales. Finally I will give an overview of expected developments in this field in the near future with the next generation of astronomical observational facilities.