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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.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1995

High-resolution spectra of distant compact narrow emission line galaxies: Progrenitors of spheroidal galaxies

Emission-line velocity widths have been determined for 17 faint (B approximately 20-23) very blue, compact galaxies whose redshifts range from z = 0.095 to 0.66. The spectra have a resolution of 8 Km/s and were taken with the HIRES echelle spectrograph of the Keck 10 m telescope. The galaxies are luminous with all but two within 1 mag of M(sub B) approximately -21. Yet they exhibit narrow velocity widths between sigma = 28-157 km/s, more consistent with typical values of extreme star-forming galaxies than with those of nearby spiral galaxies of similar luminosity. In particular, objects with sigma is less than or equal to 65 km/s follow the same correlations between sigma and both blue and H beta luminosities as those of nearby H II galaxies. These results strengthen the identification of H II glaxies as thier local counterparts. The blue colors and strong emission lines suggest these compact galaxies are undergoing a recent, strong burst of star formation. Like those which characterize some H II galaxies, this burst could be a nuclear star-forming event within a much larger, older stellar population. If the burst is instead a major episode in the total star-forming history, these distant galaxies could fade enough to match the low luminosities and surface brightnesses typical of nearby spheroidals like NGC 185 or NGC 205. Together with evidence for recent star formation, exponential light profiles, and subsolar metallicities, the postfading correlations between luminosity and velocity width and bewtween luminosity and surface brightness suggest that among the low-sigma galaxies, we may be witnessing, in situ, the progenitors of today's spheroidal galaxies.

Koo, David C.↗
NASA NTRS1988

The X-ray emission of normal elliptical galaxies - Steady state cooling flow models

Steady state, spherical, homogeneous cooling flow models are compared to the observed X-ray luminosities, spectra, and surface-brightness profiles of elliptical galaxies. Galaxies without heavy halos and SNe have temperatures which are too low and X-ray surface brightness profiles which are too rapidly decreasing with radius to fit the observations. Galaxies with heavy halos and SNe have luminosities which are too large except for the highest luminosity ellipticals. Galaxies without heavy halos but with SNe have temperatures which are probably too cool in the outer parts. Galaxies with heavy halos but without SNe, where the gas is heated by the motions of gas-losing stars and by infall and compression in a heavy halo potential, are favored. This suggests that elliptical galaxies have heavy halos of optically dark material.

Sarazin, Craig L.↗
NASA NTRS1980

The X-ray structure of two rich galaxy clusters and its implications for the detectability of microwave diminutions

The X-ray observations of the galaxy clusters Abell 2319 and 576 show a reduced temperature of the microwave background due to the Suniaev-Zeldovich effect. The X-ray maps indicate smooth emission in these clusters concentrated toward the optical center; the surface brightness in the 1-3 keV band falls with the inverse square of radius outside a small core, and fits the Hubble's law of optical surface brightness of elliptical galaxies. The low temperature indicates that in A576 (1) the core radius of the gravitational potential is two to three times larger than inferred from galaxy counts, (2) the temperature rises with radius over most of the cluster and falls to zero at large radii, and (3) the gas does not obey the equation of state.

White, S. D. M.↗
DOE OSTI2022

AGC 226178 and NGVS 3543: Two Deceptive Dwarfs toward Virgo

The two sources AGC 226178 and NGVS 3543, an extremely faint, clumpy, blue stellar system and a low surface brightness dwarf spheroidal, are adjacent systems in the direction of the Virgo cluster. Both have been studied in detail previously, with it being suggested that they are unrelated normal dwarf galaxies or that NGVS 3543 recently lost its gas through ram pressure stripping and AGC 226178 formed from this stripped gas. However, with Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging, we demonstrate that the stellar population of NGVS 3543 is inconsistent with being at the distance of the Virgo cluster and that it is likely a foreground object at approximately 10 Mpc, whereas the stellar population of AGC 226178 is consistent with it being a very young (10–100 Myr) object in the Virgo cluster. Through a reanalysis of the original ALFALFA H i detection, we show that AGC 226178 likely formed from gas stripped from the nearby dwarf galaxy VCC 2034, a hypothesis strengthened by the high metallicity measured with MUSE VLT observations. However, it is unclear whether ram pressure or a tidal interaction is responsible for stripping the gas. Object AGC 226178 is one of at least five similar objects now known toward Virgo. These objects are all young and unlikely to remain visible for over ~500 Myr, suggesting that they are continually produced in the cluster.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Baryon-Interacting Dark Matter: heating dark matter and the emergence of galaxy scaling relations

