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At least 379 records · Page 21
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NASA NTRS1990

Galactic survey of interstellar abundances and selective extinction with IUE and IRAS

A progress report on the results of a survey of UV selective extinction curves using the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite is presented. From IUE high resolution spectra, UV selective extinction curves are derived. These are fitted to six parameters characterizing the grey extinction, the 2175 angstrom bump, and the far ultraviolet curvature. These parameters are compared to the results of previous surveys of interstellar metals and infrared Cirrus intensities. With IUE high resolution spectra, equivalent widths of 18 ultraviolet resonance transitions toward 273 early type stars are measured and column densities are derived. Using the Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) all sky survey, infrared Cirrus intensities at 12, 25, 60, and 100 microns are measured.

Vansteenberg, Michael E.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Workstation-based preprocessing of IRAS sky-flux images

Computer algorithms to remove two types of degradations in IRAS sky-flux images, namely slowly varying background illumination (strongly effected by the presence of zodiacal light) and periodic stripes, are presented. This paper discusses both algorithms in detail and shows results of its use on various sky-flux images. Focus of the work was on the implementation within a workstation environment, and its value as a preprocessing tool for researchers. Speed of the process, usability of the programs, and correctness of the results were the main goals in developing these tools.

Domik, Gitta↗
NASA NTRS1991

On the possible bipolar nature of 21 micron IRAS sources

The discovery of another IRAS source (22574 + 6609) showing the unidentified 21-micron emission feature is reported. Its overall energy distribution is similar to the well-known edge-on bipolar nebulae AFGL 2688 and AFGL 618. Ground-based optical and infrared observations of this object and two other 21-micron sources show that while all three have very similar infrared properties, they differ greatly in the visual region. All three of these 21-micron sources are intrinsically similar bipolar nebulae, viewed at different orientations.

Hrivnak, Bruce J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

IRAS low-resolution spectral observations of the 10 and 18 micron silicate emission feature

The IRAS LRS Atlas contains 8-23 micron spectra of 1816 stars with silicate emission features. In order to study the shapes of the silicate dust features, the 117 stars whose emission features appear to be optically thin and which have the best signal-to-noise ratio at the longest wavelengths were analyzed. Simple spherical dust shell models were calculated in both the optically thin and the slightly optical thick approximations. From the comparison of the predicted spectra of the dust and stellar continuum, the emissivity function Kappa(lambda) was derived. In the different stars, the shape of the 10-micron feature is either narrow or broad and it is peaked either at about 9.7 microns or at 10 microns. Either particle size effects (particles above 0.75 microns in radius) or optical depth effects (central optical depth about 1) could broaden the 10-micron feature. Chemical composition differences no doubt are also important, particularly as regards the position of the peak of the 10-micron feature. The stars with the peak at 10 microns are more closely confined to the Galactic plane than the stars with the peak at 9.7 microns. The shape of the 18-micron feature is essentially the same in all stars, and can be used to extend the interstellar extinction curve past 13 to 22 microns.

Simpson, Janet P.↗
NASA NTRS1991

The carbon-rich proto-planetary nebula IRAS 22272 + 5435

Ground-based photometry and spectroscopy is presented for IRAS 22272 + 5435, a 9th mag star with a large infrared excess. The flux distribution is 'double-peaked', with a visible and near-infrared component due to the reddened photosphere and a far-infrared component presumably due to a detached dust shell. About equal amounts of energy are detected from each. The spectrum is that of a peculiar G supergiant, Gp Ia. In addition, strong molecular bands of C3 and C2 are observed. The flux distribution is modeled and, together with published molecular-line radio observations, allows the determination of basic parameters of the central star and the dust shell. The source has the characteristics one would expect of a proto-planetary nebula, an object in transition from the asymptotic giant branch to the planetary nebula phase.

Hrivnak, Bruce J.↗
NASA NTRS1990

IRAS low resolution spectra of 26 symbiotic stars

Data related to the spectral scans for 26 symbiotic stars are described which were extracted from the IRAS low resolution database. Data from the 8-15- and 15-23-micron bands are merged in a program that scales the longer wavelength and produces a weighted average of the spectral scans for each source. The survey shows that active dust producers can probably be isolated and some theories related to the presence of dust emission features are discussed in terms of source variability for measurements made with low resolution spectra.

