The diverse history of counter-rotating galaxies

Galaxies with counter-rotating gas or stars are particularly interesting. Their distinct kinematical components can provide additional dynamical constraints and possible clues to evolutionary history and past environment. These intriguing systems have since long been observed, but have rarely been studied collectively. We present a study of their occurrence, properties, and evolutionary history using the Illustris cosmological simulation. In this poster we focus in detail on the surprising evolutionary history of 1 disky sub-L* galaxy that shows clear gas disk - stellar disk counter-rotation. The counter-rotation in this system is due to the system being a splashback satellite that re-accretes material. We thus show that the origin of significant counter-rotation in low mass galaxies can be diverse and unexpected.