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At least 1,387 records · Page 77
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2013

VARIATIONS OF MID- AND FAR-INFRARED LUMINOSITIES AMONG EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES: RELATION TO STELLAR METALLICITY AND COLD DUST

The Hubble morphological sequence from early to late galaxies corresponds to an increasing rate of specific star formation. The Hubble sequence also follows a banana-shaped correlation between 24 and 70 {mu}m luminosities, both normalized with the K-band luminosity. We show that this correlation is significantly tightened if galaxies with central active galactic nucleus (AGN) emission are removed, but the cosmic scatter of elliptical galaxies in both 24 and 70 {mu}m luminosities remains significant along the correlation. We find that the 24 {mu}m variation among ellipticals correlates with stellar metallicity, reflecting emission from hot dust in winds from asymptotic giant branch stars of varying metallicity. Infrared surface brightness variations in elliptical galaxies indicate that the K - 24 color profile is U-shaped for reasons that are unclear. In some elliptical galaxies, cold interstellar dust emitting at 70 and 160 {mu}m may arise from recent gas-rich mergers. However, we argue that most of the large range of 70 {mu}m luminosity in elliptical galaxies is due to dust transported from galactic cores by feedback events in (currently IR-quiet) AGNs. Cooler dusty gas naturally accumulates in the cores of elliptical galaxies due to dust-cooled local stellar mass loss and may accrete onto the central black hole, releasing energy. AGN-heated gas can transport dust in cores 5-10 kpc out into the hot gas atmospheres where it radiates extended 70 {mu}m emission but is eventually destroyed by sputtering. This, and some modest star formation, defines a cycle of dust creation and destruction. Elliptical galaxies evidently undergo large transient excursions in the banana plot in times comparable to the sputtering time or AGN duty cycle, 10 Myr. Normally regarded as passive, elliptical galaxies are the most active galaxies in the IR color-color correlation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

EXCLUSION OF COSMIC RAYS IN PROTOPLANETARY DISKS: STELLAR AND MAGNETIC EFFECTS

Cosmic rays (CRs) are thought to provide an important source of ionization in the outermost and densest regions of protoplanetary disks; however, it is unknown to what degree they are physically present. As is observed in the solar system, stellar winds can inhibit the propagation of CRs within the circumstellar environment and subsequently into the disk. In this work, we explore the hitherto neglected effects of CR modulation by both stellar winds and magnetic field structures and study how these processes act to reduce disk ionization rates. We construct a two-dimensional protoplanetary disk model of a T-Tauri star system, focusing on ionization from stellar and interstellar FUV, stellar X-ray photons, and CRs. We show that stellar winds can power a heliosphere-like analog, i.e., a ''T-Tauriosphere,'' diminishing CR ionization rates by several orders of magnitude at low to moderate CR energies (E{sub CR} {<=} 1 GeV). We explore models of both the observed solar wind CR modulation and a highly simplified estimate for ''elevated'' CR modulation as would be expected from a young T-Tauri star. In the former (solar analog) case, we estimate the ionization rate from galactic CRs to be {zeta}{sub CR} {approx} (0.23-1.4) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -18} s{sup -1}. This range of values, which we consider to be the maximum CR ionization rate for the disk, is more than an order of magnitude lower than what is generally assumed in current models for disk chemistry and physics. In the latter elevated case, i.e., for a ''T-Tauriosphere,'' the ionization rate by CRs is {zeta}{sub CR} {approx}< 10{sup -20} s{sup -1}, which is 1000 times smaller than the interstellar value. We discuss the implications of a diminished CR ionization rate on the gas physics by estimating the size of the resulting magnetorotational instability dead zones. Indeed, if winds are as efficient at CR modulation as predicted here, short-lived radionuclides (now extinct) would have provided the major source of ionization ({zeta}{sub RN} {approx} 7.3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -19} s{sup -1}) in the planet-forming zone of the young solar nebula.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

JET-ISM interaction in the radio galaxy 3C 293: JET-driven shocks heat ISM to power X-ray and molecular H{sub 2} emission