The empirical scaling relations observed in disk galaxies remain challenging for models of galaxy formation. The most striking among these is the Mass Discrepancy-Acceleration Relation (MDAR), which encodes both a tight baryonic Tully-Fisher relation (BTFR) and the observed diversity of galaxy rotation curves through the central surface density relation (CSDR). Building on our earlier work [1], we propose here that the MDAR is the result of interactions between baryons and ‘Baryon-Interacting Dark Matter’ (BIDM), which heat up the dark matter. Following a bottom-up, hydrodynamical approach, we find that the MDAR follows if: i) the BIDM equation of state approximates that of an ideal gas; ii) the BIDM relaxation time is order the Jeans time; iii) the heating rate is inversely proportional to the BIDM density. Remarkably, under these assumptions the set of hydrodynamical equations together with Poisson’s equation enjoy an anisotropic scaling symmetry. In the BIDM-dominated regime, this gives rise to an enhanced symmetry which fully captures the low-acceleration limit of the MDAR. We then show that, assuming a cored pseudo-isothermal profile at equilibrium, this set of equations gives rise to parameters reproducing the MDAR. Specifically, in the flat part of the rotation curve the asymptotic rotational velocity matches the parametric dependence of the BTFR. Moreover, in the central region of high-surface brightness galaxies, the profile reproduces the CSDR. Finally, by studying the time-dependent approach to equilibrium, we derive a global combination of the BTFR and CSDR, which matches the expectations in low surface-brightness galaxies. The form of the heating rate also makes model-independent predictions for various cosmological observables. We argue that our scenario satisfies existing observational constraints, and, intriguingly, offers a possible explanation to the EDGES anomaly.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Unveiling the Nature of Polar-ring Galaxies from Deep Imaging

Abstract General structural properties and low surface brightness tidal features hold important clues to the formation of galaxies. In this paper, we study a sample of polar-ring galaxies (PRGs) based on optical imaging from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Stripe 82 and other deep surveys. We investigate the deepest images of candidates for PRGs to date. We carry out photometric decomposition on the host galaxies and associated polar structures that allows us to derive the structural properties of both components. We are able to detect very faint tidal structures around most PRGs in our sample. For several galaxies, we can directly observe the formation of the polar ring due to merging, which is manifested in debris of the victim galaxy and an arc-like polar structure made up of its material. In a few cases, we can discern signs of tidal accretion. The results obtained indicate that the gravitational interaction and merging of galaxies are the most plausible mechanisms for the formation of PRGs.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
NASA NTRS1992

Evidence for dwarf stars at D of about 100 kiloparsecs near the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy

A method is presented for detecting individual, metal-poor, dwarf stars at distances less than about 150 kpc - a method specifically designed to filter out stars from among the much more numerous faint background field galaxies on the basis of broad-band colors. This technique is applied to two fields at high Galactic latitude, for which there are deep CCD data in four bands ranging from 3600 to 9000 A. The field in Sextans probably contains more than about five dwarf stars with BJ not greater than 25.5. These are consistent with being at a common distance about 100 kpc and lie about 1.7 deg from the newly discovered dwarf galaxy in Sextans whose distance is about 85 +/- 10 kpc. The stars lie near the major axis of the galaxy and are near or beyond the tidal radius. The second field, toward the south Galactic pole, may contain up to about five extra-Galactic stars, but these show no evidence for being at a common distance. Possible applications of this type technique are discussed, and it is shown that even very low surface brightness star clusters or dwarf galaxies may be detected at distances less than about 1 Mpc.

Gould, Andrew↗
NASA NTRS1972

Photometry of compact galaxies.

Photometric histories of the N galaxies 3C 390.3 and PKS 0521-36. Four other compact galaxies, Markarian 9, I Zw 92, 2 Zw 136, and III Zw 77 showed no evidence of variability. The photometric histories were obtained from an exhaustive study of those plates of the Harvard collection taken with large aperture cameras. The images of all galaxies reported were indistinguishable from stars due to the camera f-ratios and low surface brightness of the outlying nebulosities of the galaxies. Standard techniques for the study of variable stars are therefore applicable.

Shen, B. S. P.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Hubble Space Telescope Observations of GW170817: Complete Light Curves and the Properties of the Galaxy Merger of NGC 4993

