Improved Templates for Photometric Redshifts of Submm Sources

There is growing evidence that some star-forming galaxies at z>1 are characterized by high efficiencies and specific star formation rates. In the local universe, these traits are shared by ``active'' Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies (BCDs) with compact and dense star-forming regions. The Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) of these BCDs are dominated by young massive star clusters, embedded in a cocoon of dust. In this Letter, we incorporate these BCD SEDs as templates for two samples of high-redshift galaxy populations selected at submm wavelengths. Because of the severe absorption of the optical light, the featureless mid-infrared spectrum, and the relatively flat radio continuum, the dusty star-cluster SEDs are good approximations to most of the submm sources in our samples. In most cases, the active BCD SEDs fit the observed photometric points better than the ``standard'' templates, M 82 and Arp 220, and predict photometric redshifts significantly closer to the spectroscopic ones. Our results strongly suggest that the embedded dusty star clusters in BCD galaxies are superior to other local templates such as M 82 and Arp 220 in fitting distant submm starburst galaxies.Comment: Accepted by ApJL: 4 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Asteroids Observed by The Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We announce the first public release of the SDSS Moving Object Catalog, with SDSS observations for 58,117 asteroids. The catalog lists astrometric and photometric data for moving objects observed prior to Dec 15, 2001, and also includes orbital elements for 10,592 previously known objects. We analyze the correlation between the orbital parameters and optical colors for the known objects, and confirm that asteroid dynamical families, defined as clusters in orbital parameter space, also strongly segregate in color space. Their distinctive optical colors indicate that the variations in chemical composition within a family are much smaller than the compositional differences between families, and strongly support earlier suggestions that asteroids belonging to a particular family have a common origin.Comment: 6 pages, 1 color figure, to be presented at "Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation", SPIE 200

Far-Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions and Photometric Redshifts of Dusty Galaxies

We infer the large-scale source parameters of dusty galaxies from their observed spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using the analytic radiative transfer methodology presented in Chakrabarti & McKee (2005). For local ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs), we show that the millimeter to far-infrared (FIR) SEDs can be well fit using the standard dust opacity index of 2 when self-consistent radiative transfer solutions are employed, indicating that the cold dust in local ULIRGs can be described by a single grain model. We develop a method for determining photometric redshifts of ULIRGs and sub-mm galaxies from the millimeter-FIR SED; the resulting value of $1+z$ is typically accurate to about 10%. As such, it is comparable to the accuracy of near-IR photometric redshifts and provides a complementary means of deriving redshifts from far-IR data, such as that from the upcoming $\it{Herschel Space Observatory}$. Since our analytic radiative transfer solution is developed for homogeneous, spherically symmetric, centrally heated, dusty sources, it is relevant for infrared bright galaxies that are primarily powered by compact sources of luminosity that are embedded in a dusty envelope. We discuss how deviations from spherical symmetry may affect the applicability of our solution, and we contrast our self-consistent analytic solution with standard approximations to demonstrate the main differences.Comment: 37 pages, 14 Figures, 3 Tables, submitted to ApJ. submitted to Ap