Stencel, Robert E.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Distances to diffuse interstellar clouds from IRAS measurements and observations of optical absorption lines

Distances to diffuse interstellar clouds were determined from the amount of ultraviolet radiation that penetrates into the cloud and that arises from a nearby B star. The environment around 67 Ophiuchi, 20 Aquilae, kappa Aquilae, and 9 Cephei were studied. The intensities at 60 and 100 micron, as measured by IRAS, were used to derive dust temperatures for the clouds. Enhanced dust temperatures would indicate an influence of the star's radiation field on a cloud. Observation of molecular absorption were compared to the results of simplified chemical models in order to search for enhanced photodissociation that is caused by the star. Enhanced dust temperatures were observed for clouds in the vicinities of 20 Aql, kappa Agl, and 9 Cep. The range of the star's influence was found to be typically 1-5 pc. On the other hand, chemical analyses of the molecular data, which pertain to foreground gas, did not reveal the presence of enhanced dissociative flux from the sample of stars. Thus, upper limits were derived for the distances from the sun to the foreground material.

Federman, S. R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Image construction from the IRAS survey

IRAS survey data can be used successfully to produce images of extended objects. The major difficulties, i.e., nonuniform sampling, different response functions for each detector, and varying signal-to-noise levels for each detector for each scan, have been resolved. The results of three different image construction techniques are compared: coaddition, constrained least-squares, and maximum entropy. The maximum entropy result is superior. An image of the galaxy M51 with an average spatial resolution of 45 arcsecods, using 60 microns survey data is presented. This exceeds the telescope diffraction limit of about 1 minute of arc at this wavelength.

Bontekoe, T. R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

IRAS software analysis library

The goal of this project was to collect 'research software' written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) to support analysis of data from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and make it available to the larger community. 'Research Software' describes software created by researchers and staff for a specific research goal, but lacks sufficient documentation, easy to use interfaces, and rigorous debugging. Additionally, most of the IDL/IRAS code available needed to be ported to a (largely) hardware independent new version of IDL.

Domik, Gitta↗
NASA NTRS1991

Radio properties of extragalactic IRAS sources

The present study identifies extragalactic sources from the IRAS Faint Source Catalog by position coincidence with radio sources stronger than 25 mJy and lying north of +5 deg on the Green Bank 4.85 GHz sky maps. Published VLA maps, new 4.86 GHz VLA maps made with 15-arcsec resolution, and accurate optical positions are used to confirm 122 of these candidate identifications. Normal and starburst spiral galaxies were found to comprise about 97 percent of the FIR flux-limited sample. Radio-loud 'monsters' with q less than 2.25 dominate the radio emission from about 2 percent of the FIR source sample, and radio-quiet monsters are responsible for the FIR emission from less than about 1 percent of the FIR sample. All of the radio-identified sources are optically identified, mostly with relatively bright nearby galaxies. No evidence was found for any new populations of high-redshift FIR sources, nonthermal sources with steep FIR/optical spectra, or dust-shrouded sources visible only at FIR and radio wavelengths.

Condon, J. J.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Near-infrared observations of the z about 2.3 IRAS source FSC 10214 + 4724

Near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy of the extremely luminous IRAS source FSC 10214 + 4724 have been obtained using the Cassegrain infrared camera on the 200-inch Hale Telescope. A low-resolution spectrum in the 2.0-2.4 micron atmospheric window shows a very strong H-alpha line at the optically determined redshift z = 2.286. The observed rest-frame equivalent width of H-alpha is 0.07 +/-0.02 microns, consistent with the largest values found in quasars. The images show an unresolved source, while the near-infrared colors are somewhat redder than the mean colors of quasars observed at the same redshift. The reddening inferred is about 1.5 mag, with an upper limit of about 3.0 mag. If FSC 10214 + 4724 is a quasar, the reddening-corrected bolometric luminosity is approximately equal to the observed infrared luminosity.

Soifer, B. T.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Constraints on cosmological models from the IRAS QDOT survey results

The results of the recent IRAS survey are used to explore constraints on the nature of the Galaxy density field. Realistic simulations of the survey made from N-body simulations of the n = -1 power-law power spectrum and the Omega = 1 CDM models show that the power-law model is basically consistent with all QDOT variance results, while the CDM model has a smaller variance than the observation at the 20/h Mpc Gaussian smoothing scale. It is concluded that the QDOT results are best explained if the power spectrum of the Galaxy density field has a slope of about -1 near a wavelength of about 100/h Mpc, while the CDM model has a slope of about 0 at that scale. The possibility of marginal non-Gaussian behavior at the 20/h Mpc scale reported by Saunders et al. (1990) is examined for gravitational instability models with Gaussian initial conditions. It is argued that the observed (delta exp 3) versus (delta exp 2) in redshift space is not what these models would predict.

Park, Changbom↗
NASA NTRS1991

New low-resolution spectrometer spectra for IRAS sources

Low-resolution spectra of 486 IRAS point sources with F sub nu(12 microns) in the range 20-40 Jy are presented. This is part of an effort to extract and classify spectra that were not included in the Atlas of Low-Resolution Spectra and represents an extension of the earlier work by Volk and Cohen which covers sources with F sub nu(12 microns) greater than 40 Jy. The spectra have been examined by eye and classified into nine groups based on the spectral morphology. This new classification scheme is compared with the mechanical classification of the Atlas, and the differences are noted. Oxygen-rich stars of the asymptotic giant branch make up 33 percent of the sample. Solid state features dominate the spectra of most sources. It is found that the nature of the sources as implied by the present spectral classification is consistent with the classifications based on broad-band colors of the sources.

