2,859 research outputs found
The Structure and Metallicity Gradient in the Extreme Outer Disk of NGC 7793
Studies of outer regions of spirals disks are fundamental to our
understanding of both the process of galaxy assembly and the subsequent secular
evolution of galaxies. In an earlier series of papers we explored the extent
and abundance gradient in the outer disk of NGC 300 and found an extended
purely exponential disk with a metallicity gradient which flattens off in the
outermost regions. We now continue the study of outskirts of pure disk spirals
with another Sculptor Group spiral, NGC 7793. Using Gemini Multi Object
Spectrograph camera at Gemini South, we trace the disk of NGC 7793 with star
counts out to ~9 scale lengths, corresponding to 11.5 kpc at our calibrated
distance of 3.61+/-0.53 Mpc. The outer disk of NGC 7793 shows no evidence of a
break in its light profile down to an effective surface brightness of ~30
mag/arcsec^2 (~3 mag/arcsec^2 deeper than what has been achieved with surface
photometry) and exhibits a non-negative abundance gradient within the radial
extent of our data.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, ApJ accepte
Isolated Star Formation: A Compact HII Region in the Virgo Cluster
We report on the discovery of an isolated, compact HII region in the Virgo
cluster. The object is located in the diffuse outer halo of NGC 4388, or could
possibly be in intracluster space. Star formation can thus take place far
outside the main star forming regions of galaxies. This object is powered by a
small starburst with an estimated mass of \sim 400\msun and age of \sim
3\myr. From a total sample of 17 HII region candidates, the present rate of
isolated star formation estimated in our Virgo field is small, \sim 10^{-6}
Msun arcmin}^{-2} yr^{-1}. However, this mode of star formation might have
been more important at higher redshifts and be responsible for a fraction of
the observed intracluster stars and total cluster metal production. This object
is relevant also for distance determinations with the planetary nebula
luminosity function from emission line surveys, for high-velocity clouds and
the in situ origin of B stars in the Galactic halo, and for local enrichment of
the intracluster gas by Type II supernovae.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure. ApJ Letters, in press (scheduled Dec 1,
2002
The Properties and Gaseous Environments of Powerful Classical Double Radio Galaxies
The properties of a sample of 31 very powerful classical double radio
galaxies with redshifts between zero and 1.8 are studied. The source
velocities, beam powers, ambient gas densities, total lifetimes, and total
outflow energies are presented and discussed. The rate of growth of each side
of each source were obtained using a spectral aging analysis. The beam power
and ambient gas density were obtained by applying the strong shock jump
conditions to the ends of each side of the source. The total outflow lifetime
was obtained by applying the power-law relationship between the beam power and
the total source lifetime derived elsewhere for sources of this type, and the
total outflow energy was obtained by combining the beam power and the total
source lifetime. Composite profiles were constructed by combining results
obtained from each side of each source. The composite profiles indicate that
the ambient gas density falls with distance from the central engine. The source
velocities, beam powers, total lifetimes, and total energies seem to be
independent of radio source size. This is consistent with the standard model in
which each source grows at a roughly constant rate during which time the
central engine puts out a roughly constant beam power. The fact that the total
source lifetimes and energies are independent of radio source size indicates
that the sources are being sampled at random times during their lifetimes.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, to appear in "Extragalactic Jets: Theory and
Observation from Radio to Gamma Ray", eds. T. A. Rector and D. S. De Young,
ASP conference series, Replaced version has minor textual correction
Extended HI spiral structure and the figure rotation of triaxial dark halos
The HI disk of the blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy NGC 2915 extends to
22 optical scalelengths and shows spiral arms reaching far beyond the optical
component. None of the previous theories for spiral structure provide likely
explanations for these very extended spiral arms. Our numerical simulations
first demonstrate that such large spiral arms can form in an extended gas disk
embedded in a massive triaxial dark matter halo with slow figure rotation,
