| Since the discovery of galaxies outside of the Milky Way, studies of nearby galaxies have revealed a very different population of galaxies compared to distant galaxies. My thesis has been motivated by galaxy evolution. In particular, I focus on the connection between nearby and distant galaxies, changes in morphologies with wavelength, and the physical properties of galaxies when the Universe was 1.5 (z = 4) to 6 (z = 1) Gyr old.;Rest-frame far-ultraviolet morphologies of 8 nearby interacting and starburst galaxies are artificially redshifted and compared with 54 galaxies at z ∼ 1.5 and 46 galaxies at z ∼ 4. I calculated the Gini coefficient (G), the second-order moment of the brightest 20% of the galaxy's flux (M20), and the Sersic index (n). I showed that ∼20-30% of Lyman-break galaxies have structures similar to local starburst mergers, and may be driven by similar processes. I also determined that Mrk 8, NGC 3079, and NGC 7673 have structures similar to merger-like and clumpy star-forming galaxies observed at z ∼ 1.5 and 4.;I selected 301 galaxies from the Ultra Deep Field parallel survey (UDF05) done with HST's infrared camera, NICMOS, to calculate their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). The galaxies are cross-matched using HST ACS and NICMOS filters, and the infrared Spitzer IRAC filters. Photometric redshifts, dust extinction, stellar masses, bolometric luminosity, starburst age and metallicity are estimated through Balmerbreak SED fitting. Comparisons of 16 photometric redshifts with spectroscopic redshifts give 75% agreement. I determined through Monte Carlo simulations that the SED parameters are robust for the redshift ranges z > 1.2. I find that luminosities and star formation rates increase with redshift for a subsample of galaxies at z ∼ 1.5 and z ∼ 4.;I demonstrate that multi-wavelength analysis is fundamental to the understanding of galaxy evolution. I determined that G-M20 values of Balmer-break galaxies are more bulge-like in the rest-frame optical than z ∼ 1 and 4 starburst galaxies in the UV. I conclude that the Balmer-break selected galaxies are probably progenitors to local early type galaxies. |
