449 research outputs found
A stringent upper limit to 18cm radio emission from the extrasolar planet system tau Bootis
Context: It has been speculated for many years that some extrasolar planets
may emit strong cyclotron emission at low radio frequencies in the range 10-100
MHz. Despite several attempts no such emission has yet been seen.
Aims: The hot Jupiter system tau Bootis is one of the nearest (d=15 pc)
exoplanets known to date. The gravitational influence of this massive hot
Jupiter (M=6 M_jup) has locked the star-planet system, making the star rotate
in P~3.3 days, similar to the orbital period of the planet. From the well
established correlation between stellar rotation and radio luminosity, it is
conceivable that the tau Bootis system emits strong radio emission at
significantly higher frequencies than currently probed, which we aimed to
investigate with this work.
Methods: We observed tau Bootis with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope
(WSRT) at a frequency of 1.7 GHz. for 12 hours in spectral line mode, reaching
a noise level of 42 microJy/beam at the position of the target.
Results: No 18cm radio emission is detected from tau Bootis, resulting in a 3
sigma upper limit of 0.13 mJy, corresponding to a 18cm radio luminosity of
<3.7e13 erg/s/Hz. We observe tau Bootis to be two orders of magnitude fainter
than expected from the stellar relation between radio luminosity and rotation
velocity.
Conclusions: This implies that either the tau Bootis system is underluminous
in the radio compared to similar fast-rotating stars, or that we happened to
observe the target during a low state of radio emission.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure: Accepted for publication in A&
Neutral hydrogen gas, past and future star-formation in galaxies in and around the 'Sausage' merging galaxy cluster
CIZA J2242.8+5301 (, nicknamed 'Sausage') is an extremely massive
( ), merging cluster with shock waves
towards its outskirts, which was found to host numerous emission-line galaxies.
We performed extremely deep Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope HI
observations of the 'Sausage' cluster to investigate the effect of the merger
and the shocks on the gas reservoirs fuelling present and future star formation
(SF) in cluster members. By using spectral stacking, we find that the
emission-line galaxies in the 'Sausage' cluster have, on average, as much HI
gas as field galaxies (when accounting for the fact cluster galaxies are more
massive than the field galaxies), contrary to previous studies. Since the
cluster galaxies are more massive than the field spirals, they may have been
able to retain their gas during the cluster merger. The large HI reservoirs are
expected to be consumed within Gyr by the vigorous SF and AGN
activity and/or driven out by the out-flows we observe. We find that the
star-formation rate in a large fraction of H emission-line cluster
galaxies correlates well with the radio broad band emission, tracing supernova
remnant emission. This suggests that the cluster galaxies, all located in
post-shock regions, may have been undergoing sustained SFR for at least 100
Myr. This fully supports the interpretation proposed by Stroe et al. (2015) and
Sobral et al. (2015) that gas-rich cluster galaxies have been triggered to form
stars by the passage of the shock.Comment: Accepted to MNRAS, 14 pages, 9 figures, 7 table
When galaxy clusters collide : the impact of merger shocks on cluster gas and galaxy evolution
Galaxy clusters mainly grow through mergers with other clusters and groups. Major mergers give rise to cluster-wide traveling shocks, which can be detected at radio wavelengths as relics: elongated, diffuse synchrotron emitting areas located at the periphery of merging clusters. The 'Sausage' cluster hosts an extraordinary Mpc-wide relic, which enables us to study to study particle acceleration and the effects of shocks on cluster galaxies. We derive shock properties and the magnetic field structure for the relic. Our results indicate that particles are shock-accelerated, but turbulent re-acceleration or unusually efficient transport of particles in the downstream area are important effects. We demonstrate the feasibility of high-frequency observations of radio relics, by presenting a 16 GHz detection of the 'Sausage' relic. Halpha mapping of the cluster provides the first direct test as to whether the shock drives or prohibits star formation. We find numerous galaxies in close proximity to the radio relic which are extremely massive, metal-rich, star-forming with evidence for gas mass loss though outflows. We speculate that the complex interaction between the merger, the shock wave and gas is a fundamental driver in the evolution of cluster galaxies from gas rich spirals to gas-poor ellipticals.Galaxie
A cartographical perspective to the engineering works at the Sulina mouth
