The radial abundance gradient of oxygen towards the Galactic anticentre

We present deep optical spectroscopy of eight HII regions located in the anticentre of the Milky Way. The spectra were obtained at the 10.4m GTC and 8.2m VLT. We determined Te([NII]) for all objects and Te([OIII]) for six of them. We also included in our analysis an additional sample of 13 inner-disc Galactic Hii regions from the literature that have excellent T_e determinations. We adopted the same methodology and atomic dataset to determine the physical conditions and ionic abundances for both samples. We also detected the CII and OII optical recombination lines in Sh 2-100, which enables determination of the abundance discrepancy factor for this object. We found that the slopes of the radial oxygen gradients defined by the HII regions from R_25 (= 11.5 kpc) to 17 kpc and those within R_25 are similar within the uncertainties, indicating the absence of flattening in the radial oxygen gradient in the outer Milky Way. In general, we found that the scatter of the O/H ratios of Hii regions is not substantially larger than the observational uncertainties. The largest possible local inhomogeneities of the oxygen abundances are of the order of 0.1 dex. We also found positive radial gradients in Te([O III]) and Te([N II]) across the Galactic disc. The shapes of these temperature gradients are similar and also consistent with the absence of flattening of the metallicity distribution in the outer Galactic disc.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

The Properties of H{\alpha} Emission-Line Galaxies at z = 2.24

Using deep narrow-band $H_2S1$ and $K_{s}$-band imaging data obtained with CFHT/WIRCam, we identify a sample of 56 H$\alpha$ emission-line galaxies (ELGs) at $z=2.24$ with the 5$\sigma$ depths of $H_2S1=22.8$ and $K_{s}=24.8$ (AB) over 383 arcmin$^{2}$ area in the ECDFS. A detailed analysis is carried out with existing multi-wavelength data in this field. Three of the 56 H$\alpha$ ELGs are detected in Chandra 4 Ms X-ray observation and two of them are classified as AGNs. The rest-frame UV and optical morphologies revealed by HST/ACS and WFC3 deep images show that nearly half of the H$\alpha$ ELGs are either merging systems or with a close companion, indicating that the merging/interacting processes play a key role in regulating star formation at cosmic epoch z=2-3; About 14% are too faint to be resolved in the rest-frame UV morphology due to high dust extinction. We estimate dust extinction from SEDs. We find that dust extinction is generally correlated with H$\alpha$ luminosity and stellar mass (SM). Our results suggest that H$\alpha$ ELGs are representative of star-forming galaxies (SFGs). Applying extinction correction for individual objects, we examine the intrinsic H$\alpha$ luminosity function (LF) at $z=2.24$, obtaining a best-fit Schechter function characterized by a faint-end slope of $\alpha=-1.3$. This is shallower than the typical slope of $\alpha \sim -1.6$ in previous works based on constant extinction correction. We demonstrate that this difference is mainly due to the different extinction corrections. The proper extinction correction is thus key to recovering the intrinsic LF as the extinction globally increases with H$\alpha$ luminosity. Moreover, we find that our H$\alpha$ LF mirrors the SM function of SFGs at the same cosmic epoch. This finding indeed reflects the tight correlation between SFR and SM for the SFGs, i.e., the so-called main sequence.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, 2 tables, Received 2013 October 11; accepted 2014 February 13; published 2014 March 18 by Ap

An innovative high accuracy autonomous navigation method for the Mars rovers

Autonomous navigation is an important function for a Mars rover to fulfill missions successfully. It is a critical technique to overcome the limitations of ground tracking and control traditionally used. This paper proposes an innovative method based on SINS (Strapdown Inertial Navigation System) with the aid of star sensors to accurately determine the rovers position and attitude. This method consists of two parts: the initial alignment and navigation. The alignment consists of a coarse position and attitude initial alignment approach and fine initial alignment approach. The coarse one is used to determine approximate position and attitude for the rover. This is followed by fine alignment to tune the approximate solution to accurate one. Upon the completion of initial alignment, the system can be used to provide real-time navigation solutions for the rover. An autonomous navigation algorithm is proposed to estimate and compensate the accumulated errors of SINS in real time. High accuracy attitude information from star sensor is used to correct errors in SINS. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed methods can achieve a high precision autonomous navigation for Mars rovers. © 2014 IAA

The Serpens filament: at the onset of slightly supercritical collapse

The Serpens filament, as one of the nearest infrared dark clouds, is regarded as a pristine filament at a very early evolutionary stage of star formation. In order to study its molecular content and dynamical state, we mapped this filament in seven species. Among them, HCO$^{+}$, HNC, HCN, and CS show self-absorption, while C$^{18}$O is most sensitive to the filamentary structure. A kinematic analysis demonstrates that this filament forms a velocity-coherent (trans-)sonic structure, a large part of which is one of the most quiescent regions in the Serpens cloud. Widespread C$^{18}$O depletion is found throughout the Serpens filament. Based on the Herschel dust-derived H$_{2}$ column density map, the line mass of the filament is 36--41~M$_{\odot}$~pc$^{-1}$, and its full width at half maximum is 0.17$\pm$0.01~pc, while its length is ~1.6~pc. The inner radial column density profile of this filament can be well fitted with a Plummer profile with an exponent of 2.2$\pm$0.1, a scale radius of $0.018\pm 0.003$ pc, and a central density of $(4.0\pm 0.8)\times 10^{4}$~cm$^{-3}$. The Serpens filament appears to be slightly supercritical. The widespread blue-skewed HNC and CS line profiles and HCN hyperfine line anomalies across this filament indicate radial infall in parts of the Serpens filament. C$^{18}$O velocity gradients also indicate accretion flows along the filament. The velocity and density structures suggest that such accretion flows are likely due to a longitudinal collapse parallel to the filament's long axis. Both the radial infall rate and the longitudinal accretion rate along the Serpens filament are lower than all previously reported values in other filaments. This indicates that the Serpens filament lies at an early evolutionary stage when collapse has just begun, or that thermal and non-thermal support are effective in providing support against gravity.Comment: 22 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in A&A; for the draft showing figures with full resolution, see http://gongyan2444.github.io/pdf/absfil.pd