SEARCH · Engineering Papers
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
We have observed 19 Virgo cluster spiral galaxies with the Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS) onboard ESAs Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) obtaining spectral around the (C II) 157.741-micrometer fine structure line.
Deep red images of 24 X-ray selected quasars were obtained using the SIT Area Photometer on the Palomar 1.5 meter telescope. About half were also imaged through green and violet filters. The images of all 15 of the quasars with redshifts up to 0.4 certainly are extended and the two at z = 0.45 probably are extended. The remainder of higher redshift are unresolved, presumably because they are too distant. The resolved structures are 10-30 in. across, symmetric, and centered on the point-like quasar nuclei. For most of the quasars the nuclear light and the extended emission can be roughly separated. Evidence that the extended emission is starlight from a surrounding galaxy is presented, permitting several properties of the host galaxy to be deduced. Its colors, surface brightness, linear extent, ellipticity, and frequent association with groups of galaxies indicate that it is usually a normal spiral galaxy.
Near-infrared photometry was obtained for 82 galaxies from the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) minisurvey, a sample of infrared selected galaxies. The near-infrared colors of these galaxies are similar to those of normal field spiral galaxies, but cover a larger range in J - H and H - K. There is evidence of a tighter correlation between the near and far infrared emission than exists between far-infrared and the visible emission. These results suggest that hot dust emission contributes to the 2.2 micron luminosity, and extinction by dust affects both the near-infrared colors and the visible luminosities. In addition, there is an indication that the far-infrared emission in many of the minisurvey galaxies is coming from a strong nuclear component.
Near-infrared photometry was obtained for 82 galaxies from the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) minisurvey, a sample of infrared selected galaxies. The near-infrared colors of these galaxies are similar to those of normal field spiral galaxies, but cover a larger range in J - H and H - K. There is evidence of a tighter correlation between the near and far infrared emission than exists between far-infrared and the visible emission. These results suggest that hot dust emission contributes to the 2.2 micron luminosity, and extinction by dust affects both the near-infrared colors and the visible luminosities. In addition, there is an indication that the far-infrared emission in many of the minisurvey galaxies is coming from a strong nuclear component.
The CO luminosities of 93 galaxies have been determined and are compared with their IRAS FIR luminosities. Strongly interacting/merging galaxies have L(FIR)/L(CO) substantially higher than that of isolated galaxies or galactic giant molecular clouds (GMCs). Galaxies with tidal tails/bridges are the most extreme type with L(FIR)/L(CO) nine times as high as isolated galaxies. Interactions between close pairs of galaxies do not have much effect on the molecular content and global star-formation rate. If the high ratio L(FIR)/L(CO) in strongly interacting galaxies is due to star formation then the efficiency of this process is higher than that of any galactic GMC. Isolated galaxies, distant pairs, and close pairs have an FIR/CO luminosity ratio which is within a factor of two of galactic GMCs with H II regions. The CO luminosities of FIR-luminous galaxies are among the highest observed for any spiral galaxies.
As a class, S0 galaxies are characterized by a lack of resolved bright stars in the disk. However, several lines of evidence support the hypothesis that a high rate of star formation is occurring at the centers of some S0 galaxies. Many of the warmest, most powerful far infrared sources in nearby bright galaxies occur in S0 galaxies. (Dressel 1988, Ap. J., 329, L69). The ratios of radio continuum flux to far infrared flux for these S0 galaxies are comparable to the ratios found for spiral galaxy disks and for star-burst galaxies. Very Large Array (VLA) maps of some of these S0 galaxies show that the radio continuum emission originates in the central few kiloparsecs. It is diffuse or clumpy, unlike the radio sources in active S0 galaxies, which are either extremely compact or have jet-lobe structures. Imaging of some of these galaxies at 10.8 microns shows that the infrared emission is also centrally concentrated. Many of the infrared-powerful S0 galaxies are Markarian galaxies. In only one case in this sample is the powerful ultraviolet emission known to be generated by a Seyfert nucleus. Optical spectra of the central few kiloparsecs of these S0 galaxies generally show deep Balmer absorption lines characteristic of A stars, and H beta emission suggestive of gas heated by O stars. A key question to our understanding of these galaxies is whether they really are S0 galaxies, or at least would have been recognized as S0 galaxies before the episode of central star formation began. Some of Nilson's classifications (used here) have been confirmed by Sandage or de Vaucouleurs and collaborators from better plates; some of the galaxies may be misclassified Sa galaxies (the most frequent hosts of central star formation); some are apparently difficult to classify because of mixed characteristics, faint non-S0 features, or peculiarities. More optical imaging is needed to characterize the host galaxies and to study the evolution of their star-forming regions.