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2010. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Akadémiai Kiadó for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Acta Geodaetica et Geophysica Hungarica 45 (2010): 71-79, doi:10.1556/AGeod.45.2010.1.11.From 1856 to 1939, the European Commission of the Danube (ECD), was responsible for technical surveys at the
mouth of Sulina arm. During this period, ECD prepared general maps of Danube Delta as well as detailed charts for
all the Danube mouths: Chilia, Sulina and Sf. Gheorghe (St. George) that were published in various reports or
atlases. ECD used a local grid network benchmarked at Sulina, divided in 500 feet units. The reference point was
the old lighthouse located on the right bank of Danube. After the Second World War, the Romanian authorities
elaborated new cartographical products using the Gauss‐Kruger projection or Stereo‐70 like national grid. Our goal
is to generate a cartographical background database necessary for refining the coastal evolution model of the
Sulina mouth. To handle the large number of available maps, we chose GeoNetwork like a solution for catalog
service, indexing and defining metadata. The service is operating at geo‐spatial.org
X-ray study of the double radio relic galaxy cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301
Content: We present the results from observations of the merging
cluster of galaxies CIZA J2242.8+5301 at =0.192. Aims. To study the physics
of gas heating and particle acceleration in cluster mergers, we investigated
the X-ray emission from CIZA J2242.8+5301, which hosts two giant radio relics
in the northern/southern part of the cluster. Methods. We analyzed data from
three-pointed Suzaku observations of CIZA J2242.8+5301 to derive the
temperature distribution in four different directions. Results: The
Intra-Cluster Medium (ICM) temperature shows a remarkable drop from
8.5 keV to 2.7 keV across the northern radio
relic. The temperature drop is consistent with a Mach number and a shock velocity
. We also confirm the
temperature drop across the southern radio relic. However, the ICM temperature
beyond this relic is much higher than beyond the northern one, which gives a
Mach number and shock velocity
. These results agree with
other systems showing a relationship between the radio relics and shock fronts
which are induced by merging activity. We compare the X-ray derived Mach
numbers with the radio derived Mach numbers from the radio spectral index under
the assumption of diffusive shock acceleration in the linear test particle
regime. For the northern radio relic, the Mach numbers derived from X-ray and
radio observations agree with each other. Based on the shock velocities, we
estimate that CIZA J2242.8+5301 is observed approximately 0.6 Gyr after core
passage. The magnetic field pressure at the northern relic is estimated to be
9% of the thermal pressure.Comment: 12 pages, 10 figures, A&A accepte
Magnetic field evolution in giant radio relics using the example of CIZA J2242.8+5301
Article / Letter to editorSterrewach
The rise and fall of star-formation in merging galaxy clusters
CIZA J2242.8+5301 (`Sausage') and 1RXS J0603.3+4213 (`Toothbrush') are two
low-redshift (), massive (), post-core
passage merging clusters, which host shock waves traced by diffuse radio
emission. To study their star-formation properties, we uniformly survey the
`Sausage' and `Toothbrush' clusters in broad and narrow band filters and select
a sample of and line emitters, down to a rest-frame equivalent
width ({\AA}). We robustly separate between H and higher redshift
emitters using a combination of optical multi-band (B, g, V, r, i, z) and
spectroscopic data. We build H luminosity functions for the entire
cluster region, near the shock fronts, and away from the shock fronts and find
striking differences between the two clusters. In the dynamically younger,
Gyr old `Sausage' cluster we find numerous () H emitters above a
star-formation rate (SFR) of M_{\sun} yr surprisingly located
in close proximity to the shock fronts, embedded in very hot intra-cluster
medium plasma. The SFR density for the cluster population is at least at the
level of typical galaxies at . Down to the same star-formation rate,
the possibly dynamically more evolved `Toothbrush' cluster has only
H galaxies. The cluster H galaxies fall on the SFR-stellar mass
relation for the field. However, the `Sausage' cluster has an
H emitter density times that of blank fields. If the shock passes
through gas-rich cluster galaxies, the compressed gas could collapse into dense
clouds and excite star-formation for a few Myr. This process ultimately
leads to a rapid consumption of the molecular gas, accelerating the
transformation of gas-rich field spirals into cluster S0s or ellipticals.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS after minor referee report. 21
pages, 15 figures, 5 table
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