Dr. Mateo Castillo

The AGS is a major observational project directed by Dr. Castillo. Its goal is to create the most detailed map of our nearest large galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, to understand its structure, history, and stellar populations.

Dr. Castillo is an expert in galactic dynamics, which is the study of how stars, gas, and dark matter move within a galaxy. This field helps explain how galaxies form, evolve, and interact with each other over billions of years.

Because Andromeda is similar to our own Milky Way, studying it in detail provides a crucial model for understanding our own galaxy's structure and history. It's like looking at a picture of our sibling to better understand ourselves.

It can tell us how the large-scale structures of the universe were formed. It also provides some of the strongest evidence for the existence of dark matter, as the observed motions of stars in galaxies cannot be explained by visible matter alone.