through the strong gravitational torque of the rotating halo. We then show that
the detailed morphological properties of the developed spirals and rings depend
strongly on the pattern speed of the figure rotation, the shape of the triaxial
halo, and the inclination of the disk with respect to the plane including the
triaxial halo's long and middle axes. These results strongly suggest that the
dark matter halo of NGC 2915 is triaxial and has figure rotation. Based on
these results, we also suggest that dynamical effects of triaxial halos with
figure rotation are important in various aspect of galaxy formation and
evolution, such as formation of polar ring galaxies, excitation of
non-axisymmetric structures in low surface-brightness galaxies, and gas fueling
to the central starburst regions of BCDs.Comment: 13 pages 2 figures (fig.2 = jpg format), accepted by ApJ
The dark matter halo shape of edge-on disk galaxies: IV. UGC 7321
This is the fourth paper in a series in which we attempt to put constraints on the flattening of dark halos in disk galaxies. We observed for this purpose the HI in edge-on galaxies, where it is in principle possible to measure the force field in the halo vertically and radially from gas layer flaring and rotation curve decomposition respectively. As reported in earlier papers in this series we have for this purpose analysed the HI channel maps to accurately measure all four functions that describe as a function of galactocentric radius the planar HI kinematics and 3D HI distribution of a galaxy: the radial HI surface density, the HI vertical thickness, the rotation curve and the HI velocity dispersion. In this paper we analyse these data for the edge-on galaxy UGC 7321. We measured the stellar mass distribution (M=3 × 108 M⊙ with M/LR\la≈ 0.2), finding that the vertical force of the gas disk dominates the stellar disk at all radii. Measurements of both the rotation curve and the vertical force field showed that the vertical force puts a much stronger constraint on the stellar mass-to-light ratio than rotation curve decomposition. Fitting of the vertical force field derived from the flaring of the HI layer and HI velocity dispersion revealed that UGC 7321 has a spherical halo density distribution with a flattening of q = c/a = 1.0 ± 0.1. However, the shape of the vertical force field showed that a non-singular isothermal halo was required, assuming a vertically isothermal HI velocity dispersion. A pseudo-isothermal halo and a gaseous disk with a declining HI velocity dispersion at high latitudes may also fit the vertical force field of UGC 7321, but to date there is no observational evidence that the HI velocity dispersion declines away from the galactic plane. We compare the halo flattening of UGC 7321 with other studies in the literature and discuss its implications. Our result is consistent with new n-body simulations which show that inclusion of hydrodynamical modelling produces more spherical halos
The Planetary Nebula System and Dynamics in the Outer Halo of NGC 5128
The halos of elliptical galaxies are faint and difficult to explore, but they
contain vital clues to both structure and formation. We present the results of
an imaging and spectroscopic survey for planetary nebulae (PNe) in the nearby
elliptical NGC 5128. We extend the work of Hui et al.(1995) well into the halo
of the galaxy--out to distances of 100 and 50 kpc along the major and minor
axes. We now know of 1141 PNe in NGC 5128, 780 of which are confirmed. Of these
780 PNe, 349 are new from this survey, and 148 are at radii beyond 20 kpc. PNe
exist at distances up to 80 kpc (~15 r_e), showing that the stellar halo
extends to the limit of our data. This study represents by far the largest
kinematic study of an elliptical galaxy to date, both in the number of velocity
tracers and in radial extent. We confirm the large rotation of the PNe along
the major axis, and show that it extends in a disk-like feature into the halo.
The rotation curve of the stars flattens at ~100 km/s with V/sigma between 1
and 1.5, and with the velocity dispersion of the PNe falling gradually at
larger radii. The two-dimensional velocity field exhibits a zero-velocity
contour with a pronounced twist, showing that the galaxy potential is likely
triaxial in shape, tending toward prolate. The total dynamical mass of the
galaxy within 80 kpc is ~5 x 10^{11} M_sun, with M/L_B ~ 13. This mass-to-light
ratio is much lower than what is typically expected for elliptical galaxies.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures (figures 3-8 best viewed in color), accepted for
publication in the Astrophysical Journa
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