Five supernova survey galaxies in the southern hemisphere. I. Optical and near-infrared database

The determination of the supernova (SN) rate is based not only on the number of detected events, but also on the properties of the parent galaxy population. This is the first paper of a series aimed at obtaining new, refined, SN rates from a set of five SN surveys, by making use of a joint analysis of near-infrared (NIR) data. We describe the properties of the 3838 galaxies that were monitored for SNe events, including newly determined morphologies and their DENIS and POSS-II/UKST I, 2MASS and DENIS J and Ks and 2MASS H magnitudes. We have compared 2MASS, DENIS and POSS-II/UKST IJK magnitudes in order to find possible systematic photometric shifts in the measurements. The DENIS and POSS-II/UKST I band magnitudes show large discrepancies (mean absolute difference of 0.4 mag), mostly due to different spectral responses of the two instruments, with an important contribution (0.33 mag rms) from the large uncertainties in the photometric calibration of the POSS-II and UKST photographic plates. In the other wavebands, the limiting near infrared magnitude, morphology and inclination of the galaxies are the most influential factors which affect the determination of photometry of the galaxies. Nevertheless, no significant systematic differences have been found between of any pair of NIR magnitude measurements, except for a few percent of galaxies showing large discrepancies. This allows us to combine DENIS and 2MASS data for the J and Ks filters.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables, published in Astrophysics, Vol. 52, No. 1, 2009 (English translation of Astrofizika

An Over-Massive Black Hole in the Compact Lenticular Galaxy NGC1277

All massive galaxies likely have supermassive black holes at their centers, and the masses of the black holes are known to correlate with properties of the host galaxy bulge component. Several explanations have been proposed for the existence of these locally-established empirical relationships; they include the non-causal, statistical process of galaxy-galaxy merging, direct feedback between the black hole and its host galaxy, or galaxy-galaxy merging and the subsequent violent relaxation and dissipation. The empirical scaling relations are thus important for distinguishing between various theoretical models of galaxy evolution, and they further form the basis for all black hole mass measurements at large distances. In particular, observations have shown that the mass of the black hole is typically 0.1% of the stellar bulge mass of the galaxy. The small galaxy NGC4486B currently has the largest published fraction of its mass in a black hole at 11%. Here we report observations of the stellar kinematics of NGC 1277, which is a compact, disky galaxy with a mass of 1.2 x 10^11 Msun. From the data, we determine that the mass of the central black hole is 1.7 x 10^10 Msun, or 59% its bulge mass. Five other compact galaxies have properties similar to NGC 1277 and therefore may also contain over-sized black holes. It is not yet known if these galaxies represent a tail of a distribution, or if disk-dominated galaxies fail to follow the normal black hole mass scaling relations.Comment: 7 pages. 6 figures. Nature. Animation at http://www.mpia.de/~bosch/blackholes.htm

A catalog of Kazarian galaxies

The entire Kazarian galaxies (KG) catalog is presented which combines extensive new measurements of their optical parameters with a literature and database search. The measurements were made using images extracted from the STScI Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) of Jpg(blue), Fpg(red) and Ipg(NIR) band photographic sky survey plates obtained by the Palomar and UK Schmidt telescopes. We provide accurate coordinates, morphological type, spectral and activity classes, blue apparent diameters, axial ratios, position angles, red, blue and NIR apparent magnitudes, as well as counts of neighboring objects in a circle of radius 50 kpc from centers of KG. Special attention was paid to the individual descriptions of the galaxies in the original Kazarian lists, which clarified many cases of misidentifications of the objects, particularly among interacting systems. The total number of individual Kazarian objects in the database is now 706. We also include the redshifts which are now available for 404 galaxies and the 2MASS infrared magnitudes for 598 KG. The database also includes extensive notes, which summarize information about the membership of KG in different systems of galaxies, and about revised activity classes and redshifts. An atlas of several interesting subclasses of KG is also presented.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, Accepted in Astrophysics, Vol. 53, No. 1, 2010 (English translation of Astrofizika