We present a 70 ks Chandra observation of the radio galaxy 3C 293. This galaxy belongs to the class of molecular hydrogen emission galaxies (MOHEGs) that have very luminous emission from warm molecular hydrogen. In radio galaxies, the molecular gas appears to be heated by jet-driven shocks, but exactly how this mechanism works is still poorly understood. With Chandra, we observe X-ray emission from the jets within the host galaxy and along the 100 kpc radio jets. We model the X-ray spectra of the nucleus, the inner jets, and the X-ray features along the extended radio jets. Both the nucleus and the inner jets show evidence of 10{sup 7} K shock-heated gas. The kinetic power of the jets is more than sufficient to heat the X-ray emitting gas within the host galaxy. The thermal X-ray and warm H{sub 2} luminosities of 3C 293 are similar, indicating similar masses of X-ray hot gas and warm molecular gas. This is consistent with a picture where both derive from a multiphase, shocked interstellar medium (ISM). We find that radio-loud MOHEGs that are not brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs), like 3C 293, typically have L{sub H{sub 2}}/L{sub X}∼1 and M{sub H{sub 2}}/M{sub X}∼1, whereas MOHEGs that are BCGs have L{sub H{sub 2}}/L{sub X}∼0.01 and M{sub H{sub 2}}/M{sub X}∼0.01. The more massive, virialized, hot atmosphere in BCGs overwhelms any direct X-ray emission from current jet-ISM interaction. On the other hand, L{sub H{sub 2}}/L{sub X}∼1 in the Spiderweb BCG at z = 2, which resides in an unvirialized protocluster and hosts a powerful radio source. Over time, jet-ISM interaction may contribute to the establishment of a hot atmosphere in BCGs and other massive elliptical galaxies.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1973

Cosmic abundance of boron.

All abundances are expressed relative to a million atoms of Si. An average abundance of boron in ordinary chondrites is 6.2. The boron abundance in meteorites is highly variable. It has been found that the abundances in carbonaceous chondrites are very much higher than those in ordinary chondrites. The condensation of boron and beryllium from a cooling, low-pressure gas of solar composition is discussed together with the occurrence of boron in the interstellar medium, questions of element abundances in the sun, problems of boron production by cosmic rays, and boron production from supernovae.

Cameron, A. G. W.↗
NASA NTRS1983

Spatially extended narrow emission-line gas in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151

Details of the spatial structure of the narrow-line region (NLR) in NGC 4151 are presented, and the structure of the NLR is compared to that of the radio and X-ray emission. Results for the morphology and excitation of the NLR, the luminosity of the extranuclear features, and the kinematics are presented, citing published research. These results are used to test several models: the X-ray gas in pressure equilibrium with the adjacent NLR, the X-ray gas identified as shock-heated NLR clouds flowing supersonically through the ambient galactic interstellar medium, X-rays arising in SNR and massive X-ray binaries produced in bursts of star formation stimulated by nuclear outflow, and X-ray and line emission regions ionized indirectly by the radio jet.

Heckman, T. M.↗
NASA NTRS1984

A new interstellar molecule - Tricarbon monoxide

The C3O molecule, whose pure rotational spectrum has only recently been studied in the laboratory, has been detected in the cold, dark interstellar Taurus Molecular Cloud 1. Since C3O is the first interstelar carbon chain molecule to contain oxygen, its existence places an important new constraint on chemical schemes for cold interstellar clouds. The abundance of C3O can be understood in terms of purely gas-phase ion-molecule chemistry.

Matthews, H. E.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Ultraviolet interstellar absorption toward stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. II - Sk 159

On the basis of a study of high-dispersion spectra of stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) obtained with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite, Savage and de Boer (1979, 1981) have detected the Milky Way halo gas. The existence of gaseous coronae around both the LMC and SMC was also suggested. The evidence for this included the presence of strong interstellar absorption lines from high-ionization stages (e.g., C IV, Si IV, and Al III). Fitzpatrick and Savage (1983) concluded that the strongest C IV and Si IV features in the spectrum of the SMC star HD 5980 are probably nebular in origin, produced by stellar photoionization in NGC 346. However, other evidence indicated that at least one additional region of high-ionization stage gas is present in the HD 5980 line of sight. The present investigation is concerned with a reobservation of the star SK 159. It is found that the Milky Way disk and halo absorption features toward Sk 159, except for Al III are very similar to those seen toward HD 5980, also in the SMC.