We present the complete set of Hubble Space Telescope imaging of the binary neutron star merger GW170817 and its optical counterpart AT 2017gfo. Including deep template imaging in F814W, F110W, F140W, and F160W at 3.4 yr post-merger, we reanalyze the full light curve of AT 2017gfo across 12 bands from 5 to 1273 rest-frame days after merger. We obtain four new detections of the short γ-ray burst 170817A afterglow from 109 to 170 rest-frame days post-merger. These detections are consistent with the previously observed β = -0.6 spectral index in the afterglow light curve with no evidence for spectral evolution. We also analyze our limits in the context of kilonova afterglow or IR dust echo emission but find that our limits are not constraining for these models. We use the new data to construct deep optical and IR stacks, reaching limits of M = -6.3 to -4.6 mag, to analyze the local environment around AT 2017gfo and low surface brightness features in its host galaxy NGC 4993. We rule out the presence of any globular cluster at the position of AT 2017gfo to 2.3 × 10$^{4}$L$_{⊙}$, including those with the reddest V - H colors. Finally, we analyze the substructure of NGC 4993 in deep residual imaging and find shell features that extend up to 71."8 (14.2 kpc) from NGC 4993. The shells have a cumulative stellar mass of 6.3 × 10$^{8}$M$_{⊙}$, roughly 2% of NGC 4993, and mass-weighted ages of >3 Gyr. We conclude that it was unlikely that the GW170817 progenitor system formed in the galaxy merger.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Stellar Population Properties in the Stellar Streams around SPRC047

Abstract We have investigated the properties (e.g., age, metallicity) of the stellar populations of a ringlike tidal stellar stream (or streams) around the edge-on galaxy SPRC047 (z= 0.031) using spectral energy distribution (SED) fits to integrated broadband aperture flux densities. We used visual images in six different bands and Spitzer/IRAC 3.6μm data. We have attempted to derive best-fit stellar population parameters (metallicity, age) in three noncontiguous segments of the stream. Due to the very low surface brightness of the stream, we have performed a deconvolution with a Richardson–Lucy–type algorithm of the low spatial resolution 3.6μm IRAC image, thereby reducing the effect of the point-spread function aliasedemissionfrom the bright edge-on central galaxy at the locations of our three stream segments. Our SED fits that used several different star formation (SF) history priors, from an exponentially decaying SF burst to continuous SF, indicate that the age–metallicity–dust degeneracy is not resolved, most likely because of inadequate wavelength coverage and low signal-to-noise ratios of the low surface brightness features. We also discuss how future deep visual–near-infrared observations, combined with absolute flux calibration uncertainties at or below the 1% level, complemented by equally well absolute flux-calibrated observations in ultraviolet and mid-infrared bands, would improve the accuracy of broadband SED fitting results for low surface brightness targets, such as stellar streams around nearby galaxies that are not resolved into stars.

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗
DOE OSTI2026

A Sample of Nearby Isolated Dwarf Galaxies: A First Look at the Mass Function of Field Dwarfs

We present the results of the Exploration of Local VolumE Survey-Field, a survey of the dwarf galaxies in the Local Volume (LV; D < 10 Mpc) over roughly 3000 deg 2 , focusing on the field dwarf population. Candidates are detected using a semiautomated algorithm tailored for low-surface brightness dwarfs. Using tests with injected galaxies, we show the detection is 50% complete to m g ∼ 20 mag and M ⋆ ∼ 10 6 M ⊙ . Candidates are confirmed to be true nearby dwarfs through distance measurements including redshift, tip of the red giant branch, and surface brightness fluctuations. We identify isolated field dwarfs using various environmental criteria. Over the survey footprint, we detect and confirm 95 LV dwarfs, 44 of which we consider isolated. Using this sample, we infer the field dwarf mass function and find good agreement at the high-mass end with previous redshift surveys and with the predictions of the Illustris-TNG simulation. This sample of isolated field dwarfs represents a powerful dataset to investigate aspects of small-scale structure and the effect of environment on dwarf galaxy evolution.

Carlsten, Scott G. [Princeton Univ., NJ (United St↗
NASA NTRS1982

Experiment requirements document for reflight of the small helium-cooled infrared telescope experiment

The four astronomical objectives addressed include: the measurement and mapping of extended low surface brightness infrared emission from the galaxy; the measurement of diffuse emission from intergalactic material and/or galaxies and quasi-stellar objects; the measurement of the zodiacal dust emission; and the measurement of a large number of discrete infrared sources.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1985

COSMIC: A high resolution, large collecting area telescope

The spaceborne Coherent Optical System of Modular Imaging Collectors (COSMIC) is presented. It has high angular resolution and can produce images of complex, low-surface-brightness objects such as distant galaxies. If configured as a 36 m filled linear array, COSMIC can have 15 times better angular resolution and 10 times greater collecting area than the Space Telescope. Alternatively, if the collecting area is spread out to create an unfilled two-dimensional array, there is the additional advantage of not needing to rotate the array in order to build up a reconstructed image. Considerations which led to the design concept, scientific goals, and the potentially useful role of a space station for assembly are discussed.

Traub, W. A.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Deep CCD observations of nearby dwarf galaxy candidates

During their search for faint planetary nebulae on the Palomar Sky Survey, Ellis, Grayson, and Bond (1984) found three low-surface-brightness objects which they speculated were dwarf galaxies. Deep CCD observations of these objects indicate that one, EGB 04 27+63 is a previously uncataloged dwarf irregular galaxy which is partially resolved into stars. The other two objects appear to be faint diffuse nebulae: perhaps gaseous or reflection nebulae.

