3,774 research outputs found
Detection of CO in Triton's atmosphere and the nature of surface-atmosphere interactions
Triton possesses a thin atmosphere, primarily composed of nitrogen, sustained
by the sublimation of surface ices. The goal is to determine the composition of
Triton's atmosphere and to constrain the nature of surface-atmosphere
interactions. We perform high-resolution spectroscopic observations in the
2.32-2.37 m range, using CRIRES at the VLT. From this first spectroscopic
detection of Triton's atmosphere in the infrared, we report (i) the first
observation of gaseous methane since its discovery in the ultraviolet by
Voyager in 1989 and (ii) the first ever detection of gaseous CO in the
satellite. The CO atmospheric abundance is remarkably similar to its surface
abundance, and appears to be controlled by a thin, CO-enriched, surface veneer
resulting from seasonal transport and/or atmospheric escape. The CH partial
pressure is several times larger than inferred from Voyager. This confirms that
Triton's atmosphere is seasonally variable and is best interpreted by the
warming of CH-rich icy grains as Triton passed southern summer solstice in
2000. The presence of CO in Triton's atmosphere also affects its temperature,
photochemistry and ionospheric composition. An improved upper limit on CO in
Pluto's atmosphere is also reported.Comment: 11 pages, including 4 figures and 2 on-line figures Astronomy and
Astrophysics, in press (accepted March 13, 2010
Globular Clusters and Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
Traditionally globular clusters and dwarf spheroidal galaxies have been
distinguished by using one or more of the following criteria: (1) mass, (2)
luminosity, (3) size, (4) mass-to-light ratio and (5) spread in metallicity.
However, a few recently discovered objects show some overlap between the
domains in parameter space that are occupied by galaxies and clusters. In the
present note it is shown that ellipticity can, in some cases, be used to help
distinguish between globular clusters and dwarf spheroidal galaxies.Comment: MNRAS (Letters), in pres
The Effect of Environment on the X-Ray Emission from Early-Type Galaxies
In order to help understand the phenomena of X-ray emission from early-type
galaxies, we obtained an optically flux-limited sample of 34 early-type
galaxies, observed with ROSAT. A previous analysis of this sample suggested
that the most X-ray luminous galaxies were in rich environments. Here we
investigate environmental influences quantitatively, and find a positive
correlation between L_B/L_X and the local galaxy density. We suggest that this
correlation occurs because the X-ray luminosity is enhanced either through
accretion of the intergalactic gas or because the ambient medium stifles
galactic winds. When the ambient medium is unimportant, partial or global
galactic winds can occur, reducing L_B/L_X. These effects lead to the large
observed dispersion in L_X at fixed L_B. We argue that the transition from
global winds to partial winds is one of the principle reasons for the steep
relationship between L_X and L_B. We discuss details of the data reduction not
previously presented, and examine the dependence of L_X on the choice of outer
source radius and background location. Effects of Malmquist bias are shown not
to be important for the issues addressed. Finally, we compare the temperature
deduced for these galaxies from different analyses of ROSAT and ASCA data.Comment: 29 pages, including 6 figures (ps); AASTeX 12pt,aaspp4 format;
submitted to Ap
Diameters of Open Star Clusters
The present paper presents a tabulation of data on all 600 Galactic open
clusters for which it is presently possible to calculate linear diameters. As
expected, the youngest `clusters' with ages < 15 Myr, contain a significant
(greater than or equal to 20%) admixture of associations. Among
intermediate-age clusters, with ages in the range 15 Myr to 1.5 Gyr, the median
cluster diameter is found to increase with age. Small compact clusters are rare
among objects with ages > 1.5 Gyr. Open clusters with ages > 1 Gyr appear to
form what might be termed a `cluster thick disk', part of which consistst of
objects that were probably captured gravitationally by the main body of the
Galaxy.Comment: Astronomical Journal, in pres
Some Systematics of Galactic Globular Clusters
The global properties of all known Galactic globular clusters are examined.
The relationship between the luminosities and the metallicities of Galactic
globular clusters is found to be complex. Among luminous clusters there is a
correlation in the sense that the oldest clusters are slightly more metal
deficient than are younger clusters. However, no such clear-cut relationship is
found among the faintest globular clusters. The central concentration index C
of globular clusters is seen to be independent of metallicity. The dependence
of the half-light radii of globular clusters on their Galactocentric distances
can be approximated by the relation . Clusters with
collapsed cores are mostly situated close to the Galactic nucleus. For kpc the luminosities and the radii of clusters appear to be uncorrelated.