Fitzpatrick, E. L.↗
NASA NTRS1987

The solar system/interstellar medium connection - Gas phase abundances

Gas-phase abundances in the outer solar system are presented as diagnostics of the interstellar medium at the time of the solar system formation, some 4.55 billion years ago. Possible influences of the thermal and chemical histories of the primitive solar nebula and of the processes which led to the formation and evolution of the outer planets and comets on the elemental and molecular composition of the primordial matter are outlined. The major components of the atmospheres of the outer planets and of the comae of comets are identified, and the cosmogonical and cosmological implications are discussed.

Lutz, Barry L.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Molecule formation and infrared emission in fast interstellar shocks. III - Results for J shocks in molecular clouds

The structure and emission spectrum of J shocks in molecular gas are studied over a broad range of conditions. It is found that at high densities chemistry has a profound effect on the emission spectrum: the density behind the shock is sufficiently high that some of the internal energy of the newly formed H2 molecules is transformed to the gas as heat by collisional deexcitations, producing the H2 formation plateau. In this temperature plateau, endothermal reactions and neutral-neutral chemical reactions with activation energies can proceed efficiently, producing significant quantities of warm H2, CO, OH, and H2O and enhanced columns of warm atoms and ions. The heat generated by the H2 formation is radiated in collisionally excited atomic fine-structure lines.

Hollenbach, David↗
NASA NTRS1991

A model for the infrared emission from an OB star cluster environment

A model for the infrared emission from the neighborhood of an OB star cluster is described. The distribution of gas and dust around the stars, properties of the dust, and the cluster and interstellar radiation fields are variable. The model can be applied to regions around clusters embedded to various degrees in their parental molecular clouds (i.e., compact H II regions, blister-type H II regions, and the tenuous H II regions ionized by naked O stars). The model is used to simulate IRAS observations of a typical blister H II region. Infrared surface brightness and spectral energy distributions are predicted and the impact of limited spatial resolution is illustrated. The model results are shown to be consistent with observations of the exemplary outer Galaxy OB cluster NGC 7380. It is planned to use the model as a diagnostic tool to probe the physical conditions and dust properties in star-formation regions and, ultimately, in an interpretation of the spectral energy distributions of spiral galaxies.

Leisawitz, D.↗
NASA NTRS1994

Solid carbon monoxide in the Serpens dark cloud

The 4.67 micrometer absorption feature of solid CO is an important signature of grain mantles in molecular clouds. This paper presents new observations of solid CO absorption in the spectra of four infrared sources in and behind the Serpens dark cloud. We also present supplementary 2.0-2.5 micrometer spectra which clarify the nature of selected sources. Solid CO profiles are compared with models based on laboratory data. In common with previous studies of other clouds, we find that the observed profiles are consistent with the presence of two distinct phases of CO-bearing ice, one dominated either by CO itself or by CO mixed with absorption relative to that of the water-ice feature at 3.1 micrometers is unusually high in Serpens: we deduce column densities for CO and H2O in solid form and conclude that the mean CO abundance in dust is 40% of the H2O abundance, compared with values in the range 0%-30% typical of other molecular clouds. On the basis of its 2.0-2.5 micrometer spectrum and near-infrared colors, we deduce the infrared source CK 2 to be a K5-M0 III field star situated behind the Serpens cloud and suffering 40-50 mag of visual extinction. Assuming empirical correlations between extinction and total (gas + dust) CO column density, we estimate the CO depletion (i.e., the fraction of interstellar CO in the line of sight tied up in grains) to be approximately 40% in the intracloud medium of the Serpens cloud, comparable with previous estimates for the Taurus dark cloud, and much higher than that found in the environments of protostellar objects.

