Rings and bars: unmasking secular evolution of galaxies

Understand

Secular evolution gradually shapes galaxies by internal processes, in contrast to early cosmological evolution which is more rapid.

• An important driver of secular evolution is the flow of gas from the disk into the central regions, often under the influence of a bar.
• In this paper, we review several new observational results on bars and nuclear rings in galaxies.
• They show that these components are intimately linked to each other, and to the properties of their host galaxy.