772 research outputs found
Dust penetrated morphology in the high redshift Universe
Images from the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) North and South show a large
percentage of dusty, high redshift galaxies whose appearance falls outside
traditional classification systems. The nature of these objects is not yet
fully understood. Since the HDF preferentially samples restframe UV light, HDF
morphologies are not dust or `mask' penetrated. The appearance of high redshift
galaxies at near-infrared restframes remains a challenge for the New
Millennium. The Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) could routinely provide
us with such images. In this contribution, we quantitatively determine the
dust-penetrated structures of high redshift galaxies such as NGC 922 in their
near-infrared restframes. We show that such optically peculiar objects may
readily be classified using the dust penetrated z ~ 0 templates of Block and
Puerari (1999) and Buta and Block (2001).Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. Presented at the conference "The Link between
Stars and Cosmology", 26-30 March, 2001, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. To be
published by Kluwer, eds. M. Chavez, A. Bressan, A. Buzzoni, and D. Mayya.
High-resolution version of Figure 2 can be found at
http://www.inaoep.mx/~puerari/conf_puertovallart
Quantifying Bar Strength: Morphology Meets Methodology
A set of objective bar-classification methods have been applied to the Ohio
State Bright Spiral Galaxy Survey (Eskridge et al. 2002). Bivariate comparisons
between methods show that all methods agree in a statistical sense. Thus the
distribution of bar strengths in a sample of galaxies can be robustly
determined. There are very substantial outliers in all bivariate comparisons.
Examination of the outliers reveals that the scatter in the bivariate
comparisons correlates with galaxy morphology. Thus multiple measures of bar
strength provide a means of studying the range of physical properties of galaxy
bars in an objective statistical sense.Comment: LaTeX with Kluwer style file, 5 pages with 3 embedded figures. edited
by Block, D.L., Freeman, K.C., Puerari, I., & Groess,
Using Bars As Signposts of Galaxy Evolution at High and Low Redshifts
An analysis of the NICMOS Deep Field shows that there is no evidence of a
decline in the bar fraction beyond z~0.7, as previously claimed; both
bandshifting and spatial resolution must be taken into account when evaluating
the evolution of the bar fraction. Two main caveats of this study were a lack
of a proper comparison sample at low redshifts and a larger number of galaxies
at high redshifts. We address these caveats using two new studies. For a proper
local sample, we have analyzed 134 spirals in the near-infrared using 2MASS
(main results presented by Menendez-Delmestre in this volume) which serves as
an ideal anchor for the low-redshift Universe. In addition to measuring the
mean bar properties, we find that bar size is correlated with galaxy size and
brightness, but the bar ellipticity is not correlated with these galaxy
properties. The bar length is not correlated with the bar ellipticity. For
larger high redshift samples we analyze the bar fraction from the 2-square
degree COSMOS ACS survey. We find that the bar fraction at z~0.7 is ~50%,
consistent with our earlier finding of no decline in bar fraction at high
redshifts.Comment: In the proceedings of "Penetrating Bars through Masks of Cosmic Dust:
The Hubble Tuning Fork strikes a New Note
Edible crabs “Go West”: migrations and incubation cycle of Cancer pagurus revealed by electronic tags
Crustaceans are key components of marine ecosystems which, like other exploited marine taxa, show seasonable patterns of distribution and activity, with consequences for their availability to capture by targeted fisheries. Despite concerns over the sustainability of crab fisheries worldwide, difficulties in observing crabs’ behaviour over their annual cycles, and the timings and durations of reproduction, remain poorly understood. From the release of 128 mature female edible crabs tagged with electronic data storage tags (DSTs), we demonstrate predominantly westward migration in the English Channel. Eastern Channel crabs migrated further than western Channel crabs, while crabs released outside the Channel showed little or no migration. Individual migrations were punctuated by a 7-month hiatus, when crabs remained stationary, coincident with the main period of crab spawning and egg incubation. Incubation commenced earlier in the west, from late October onwards, and brooding locations, determined using tidal geolocation, occurred throughout the species range. With an overall return rate of 34%, our results demonstrate that previous reluctance to tag crabs with relatively high-cost DSTs for fear of loss following moulting is unfounded, and that DSTs can generate precise information with regards life-history metrics that would be unachievable using other conventional means
The role of glacier mice in the invertebrate colonisation of glacial surfaces: the moss balls of the Falljökull, Iceland
Glacier surfaces have a surprisingly complex ecology. Cryoconite holes contain diverse invertebrate communities while other invertebrates, such as Collembola often graze on algae and windblown dead organic on the glacier surface. Glacier mice (ovoid unattached moss balls) occur on some glaciers worldwide. Studies of these glacier mice have concentrated on their occurrence and mode of formation. There are no reports of the invertebrate communities. But, such glacier mice may provide a suitable favourable habitat and refuge for a variety of invertebrate groups to colonise the glacier surface. Here we describe the invertebrate fauna of the glacier mice (moss balls) of the Falljökull, Iceland. The glacier mice were composed of Racomitrium sp. and varied in size from 8.0 to 10.0 cm in length. All glacier mice studied contained invertebrates. Two species of Collembola were present. Pseudisotoma sensibilis (Tullberg, 1876) was numerically dominant with between 12 and 73 individuals per glacier mouse while Desoria olivacea (Tullberg, 1871) occurred but in far lower numbers. Tardigrada and Nematoda had mean densities of approximately 200 and 1,000 respectively. No Acari, Arachnida or Enchytraeidae were observed which may be related to the difficulty these groups have in colonizing the glacier mice. We suggest that glacier mice provide an unusual environmentally ameliorated microhabitat for an invertebrate community dwelling on a glacial surface. The glacier mice thereby enable an invertebrate fauna to colonise an otherwise largely inhospitable location with implications for carbon flow in the system
Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Alcoholics
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66229/1/j.1530-0277.1999.tb04034.x.pd
Turbulence and galactic structure
Interstellar turbulence is driven over a wide range of scales by processes
including spiral arm instabilities and supernovae, and it affects the rate and
morphology of star formation, energy dissipation, and angular momentum transfer
in galaxy disks. Star formation is initiated on large scales by gravitational
instabilities which control the overall rate through the long dynamical time
corresponding to the average ISM density. Stars form at much higher densities
than average, however, and at much faster rates locally, so the slow average
rate arises because the fraction of the gas mass that forms stars at any one
time is low, ~10^{-4}. This low fraction is determined by turbulence
compression, and is apparently independent of specific cloud formation
processes which all operate at lower densities. Turbulence compression also
accounts for the formation of most stars in clusters, along with the cluster
mass spectrum, and it gives a hierarchical distribution to the positions of
these clusters and to star-forming regions in general. Turbulent motions appear
to be very fast in irregular galaxies at high redshift, possibly having speeds
equal to several tenths of the rotation speed in view of the morphology of
chain galaxies and their face-on counterparts. The origin of this turbulence is
not evident, but some of it could come from accretion onto the disk. Such high
turbulence could help drive an early epoch of gas inflow through viscous
torques in galaxies where spiral arms and bars are weak. Such evolution may
lead to bulge or bar formation, or to bar re-formation if a previous bar
dissolved. We show evidence that the bar fraction is about constant with
redshift out to z~1, and model the formation and destruction rates of bars
required to achieve this constancy.Comment: in: Penetrating Bars through Masks of Cosmic Dust: The Hubble Tuning
Fork strikes a New Note, Eds., K. Freeman, D. Block, I. Puerari, R. Groess,
Dordrecht: Kluwer, in press (presented at a conference in South Africa, June
7-12, 2004). 19 pgs, 5 figure
Secular Evolution and the Formation of Pseudobulges in Disk Galaxies
We review internal processes of secular evolution in galaxy disks,
concentrating on the buildup of dense central features that look like
classical, merger-built bulges but that were made slowly out of disk gas. We
call these pseudobulges. As an existence proof, we review how bars rearrange
disk gas into outer rings, inner rings, and gas dumped into the center. In
simulations, this gas reaches high densities that plausibly feed star
formation. In the observations, many SB and oval galaxies show central
concentrations of gas and star formation. Star formation rates imply plausible
pseudobulge growth times of a few billion years. If secular processes built
dense central components that masquerade as bulges, can we distinguish them
from merger-built bulges? Observations show that pseudobulges retain a memory
of their disky origin. They have one or more characteristics of disks: (1)
flatter shapes than those of classical bulges, (2) large ratios of ordered to
random velocities indicative of disk dynamics, (3) small velocity dispersions,
(4) spiral structure or nuclear bars in the bulge part of the light profile,
(5) nearly exponential brightness profiles, and (6) starbursts. These
structures occur preferentially in barred and oval galaxies in which secular
evolution should be rapid. So the cleanest examples of pseudobulges are
recognizable. Thus a large variety of observational and theoretical results
contribute to a new picture of galaxy evolution that complements hierarchical
clustering and merging.Comment: 92 pages, 21 figures in 30 Postscript files; to appear in Annual
Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 42, 2004, in press; for a version
with full resolution figures, see
http://chandra.as.utexas.edu/~kormendy/ar3ss.htm
Cold gas accretion in galaxies
Evidence for the accretion of cold gas in galaxies has been rapidly
accumulating in the past years. HI observations of galaxies and their
environment have brought to light new facts and phenomena which are evidence of
ongoing or recent accretion:
1) A large number of galaxies are accompanied by gas-rich dwarfs or are
surrounded by HI cloud complexes, tails and filaments. It may be regarded as
direct evidence of cold gas accretion in the local universe. It is probably the
same kind of phenomenon of material infall as the stellar streams observed in
the halos of our galaxy and M31. 2) Considerable amounts of extra-planar HI
have been found in nearby spiral galaxies. While a large fraction of this gas
is produced by galactic fountains, it is likely that a part of it is of
extragalactic origin. 3) Spirals are known to have extended and warped outer
layers of HI. It is not clear how these have formed, and how and for how long
the warps can be sustained. Gas infall has been proposed as the origin. 4) The
majority of galactic disks are lopsided in their morphology as well as in their
kinematics. Also here recent accretion has been advocated as a possible cause.
In our view, accretion takes place both through the arrival and merging of
gas-rich satellites and through gas infall from the intergalactic medium (IGM).
The infall may have observable effects on the disk such as bursts of star
formation and lopsidedness. We infer a mean ``visible'' accretion rate of cold
gas in galaxies of at least 0.2 Msol/yr. In order to reach the accretion rates
needed to sustain the observed star formation (~1 Msol/yr), additional infall
of large amounts of gas from the IGM seems to be required.Comment: To appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics Reviews. 34 pages.
Full-resolution version available at
http://www.astron.nl/~oosterlo/accretionRevie
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