I use B and I photometry of distant galaxies observed through the halos of two nearby spiral galaxies, NGC 2835 and NGC 3521, to test for the existence of dust in galactic halos out to at least a radius of 60 kpc. B - I colors of background galaxies in fields centered along the nearby galaxy's major axis at a projected separation of 60 kpc are compared to the colors of background galaxies in fields centered at a projected separation of about 220 kpc. Background galaxies in the fields at smaller projected separations have average B - I colors that are 0.067 +/- 0.033 mag redder than those in the outer fields. Such a result will occur by chance less than 2.2% of the time and so is taken as preliminary evidence that galaxy halos contain more dust at galactic radii of 60 than 220 kpc. A model which assumes that the radial dust profile in galactic disks and halos is a single exponential has a corresponding scale length of 31 +/- 8 kpc. I argue on the basis of the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) 100 micron flux maps that absorption by Galactic dust is not responsible for this result and briefly discuss connections between this result and other observations of the baryonic component of galaxy halos.
Molecular clouds are formed from diffuse interstellar clouds when the external ultraviolet radiation field is prevented from penetrating into the cloud. The opacity is provided mainly by dust grains and the required column density to the cloud center is larger than about 5 x 10 to the 20th (solar Z/Z)/sq cm. This high-opacity criterion could have a significant impact on the radial trends observed in spiral galaxies, and on the distinctions between spiral and dwarf irregular galaxies.
ROSAT observation is presented of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4631, a nearby Sc/SBd galaxy best known for its extended radio halo. Because of the low foreground Galactic X-ray-absorbing gas column density, N(sub H) approximately 1.4 x 10(exp 20)cm(exp -2), this observation is sensitive to gas of temperature greater than or equal to a few times 10(exp 5) K. A soft (approximately 0.25 keV) X-ray radiation out to more than 8 kpc above the midplane of the galaxy was detected. The strongest X-ray emission in the halo is above the central disk, a region of about 3 kpc radius which shows high star formation activity. The X-ray emission in the halo is bordered by two extended filaments of radio continuum emission. Diffuse X-ray emission from hot gas in the galaxy's disk was found. The spectrum of the radiation can be characterized by a thermal plasma with a temperature of 3 x 10(exp 6) K and a radiative cooling rate of approximately 8 x 10(exp 39) ergs s(exp -1). This rate is only a few percent of the estimated supernova energy release in the interstellar medium of the galaxy. Analysis of the X-ray spectrum shows evidence for the presence of a cooler (several times 10(exp 5) K) halo gas component that could consume a much larger fraction of the supernova energy. Strong evidence was found for disk/halo interaction. Hot gas apparently blows out from supershells in the galaxy's disk at a rate of approximately 1 solar mass yr(exp -1). This outflow of hot gas drags magnetic field lines up in the halo and forms a magnetized gaseous halo. If the magnetic field lines are still anchored to the disk gas at large disk radii, the outflowing gas may be confined high above the disk by magnetic pressure. A strong X-ray source which coincides spatially with an H I supershell has been identified. However, the source is likely an extremely luminous X-ray binary with L(sub chi)(0.1 - 2 keV) approximately 5 x 10(exp 39) ergs s(exp -1), which makes it a stellar mass black hole candidate.
A total of 663 galaxies with known redshifts in a 12 deg x 12 deg field centered on A2634, including 211 new measurements, are used to study in detail the structure of the region. In it we find six main galaxy concentrations: the nearby clusters A2634 and A2666, two groups in the vicinity of A2634, and two distant clusters at approximately 18,000 (A2622) and approximately 37,000 km/s seen in projection near the core of A2634. For A2634, the most richly sampled of those concentrations, we are able to apply strict cluster membership criteria. Two samples - one containing 200 galaxies within 2 deg from the cluster center and a second, magnitude-limited, of 118 galaxies within the central half degree - are used to examine the structure, kinematics, dynamics, and morphological segregation of the cluster. We show that early type galaxies appear to be a relaxed system, while the spiral population eschews the center of the cluster and exhibits both a multimodal velocity distribution and a much larger velocity dispersion that the ellipticals. We propose that the spiral galaxies of A2634 represent a dynamically young cluster population. For the galaxy component of A2634, we find no evidence of significant substructure in the central regions. We also conclude that the adoption of lenient membership criteria that ignore the dynamical complexity of A2634 are unlikely to be responsible for the conflicting results reported on the motion of this cluster with respect ot the CMB. The kinematical and dynamical analysis is extended to A2634's close companion, A2666, and the two distant background clusters.