Chiar, J. E.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Director's Discretionary Fund Report for Fiscal Year 1996

Topics covered include: Waterproofing the Space Shuttle tiles, thermal protection system for Reusable Launch Vehicles, computer modeling of the thermal conductivity of cometary ice, effects of ozone depletion and ultraviolet radiation on plants, a novel telemetric biosensor to monitor blood pH on-line, ion mobility in polymer electrolytes for lithium-polymer batteries, a microwave-pumped far infrared photoconductor, and a new method for measuring cloud liquid vapor using near infrared remote sensing. Also included: laser-spectroscopic instrument for turbulence measurement, remote sensing of aircraft contrails using a field portable imaging interferometer, development of a silicon-micromachined gas chromatography system for determination of planetary surface composition, planar Doppler velocimetry, chaos in interstellar chemistry, and a limited pressure cycle engine for high-speed output.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS2015

The Formation of N- and O-Heterocycles from the Irradiation of Benzene and Naphthalene in H2O- and NH3-Containing Ices

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are ubiquitous in many astrophysical environments, and are likely present in interstellar clouds and protostellar disks [1]. In dense molecular clouds,PAHs and other gas-phase species are expected tocondense onto grains to form mixed molecular ice mantles dominated by small molecules like H2O, CH3OH, NH3, CO, and CO2 [2]. These icy mantleslikely undergo energetic processing from ionizing radiation in the form of cosmic rays and high-energy photons.

Materese, C. K.↗
NASA NTRS2022

The Polstar High Resolution Spectropolarimetry MIDEX Mission

The Polstar mission will provide a space-borne 60 cm spectropolarimeter operating at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths, capturing all four Stokes parameters (intensity, two linear polarization components, and circular polarization). Polstar’s capabilities are designed to meet its goal of determining how circumstellar gas flows alter and inform massive star evolution, affect the stellar remnant population, and stir and enrich the interstellar medium (ISM). These will be achieved by investigating the dynamical geometries in the winds and disks of hot stars, the composition and magnetic alignment of interstellar dust, and the star-forming accretion disks of UV-bright stars at an important transition boundary. Together these areas map out a kind of two-way interface between massive stars and their effect on our galaxy, wherein the stellar winds enrich the ISM with metals and kinetic energy, preconditioning their environment and the stellar endpoints prior to undergoing supernova. The ISM dust in turn reveals the composition and magnetic environment leading to new star formation, and the accretion disks of Herbig Ae/Be stars reveal how the ISM gas returns to make new massive stars. Polstar will combine high-resolution spectroscopy in the time domain with high-precision UV polarimetry. Doppler-shifted UV resonance line opacity will provide information about circumstellar kinematics, while polarization gives complementary geometric information about unseen structures. The composition and magnetic alignment of the smallest interstellar dust grains provides a probe of the ISM utilizing radiative alignment theory (RAT). Polstar will operate in the far-UV (FUV) at 122–200 nm at high spectral resolution of around R ∼ 30k, and at FUV and near-UV (NUV) wavelengths of 122–320 nm at lower spectral resolutions of 0.1 - 1k. Detection of polarization levels as weak as 0.1% are expected, with a temporal cadence ranging from 5–10 minutes for most wind variability studies, to hours or days for sampling rotation, to days or weeks for sampling binary orbits, to months to a year for sampling substructure in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks. Sub-meter-class aperture is well suited to access this wide array of time domain science, made possible by restricting to a few hundred bright, massive stars, necessarily extincted by a small to moderate column of interstellar dust, informing both the attributes of the stars and the ISM through which they are seen. As such, the focus is on our own galaxy and its evolutionary drivers, but a few targets in the Magellanic clouds offer the potential to extend this understanding to low-metallicity environments.

Paul A Scowen↗
DOE OSTI2013

ABSORPTIONS IN THE VISIBLE OF PROTONATED PYRENE COLLISIONALLY COOLED TO 15 K

Protonated polycyclic hydrocarbons have been added to the list of suggested carriers of diffuse interstellar absorptions. To test this proposition requires laboratory spectra measured under interstellar conditions, in particular with the rotational and vibrational degrees of freedom equilibrated to low temperatures. This has been achieved for protonated pyrene with absorption bands in the visible, using an ion trap and collisional cooling to ≈15 K. A two-photon excitation-dissociation scheme was employed to record the (1) {sup 1} A' ← X {sup 1} A' electronic spectrum on around 10{sup 5} ions per duty cycle. The origin band of the absorption spectrum of this relatively large polycyclic aromatic species with 27 atoms is located at 4858.86 Å. Two further comparably intense spectral features are present at 4834.48 and 4809.32 Å. This is one of the largest protonated aromatics studied in the gas phase and compared to astronomical observations; however, it is not a carrier of known diffuse interstellar bands.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS1986

