The broadband spectral energy distribution of a galaxy encodes valuable information on its stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), dust content, and possible fractional energy contribution from nonstellar sources. We present a comprehensive catalog of panchromatic photometry, covering 17 bands from the far-ultraviolet to 500 μm, for 2685 low-redshift (z = 0.01–0.11), massive (M * > 1010 M ⊙) galaxies selected from the Stripe 82 region of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, one of the largest areas with relatively deep, uniform observations over a wide range of wavelengths. Taking advantage of the deep optical coadded images, we develop a hybrid approach for matched-aperture photometry of the multiband data. We derive robust uncertainties and upper limits for undetected galaxies, deblend interacting/merging galaxies and sources in crowded regions, and treat contamination by foreground stars. We perform spectral energy distribution fitting to derive the stellar mass, SFR, and dust mass, critically assessing the influence of flux upper limits for undetected photometric bands and applying corrections for systematic uncertainties based on extensive mock tests. Comparison of our measurements with those of commonly used published catalogs reveals good agreement for the stellar masses. While the SFRs of galaxies on the star-forming main sequence show reasonable consistency, galaxies in and below the green valley show considerable disagreement between different sets of measurements. Our analysis suggests that one should incorporate the most accurate and inclusive photometry into the spectral energy distribution analysis, and that care should be exercised in interpreting the SFRs of galaxies with moderate to weak star formation activity.

Establishing a correlation (or lack thereof) between the bimodal color distribution of galaxies and their structural parameters is crucial to understand the origin of bimodality. To achieve that, we have performed a 2D mass-based structural decomposition (bulge+disk) of all disk galaxies (total = 1263) in the Herschel imaging area of the Stripe 82 region using Ks-band images from the VICS82 survey. The scaling relations thus derived are found to reflect the internal kinematics and are employed in combination to select an indubitable set of classical- and pseudo-bulge-hosting disk galaxies. The rest of the galaxies (<20%) are marked as disks with “ambiguous” bulges. Pseudo- and classical bulge–disk galaxies exhibit clear bimodality in terms of all stellar parameters (M *, specific star formation rate, r − K s ). All pseudo-bulge–disk galaxies are blue and star forming, and all classical bulge–disk galaxies are red and quiescent with less than 5% digressions. Ambiguous bulge–disk galaxies are intermediate to pseudo- and classical bulge–disk galaxies in the distribution of all structural and stellar parameters. —based on the placement of bulges on the Kormendy relation—is found to be the most efficient single structural indicator of both bulge type and stellar activity. The placement of ambiguous bulge–disk galaxies on scaling relations and the fundamental plane, in addition to their peculiar stellar properties, suggests that they are dominantly part of the green valley.

The morphology of galaxies reflects their assembly history and ongoing dynamical perturbations from the environment. Analyzing stacked i-band images from the Pan-STARRS1 3π Steradian Survey, we study the optical morphological asymmetry of the host galaxies of a large, well-defined sample of nearby active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to investigate the role of mergers and interactions in triggering nuclear activity. The AGNs, comprising 245 type 1 and 4514 type 2 objects, are compared with 4537 star-forming galaxies (SFGs) matched in redshift (0.04 < z < 0.15) and stellar mass (M * > 1010 M ⊙). We develop a comprehensive masking strategy to isolate the emission of the target from foreground stars and other contaminating nearby sources, all the while retaining projected companions of comparable brightness that may be major mergers. Among three variants of nonparametric indices, both the popular CAS asymmetry parameter (A CAS) and the outer asymmetry parameter (A outer) yield robust measures of morphological distortion for SFGs and type 2 AGNs, while only A outer is effective for type 1 AGNs. The shape asymmetry (A shape), by comparison, is affected more adversely by background noise. Asymmetry indices ≳0.4 effectively trace systems that are candidate ongoing mergers. Contrary to theoretical expectations, galaxy interactions and mergers are not the main drivers of nuclear activity, at least not in our sample of low-redshift, relatively low luminosity AGNs, whose host galaxies are actually significantly less asymmetric than the control sample of SFGs. Moreover, type 2 AGNs are morphologically indistinguishable from their type 1 counterparts. The level of AGN activity does not correlate with asymmetry, not even among the major merger candidates. As a by-product, we find, consistent with previous studies, that the average asymmetry of SFGs increases above the main sequence, although not all major mergers exhibit enhanced star formation.