The primary focus of this research project has been a joint analysis of Ginga LAC and Einstein SSS X-ray spectra of the hot gas in galaxy clusters with cooling flows is reported. We studied four clusters (A496, A1795, A2142 & A2199) and found their central temperatures to be cooler than in the exterior, which is expected from their having cooling flows. More interestingly, we found central metal abundance enhancements in two of the clusters, A496 and A2142. We have been assessing whether the abundance gradients (or lack thereof) in intracluster gas is correlated with galaxy morphological gradients in the host clusters. In rich, dense galaxy clusters, elliptical and SO galaxies are generally found in the cluster cores, while spiral galaxies are found in the outskirts. If the metals observed in clusters came from proto-ellipticals and proto-S0s blowing winds, then the metal distribution in intracluster gas may still reflect the distribution of their former host galaxies. In a research project which was inspired by the success of the Ginga LAC/Einstein SSS work, we analyzed X-ray spectra from the HEAO-A2 MED and the Einstein SSS to look for temperature gradients in cluster gas. The HEAO-A2 MED was also a non-imaging detector with a large field of view compared to the SSS, so we used the differing fields of view of the two instruments to extract spatial information. We found some evidence of cool gas in the outskirts of clusters, which may indicate that the nominally isothermal mass density distributions in these clusters are steepening in the outer parts of these clusters.
Homberg (1969) presented the first systematic study of the statistical excess of apparent companions around nearby galaxies after examining the environs of 115 northern hemisphere spiral galaxies.
X-ray observations were made of two nearby edge-on spiral galaxies with the Imaging Proportional Counter (IPC) on the Einstein Observatory in an effort to detect hot (1,000,000 K), gaseous galactic coronae. No diffuse emission from galactic coronae was detected. Upper limits to diffuse emission (0.3-2.9 keV) are 10 to the 39th ergs/sec (NGC 3628) and 2 x 10 to the 38th ergs/sec (NGC 4244). The measurements indicate that less than 1/1000 of the energy supplied by supernovae in these galaxies appears as soft X-rays. The energy from supernovae may be radiated away by cool gas (less than 600,000 K) whose emission is undetectable by the Einstein Observatory, or the energy may be carried away by a hot wind (10,000,000 K) which radiates inefficiently. Serendipitous X-ray sources from the two IPC fields are listed.
BVRI CCD photometry of about 600 stars in the resolved spiral galaxy NGC 1560 is presented. The V - (B - V) diagram shows a dominant group of significantly reddened blue plume stars consisting of young massive main-sequence and evolved blue supergiant stars. The V luminosity function of the blue plume stars is constructed. The internal reddening is estimated at 0.24 mag. The mean magnitudes of the three brightest blue and red stars are obtained and a distance of 2.5 +/- 0.1 Mpc is obtained from four distance estimates.
We present our ROSAT observation of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4631, a nearby Sc/SBd galaxy best known for its extended radio halo. Because of the low foreground Galactic X-ray-absorbing gas column density, N(sub HI) approximately = 1.4 x 10(exp 20)/sq cm, this observation is sensitive to gas of temperature greater than or approximately = a few x 10(exp 5) K. We detected soft (approximately 0.25 keV) X-ray radiation out to more than 8 kpc above the midplane of the galaxy. The stongest X-ray emission in the halo is above the central disk, a region of about 3 kpc radius which shows high star formation activity. The X-ray emission in the halo is bordered by two extended filaments of radio continuum emission. We also found diffuse X-ray emission from hot gas in the galaxy's disk. The spectrum of the radiation can be characterized by a thermal plasma with a temperature of 3 x 10(exp 6) K and a radiative cooling rate of approximately 8 x 10(exp 39) ergs/sec. This rate is only a few percent of the estimated supernova energy release in the interstellar medium of the galaxy. Analysis of the X-ray spectrum shows evidence for the presence of a cooler (several times 10(exp 5) K) halo gas component that could consume a much larger fraction of the supernova energy. We found strong evidence for disk/halo interaction. Hot gas apparently blows out from supershells in the galaxy's disk at a rate of approximately 1 solar mass/yr. This outflow of hot gas drags magnetic field lines up in the halo and forms a magnetized gaseous halo. If the magnetic field lines are still anchored to the disk gas at large disk radii, the outflowing gas may be confined high above the disk by magnetic pressure. We have identified a strong X-ray source which coincides spatially with an H I supershell. However, the source is likely an extremely luminous X-ray binary with L(sub x)(0.1-2 keV) approximately = 5 x 10(exp 39) ergs/sec, which makes it a stellar mass black hole candidate.