Hoessel, J. G.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Interacting binary galaxies. VI - The fast encounter of NGC 2672 and NGC 2673 (Karachentsev 175, Arp 167)

The isolated pair of interacting ellipticals NGC 2672/2673 (Arp 167; Karachentsev 175), whose line-of-sight relative velocity is about 520 km/s, is studied. This very unequal mass system features two low surface brightness plumes emerging from the secondary galaxy NGC 2673. Photometric data on the pair are described, and the distortions in the galaxies and their photometric properties are discussed. Spectroscopic observations of the pair and the velocity structures derived from these are addressed. A physical solution for the pair is presented and explained.

Balcells, Marc↗
DOE OSTI2023

Decoding NGC 7252 as a blue elliptical galaxy

Elliptical galaxies with blue optical colours and significant star formation are hypothesised to be major merger remnants of gas-rich spiral galaxies or normal elliptical galaxies with a sudden burst of star formation. We present here a scenario in which blue elliptical galaxies identified in shallow imaging surveys may fail to recover faint features that are indicative of past merger activity using a nearby major merger remnant. Based on deep optical imaging data of the post-merger galaxy, NGC 7252, we demonstrate that the galaxy can appear as an elliptical galaxy if it is observed at higher redshifts. The main body and the low surface brightness merger features found at the outskirts of the galaxy are blue in the optical g – r colour map. We argue that the higher-redshift blue elliptical galaxies discovered in surveys as shallow as the SDSS or DECaLS may be advanced mergers whose defining tidal features fall below the detection limits of the surveys. This should be taken into consideration during the morphological classification of these systems in future and ongoing surveys.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2022

SDSS IV MaNGA - star-formation driven biconical outflows in face-on galaxies

ABSTRACT We find 132 face-on and low inclination galaxies with central star formation driven biconical gas outflows (FSFB) in the SDSS MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO) survey. The FSFB galaxies show either double peaked or broadened emission line profiles at their centres. The peak and maximum outflow velocities are 58 and 212 km s−1, respectively. The gas velocity dispersion reveals a mild dependence on the central star formation surface density compatible with models of gas dispersion powered by the Jeans instability in gas clumps or by gas turbulence dissipation. We estimate the gas outflow rate and conclude that the central gas depletion time does not depend on galactic mass. In turn, the ratio of the gas outflow rate to the gas consumption rate by the star formation is low in massive galaxies and high in low mass objects, while the star formation is a more rapid process of the gas consumption. We compare properties of the FSFB galaxies with a control sample of 375 comparison galaxies and find that the FSFB objects have high central concentration of star formation and also younger central stellar population with respect to their periphery. We analysed the environment of the galaxies and identified nearby satellites and elements of low surface brightness structure. We see that many tidal-enhanced features that can be assigned to early and intermediate stages of galactic interaction are much more frequent in the FSFB galaxies with respect to the comparison sample. We conclude that the gas should be replenished via the accretion from small satellites.

Bizyaev, D. (ORCID:000000023601133X)↗
NASA NTRS1997

The Extragalactic X-ray Background in the 0.2 - 2 keV Range

We made the first measurement of the extragalactic 0.7 keV background. We detected the X-ray shadow of a neutral gas cloud in the Magellanic Bridge. We further constrained the point-like source contribution based on the mean spectrum of detected sources and on our early autocorrelation function analysis of the background. We find that our measurement extragalactic background intensity is significantly greater than the total point-like source contribution expected if sources are responsible for all the observed background intensity in the 1-2 keV range. For a further confirmation of the theoretical prediction of the hot intergalactic medium, we have conducted a pilot project to search for enhanced X-ray-emitting features near rich clusters of galaxies. We have reported the discovery of an elongated complex of extended X-ray-emitting objects in and around the galaxy cluster A2125, based on an archival deep ROSAT/PSPC observation. Using multicolor optical imaging of galaxies in the field, we find that this complex represents a hierarchical superstructure spanning approx. 11 Mpc at the redshift approx. 0.247. The multiple peak X-ray morphology and large blue galaxy fraction of A2125 indicate that the cluster is undergoing a coalescence of subunits. The superstructure contains two additional clusters, projected at distances of only 3 and 4.3 Mpc from A2125. The most interesting feature is, however, the low-surface-brightness X-ray emission from a moderate galaxy concentration away from individual clusters. The emission likely arises in a hot (approx. 10(exp 7) K) intergalactic medium, as predicted in N-body/hydro simulations of structure formation. These results demonstrate the potential of X-ray observations as a powerful tool to study the large-scale structure of the universe.

Wang, Q. Daniel↗