The CatWISE Preliminary Catalog: Motions from WISE and NEOWISE Data

CatWISE is a program to catalog sources selected from combined WISE and NEOWISE all-sky survey data at 3.4 and 4.6 μm (W1 and W2). The CatWISE Preliminary Catalog consists of 900,849,014 sources measured in data collected from 2010 to 2016. This data set represents four times as many exposures and spans over 10 times as large a time baseline as that used for the AllWISE Catalog. CatWISE adapts AllWISE software to measure the sources in coadded images created from six-month subsets of these data, each representing one coverage of the inertial sky, or epoch. The catalog includes the measured motion of sources in eight epochs over the 6.5 yr span of the data. From comparison to Spitzer, signal-to-noise ratio = 5 limits in magnitudes in the Vega system are W1 = 17.67 and W2 = 16.47, compared to W1 = 16.96 and W2 = 16.02 for AllWISE. From comparison to Gaia, CatWISE positions have typical accuracies of 50 mas for stars at W1 = 10 mag and 275 mas for stars at W1 = 15.5 mag. Proper motions have typical accuracies of 10 mas yr⁻¹ and 30 mas yr⁻¹ for stars with these brightnesses, an order of magnitude better than from AllWISE. The catalog is available in the WISE/NEOWISE Enhanced and Contributed Products area of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive

Germline MC1R status influences somatic mutation burden in melanoma

The major genetic determinants of cutaneous melanoma risk in the general population are disruptive variants (R alleles) in the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene. These alleles are also linked to red hair, freckling, and sun sensitivity, all of which are known melanoma phenotypic risk factors. Here we report that in melanomas and for somatic C>T mutations, a signature linked to sun exposure, the expected single-nucleotide variant count associated with the presence of an R allele is estimated to be 42% (95% CI, 15-76%) higher than that among persons without an R allele. This figure is comparable to the expected mutational burden associated with an additional 21 years of age. We also find significant and similar enrichment of non-C>T mutation classes supporting a role for additional mutagenic processes in melanoma development in individuals carrying R alleles

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The Bright Void Galaxy Population in the Optical and Mid-IR

We examine the properties of galaxies in the Galaxies and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey located in voids with radii $>10~h^{-1}$ Mpc. Utilising the GAMA equatorial survey, 592 void galaxies are identified out to z~0.1 brighter than $M_{r} = -18.4$, our magnitude completeness limit. Using the $W_{\rm{H\alpha}}$ vs. [NII]/H$\alpha$ (WHAN) line strength diagnostic diagram, we classify their spectra as star forming, AGN, or dominated by old stellar populations. For objects more massive than $5\times10^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$, we identify a sample of 26 void galaxies with old stellar populations classed as passive and retired galaxies in the WHAN diagnostic diagram, else they lack any emission lines in their spectra. When matched to WISE mid-IR photometry, these passive and retired galaxies exhibit a range of mid-IR colour, with a number of void galaxies exhibiting [4.6]-[12] colours inconsistent with completely quenched stellar populations, with a similar spread in colour seen for a randomly drawn non-void comparison sample. We hypothesise that a number of these galaxies host obscured star formation, else they are star forming outside of their central regions targeted for single fibre spectroscopy. When matched to a randomly drawn sample of non-void galaxies, the void and non-void galaxies exhibit similar properties in terms of optical and mid-IR colour, morphology, and star formation activity, suggesting comparable mass assembly and quenching histories. A trend in mid-IR [4.6]-[12] colour is seen, such that both void and non-void galaxies with quenched/passive colours <1.5 typically have masses higher than $10^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$, where internally driven processes play an increasingly important role in galaxy evolution

Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The Bright Void Galaxy Population in the Optical and Mid-IR