The modest extinction and reasonably face-on viewing geometry make the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 1614 an ideal laboratory for study of a powerful starburst. HST/NICMOS observations show: (1) deep CO stellar absorption, tracing a starburst nucleus about 45 pc in diameter; (2) surrounded by an approx. 600 pc diameter ring of supergiant H II regions revealed in Pa-alpha line emission; (3) lying within a molecular ring indicated by its extinction shadow in H - K; and (4) all at the center of a disturbed spiral galaxy. The luminosities of the giant H II regions in the ring axe extremely high, an order of magnitude brighter than 30 Doradus; very luminous H II regions, comparable with 30 Dor, are also found in the spiral arms of the galaxy. Luminous stellar clusters surround the nucleus and lie in the spiral arms, similar to clusters observed in other infrared luminous and ultraluminous galaxies. The star forming activity may have been initiated by a merger between a disk galaxy and a companion satellite, whose nucleus appears in projection about 300 pc to the NE of the nucleus of the primary galaxy. The relation of deep stellar CO bands to surrounding ionized gas ring to molecular gas indicates that the luminous starburst started in the nucleus and is propagating outward into the surrounding molecular ring. This hypothesis is supported by evolutionary starburst modeling that shows that the properties of NGC 1614 can be fitted with two short-lived bursts of star formation separated by 5 Myr (and by inference by a variety of models with a similar duration of star formation). The total dynamical mass of the starburst region of 1.3 x 10(exp 9) solar masses is mostly accounted for by the old pre-starburst stellar population. Although our starburst models use a modified Salpeter initial mass function (turning over near one solar mass), the tight mass budget suggests that the IMF may contain relatively more 10 - 30 solar masses stars and fewer low mass stars than the Salpeter function. The dynamical mass is nearly four times smaller than the mass of molecular gas estimated from the standard ratio of (C-12)O (1 - 0) to H2. A number of arguments place the mass of gas in the starburst region at approx. 25% of the dynamical mass, nominally about 1/15 and with an upper limit of 1/10 of the amount estimated from (C-12)O and the standard ratio.
A stable galaxy, if excited above its ground state, oscillates about that ground state. If it is resonably robust, it can support oscillations of large amplitude. Normal mode oscillations, with surprisingly large amplitudes, have been seen in numerical experiments. Observational evidence shows that real galaxies also oscillate. Galaxies ring like a bell in the experiments, and ringing continues undamped long after initial transients have died out. Their total kinetic energy oscillates with an amplitude as large as 10% of the mean. A fundamental mode dominates. It is homologous expansion/contraction of the entire galaxy (no nodes). Inward or outward velocities due to this mode are sufficiently large in the outer reaches of a galaxy to account for kinematic warps in observed velocity fields. A second spherically symmetrical mode has one node and is important near the center of the galaxy. It may be the driving force behind bulges in spiral galaxies. Two other normal modes have been identified as well. This appears to be the first experimental demonstration of normal mode oscillations within stable galaxy models.
A program of radio line and continuum studies of star formation in nearby spiral galaxies is reported. The objective is a search for hot gas and peculiar dynamics in spiral nuclei with 10" to 30" angular resolution. Vigorous star formation is found to be a common phenomenon in the inner kpc of spirals. Arcsecond resolution observations of radio continuum emission at 6 and 2 cm were used to separate the thermal and nonthermal radio components. It was found that thermal and nonthermal emission are well mixed even on sizescales of 10 pc. To understand the reason for the increased level of star formation activity in spiral nuclei, HI and CO emission in these galaxies is studied. The CO transition was detected in M51, M82, NGC 253, NGC 6946 and IC 342 with T sub a approx. 0.5 to 2.0 K, at 20" angular resolution. The dynamics and spatial distribution of nuclear gas are being studied using VLA HI maps with 30" synthesized beams. Evidence for noncircular motions in HI was found in the nucleus of IC 342.