6,602 research outputs found
Isolated elliptical galaxies in the local Universe
We have studied a sample of 89 very isolated, elliptical galaxies at z < 0.08
and compared their properties with elliptical galaxies located in a
high-density environment such as the Coma supercluster. Our aim is to probe the
role of environment on the morphological transformation and quenching of
elliptical galaxies as a function of mass. In addition, we elucidate the nature
of a particular set of blue and star-forming isolated ellipticals identified
here. We study physical properties of ellipticals such as color, specific star
formation rate, galaxy size, and stellar age, as a function of stellar mass and
environment based on SDSS data. We analyze the blue star-forming isolated
ellipticals in more detail, through photometric characterization using GALFIT,
and infer their star formation history using STARLIGHT. Among the isolated
ellipticals ~ 20% are blue, 8% are star forming, and ~ 10% are recently
quenched, while among the Coma ellipticals ~ 8% are blue and just <= 1% are
star forming or recently quenched. There are four isolated galaxies (~ 4.5%)
that are blue and star forming at the same time. These galaxies, with masses
between 7 x 10^9 and 2 x 10^10 h-2 M_sun, are also the youngest galaxies with
light-weighted stellar ages <= 1 Gyr and exhibit bluer colors toward the galaxy
center. Around 30-60% of their present-day luminosity, but only < 5% of their
present-day mass, is due to star formation in the last 1 Gyr. The processes of
morphological transformation and quenching seem to be in general independent of
environment since most of elliptical galaxies are 'red and dead', although the
transition to the red sequence should be faster for isolated ellipticals. In
some cases, the isolated environment seems to propitiate the rejuvenation of
ellipticals by recent (< 1 Gyr) cold gas accretion.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures (16 pages and 9 figures without appendices).
A&A, in pres
A Multiple System of Radio Sources at the Core of the L723 Multipolar Outflow
We present high angular resolution Very Large Array multi-epoch continuum
observations at 3.6 cm and 7 mm towards the core of the L723 multipolar outflow
revealing a multiple system of four radio sources suspected to be YSOs in a
region of only ~4 arcsecs (1200 AU) in extent. The 3.6 cm observations show
that the previously detected source VLA 2 contains a close (separation ~0.29
arcsecs or ~90 AU) radio binary, with components (A and B) along a position
angle of ~150 degrees. The northern component (VLA 2A) of this binary system is
also detected in the 7 mm observations, with a positive spectral index between
3.6 cm and 7 mm. In addition, the source VLA 2A is associated with extended
emission along a position angle of ~115 degrees, that we interpret as
outflowing shock-ionized gas that is exciting a system of HH objects with the
same position angle. A third, weak 3.6 cm source, VLA 2C, that is detected also
at 7 mm, is located ~0.7 arcsecs northeast of VLA 2A, and is possibly
associated with the water maser emission in the region. The 7 mm observations
reveal the presence of an additional source, VLA 2D, located ~3.5 arcsecs
southeast of VLA 2A, and with a 1.35 mm counterpart. All these radio continuum
sources have a positive spectral index, compatible with them being YSOs. We
also propose that the high velocity CO emission observed in the region could be
the superposition of multiple outflows (at least three independent bipolar
outflows) excited by the YSOs located at the core, instead of the previous
interpretations in terms of only one or two outflows.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal (2007 December
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Pandemic Influenza as 21st Century Urban Public Health Crisis
Responses of Mexico City and New York City in spring 2009 illustrate the importance of advance planning
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