Volk, Kevin↗
NASA NTRS1992

IRAS observations of novae. III - The related objects

Results are presented on an analysis of IRAS observations of a selected sample of 116 objects that show properties similar to those of classical novae detected and modeled by Harrison and Gehrz (1988, 1991). These objects include dwarf novae, novalike variables, symbiotic stars, and planetary nebulae with close binary central-star systems. A high detection rate of 80 percent was found for this sample, as compared with about 50 percent detection rate found in the earlier examined sample. A reexamination of data showed that, at low galactic latitudes, source confusion can account for many of the detections of novae. The seemingly high detection rates of other objects and the many high-latitude novae are difficult to explain.

Harrison, Tom↗
NASA NTRS1993

The large-scale morphology of IRAS galaxies

At present, visual inspection is the only method for comparing the large-scale morphologies in the distribution of galaxies to those in model universes generated by N-body simulations. To remedy the situation, we have developed a set of three structure functions (S1, S2, S3) that quantify the degree of large-scale prolateness, oblateness, and sphericity/uniformity of a 3-D particle distribution and have applied them to a volume-limited (less than = 4000 km/s) sample of 699 IRAS galaxies with f sub 60 greater than 1.2 Jy. To determine the structure functions, we randomly select 500 galaxies as origins of spherical windows of radius R sub w, locate the centroid of the galaxies in the window (assuming all galaxies have equal mass) and then, compute the principal moments of inertia (I sub 1, I sub 2, I sub 3) about the centroid. Each S sub i is a function of (I sub 2)/(I sub 1) and (I sub 3)/I sub 1). S1, S2, and S3 tend to unity for highly prolate, oblate, and uniform distributions, respectively and tend to zero otherwise. The resulting 500 values of S sub i at each scale R sub w are used to construct a histogram.

Babul, Arif↗
NASA NTRS1993

IRAS studies of galactic supershells

Using IRAS Skyflux images and a new catalog of OB stars in the Cygnus region, a complete infrared supershell surrounding the Cyg OB1 Association was identified. This supershell is seen as a conspicuous, well-defined 2 deg x 5 deg region deficient of IR emission, with a limb-brightened edge and dimensions of about 50 x 130 pc at 1.5 kpc. The shell's elongated morphology is consistent with OB-star subclustering over the approximately 10(exp 6) yr age of the bubble. With a parent star cluster still visible (10 O stars between 25 and 45 solar mass, 3 - 4 Wolf-Rayet stars, and the possibility of 3 - 5 more massive stars that died as supernovae) the Cyg OB1 supershell is an excellent object for studying the formation and evolution of Galactic supershells. A discrepancy between the less than or equal to 1 Myr bubble age estimated from its size and the 5 Myr cluster turnoff age (45 solar mass) may require non-coeval massive star formation to explain the number of post-main-sequence stars and limit the number of past supernovae.

Saken, Jon M.↗
NASA NTRS1992

IRAS observations of young stellar objects in the Corona Australis dark cloud

The young stellar object (YSO) population associated with the dark cloud complex in Corona Australis is studied by synthesizing IRAS data with newly obtained near-IR and mid-IR photometry and previously published optical/IR data. Twenty-four YSOs in the Cr A complex are identified. The observed range of spectral energy distribution shapes and bolometric luminosities are consistent with those observed in other dark clouds. The duration and efficiency of star formation are found to be similar to the Rho Ophiuchi IR cluster. The low number of YSOs compared to other dark clouds is understood by a reevaluation of the molecular mass of the R Cr A cloud which shows it to be much less massive than previously assumed.

Wilking, Bruce A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

IRAS observations and the stellar content of H II regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud

IRAS far-infrared fluxes are presented for six H II regions in the LMC. These regions are the sites of recent, massive star formation where the radiative heating source is young stars rather than the general interstellar radiation field. As such, the observations become building blocks for the interpretation of far-infrared emission from spatially unresolved galaxies. In addition, the multiwavelength luminosities of the region then probe the young stellar upper initial mass function. With the long-range goal of determining the stellar content of unresolved star-forming regions, we present the results of a simple model which combines the infrared data with existing H-alpha/H-beta and thermal radio data. For the two OB associations where the mass function has been determined directly, the model correctly 'predicts' a solar neighborhood upper mass function within the uncertainties. No evidence is found for upper mass functions significantly different from that in the solar neighborhood.

Degioia-Eastwood, Kathleen↗