Chemistry of chlorine in dense interstellar clouds

Laboratory experiments and theoretical modeling show that the chemistry of chlorine is fairly simple in dense interstellar clouds, with Cl and HCl as the only species whose fractional abundances are significant. The estimated fraction of gas-phase chlorine present as HCl lies between 25-65 percent, in good agreement with the recent observations of the ground state HCl transition by Blake, Keene, and Philips (1985). These results, combined with the observational limits on HCl, indicate that chlorine is not severely depleted in dense interstellar clouds.

Blake, G. A.↗
DOE OSTI2016

A DEEP X-RAY VIEW OF THE BARE AGN ARK 120. I. REVEALING THE SOFT X-RAY LINE EMISSION

The Seyfert 1 galaxy Ark 120 is a prototype example of the so-called class of bare nucleus active galactic nuclei (AGNs), whereby there is no known evidence for the presence of ionized gas along the direct line of sight. Here deep (>400 ks exposure), high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy of Ark 120 is presented from XMM-Newton observations that were carried out in 2014 March, together with simultaneous Chandra /High Energy Transmission Grating exposures. The high-resolution spectra confirmed the lack of intrinsic absorbing gas associated with Ark 120, with the only X-ray absorption present originating from the interstellar medium (ISM) of our own Galaxy, with a possible slight enhancement of the oxygen abundance required with respect to the expected ISM values in the solar neighborhood. However, the presence of several soft X-ray emission lines are revealed for the first time in the XMM-Newton RGS spectrum, associated with the AGN and arising from the He- and H-like ions of N, O, Ne, and Mg. The He-like line profiles of N, O, and Ne appear velocity broadened, with typical FWHMs of ∼5000 km s{sup −1}, whereas the H-like profiles are unresolved. From the clean measurement of the He-like triplets, we deduce that the broad lines arise from a gas of density n {sub e} ∼ 10{sup 11} cm{sup −3}, while the photoionization calculations infer that the emitting gas covers at least 10% of 4 π steradian. Thus the broad soft X-ray profiles appear coincident with an X-ray component of the optical–UV broad-line region on sub-parsec scales, whereas the narrow profiles originate on larger parsec scales, perhaps coincident with the AGN narrow-line region. The observations show that Ark 120 is not intrinsically bare and substantial X-ray-emitting gas exists out of our direct line of sight toward this AGN.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2017

Star cluster formation in cosmological simulations. I. Properties of young clusters

We present a new implementation of star formation in cosmological simulations by considering star clusters as a unit of star formation. Cluster particles grow in mass over several million years at the rate determined by local gas properties, with high time resolution. The particle growth is terminated by its own energy and momentum feedback on the interstellar medium. We test this implementation for Milky Way-sized galaxies at high redshift by comparing the properties of model clusters with observations of young star clusters. We find that the cluster initial mass function is best described by a Schechter function rather than a single power law. In agreement with observations, at low masses the logarithmic slope is $\alpha \approx 1.8\mbox{–}2$, while the cutoff at high mass scales with the star formation rate (SFR). A related trend is a positive correlation between the surface density of the SFR and fraction of stars contained in massive clusters. Both trends indicate that the formation of massive star clusters is preferred during bursts of star formation. These bursts are often associated with major-merger events. We also find that the median timescale for cluster formation ranges from 0.5 to 4 Myr and decreases systematically with increasing star formation efficiency. Local variations in the gas density and cluster accretion rate naturally lead to the scatter of the overall formation efficiency by an order of magnitude, even when the instantaneous efficiency is kept constant. As a result, comparison of the formation timescale with the observed age spread of young star clusters provides an additional important constraint on the modeling of star formation and feedback schemes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