The Galaxy differs from the LMC and the SMC in that it appears to lack highly
flattened luminous clusters. Galactic globular clusters with ages 13.0
Gyr are all of Oosterhoff type II, whereas almost all of those with ages
13.0 Gyr have been assigned to Oosterhoff type I. Globular clusters with ages
11.5 Gyr are all located in the outer Galactic halo, have below-average
luminosities and above-average radii. On the other hand the very old globular
cluster NGC 6522 is situated close to the Galactic nucleus.Comment: PASP, in pres
Silent universes with a cosmological constant
We study non-degenerate (Petrov type I) silent universes in the presence of a
non-vanishing cosmological constant L. In contrast to the L=0 case, for which
the orthogonally spatially homogeneous Bianchi type I metrics most likely are
the only admissible metrics, solutions are shown to exist when L is positive.
The general solution is presented for the case where one of the eigenvalues of
the expansion tensor is 0.Comment: 11 pages; several typos corrected which were still present in CGQ
version; minor change
The Properties of Poor Groups of Galaxies: III. The Galaxy Luminosity Function
We obtain R-band photometry for galaxies in six nearby poor groups for which
we have spectroscopic data, including 328 new galaxy velocities. For the five
groups with luminous X-ray halos, the composite group galaxy luminosity
function (GLF) is fit adequately by a Schechter function with Mstar = -21.6 +/-
0.4 + 5log h and alpha = -1.3 +/- 0.1. We also find that (1) the ratio of
dwarfs to giants is significantly larger for the five groups with luminous
X-ray halos than for the one marginally X-ray detected group, (2) the composite
GLF for the luminous X-ray groups is consistent in shape with that for rich
clusters, (3) the composite group GLF rises more steeply at the faint end than
that of the field, (4) the shape difference between the field and composite
group GLF's results mostly from the population of non-emission line galaxies,
whose dwarf-to-giant ratio is larger in the denser group environment than in
the field, and (5) the non-emission line dwarfs are more concentrated about the
group center than the non-emission line giants. This last result indicates that
the dwarfs and giants occupy different orbits (i.e., have not mixed completely)
and suggests that the populations formed at a different times. Our results show
that the shape of the GLF varies with environment and that this variation is
due primarily to an increase in the dwarf-to-giant ratio of quiescent galaxies
in higher density regions, at least up to the densities characteristic of X-ray
luminous poor groups. This behavior suggests that, in some environments, dwarfs
are more biased than giants with respect to dark matter. This trend conflicts
with the prediction of standard biased galaxy formation models. (Abridged)Comment: 36 pages, AASLaTeX with 8 figures. Table 1 also available at
http://atropos.as.arizona.edu/aiz/papers/all_grp_lf_ascii.dat.final . To
appear in Ap
A Survey for Low-Surface-Brightness Galaxies Around M31. I. The Newly Discovered Dwarf Andromeda V
We present images and a color-magnitude diagram for And V, a new dwarf
spheroidal companion to M31 that was found using a digital filtering technique
applied to 1550 square degrees of the second Palomar Sky Survey. And V resolves
into stars easily in follow-up 4-m V- and I-band images, from which we deduce a
distance of 810 +/- 45 kpc using the tip of the red giant branch method. Within
the uncertainties, this distance is identical to the Population II distances
for M31 and, combined with a projected separation of 112 kpc, provides strong
support for a physical association between the two galaxies. There is no
emission from And V detected in H alpha, 1.4 GHz radio continuum, or IRAS
bandpasses, and there is no young population seen in the color-magnitude
diagram that might suggest that And V is an irregular. Thus, the classification
as a new dwarf spheroidal member of the Local Group seems secure. With an
extinction-corrected central surface brightness of 25.2 V mag per square
arcsec, a mean metal abundance of [Fe/H] approximately -1.5, and no evidence
for upper AGB stars, And V resembles And I & III.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal, November 1998
issue; 4 embedded PostScript figures, 4 JPEG figures; see
http://aloe.tuc.noao.edu/jacoby/dwarfs.html for a complete full-resolution
PostScript versio
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