We examine the properties of galaxies in the Galaxies and Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey located in voids with radii $>10~h^{-1}$ Mpc. Utilising the GAMA equatorial survey, 592 void galaxies are identified out to z~0.1 brighter than $M_{r} = -18.4$, our magnitude completeness limit. Using the $W_{\rm{H\alpha}}$ vs. [NII]/H$\alpha$ (WHAN) line strength diagnostic diagram, we classify their spectra as star forming, AGN, or dominated by old stellar populations. For objects more massive than $5\times10^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$, we identify a sample of 26 void galaxies with old stellar populations classed as passive and retired galaxies in the WHAN diagnostic diagram, else they lack any emission lines in their spectra. When matched to WISE mid-IR photometry, these passive and retired galaxies exhibit a range of mid-IR colour, with a number of void galaxies exhibiting [4.6]-[12] colours inconsistent with completely quenched stellar populations, with a similar spread in colour seen for a randomly drawn non-void comparison sample. We hypothesise that a number of these galaxies host obscured star formation, else they are star forming outside of their central regions targeted for single fibre spectroscopy. When matched to a randomly drawn sample of non-void galaxies, the void and non-void galaxies exhibit similar properties in terms of optical and mid-IR colour, morphology, and star formation activity, suggesting comparable mass assembly and quenching histories. A trend in mid-IR [4.6]-[12] colour is seen, such that both void and non-void galaxies with quenched/passive colours <1.5 typically have masses higher than $10^{10}$ M$_{\odot}$, where internally driven processes play an increasingly important role in galaxy evolution

Calibration of ultraviolet, mid-infrared and radio star formation rate indicators

We present calibrations for star formation rate indicators in the ultraviolet, mid-infrared and radio continuum bands, including one of the first direct calibrations of 150 MHz as a star formation rate indicator. Our calibrations utilize 66 nearby star forming galaxies with Balmer decrement corrected H-alpha luminosities, which span 5 orders of magnitude in star formation rate and have absolute magnitudes of -24<M_r<-12. Most of our photometry and spectrophotometry is measured from the same region of each galaxy, and our spectrophotometry has been validated with SDSS photometry, so our random and systematic errors are small relative to the intrinsic scatter seen in star formation rate indicator calibrations. We find WISE W4 (22.8 micron), Spitzer 24 micron and 1.4 GHz have tight correlations with Balmer decrement corrected H-alpha luminosity, with scatter of only 0.2 dex. Our calibrations are comparable to those from the prior literature for L* galaxies, but for dwarf galaxies our calibrations can give star formation rates that are far greater than those derived from much of the prior literature.M.J.I.B. acknowledges financial support from The Australian Research Council (FT100100280), the Monash Research Accelerator Program (MRA), the Monash Outside Studies Programme (OSP), and the University of Cambridge. Part of this work was undertaken while M.J.I.B. was on OSP (sabbatical) leave at the University of Cambridge, Swinburne University, and the University of Melbourne. M.B. was supported by the MINEDUC-UA project, code ANT 1655. Funding for SDSS-III has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The SDSS-III Web site is http://www.sdss3.org/. SDSS-III is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions of the SDSS-III Collaboration including the University of Arizona, the Brazilian Participation Group, Brookhaven National Laboratory, University of Cambridge, University of Florida, the French Participation Group, the German Participation Group, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, the Michigan State/Notre Dame/JINA Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, New Mexico State University, New York University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the Spanish Participation Group, University of Tokyo, University of Utah, Vanderbilt University, University of Virginia, University of Washington, and Yale University. The NASA-Sloan Atlas was created by Michael Blanton, with extensive help and testing from Eyal Kazin, Guangtun Zhu, Adrian Price-Whelan, John Moustakas, Demitri Muna, Renbin Yan, and Benjamin Weaver. Funding for the NASA-Sloan Atlas has been provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program (08-ADP08-0072) and the NSF (AST-1211644)

The Second Byurakan Survey Galaxies. I. The Optical Database

A database for the entire catalog of the Second Byurakan Survey (SBS) galaxies is presented. It contains new measurements of their optical parameters and additional information taken from the literature and other databases. The measurements were made using Ipg(near-infrared), Fpg(red) and Jpg(blue) band images from photographic sky survey plates obtained by the Palomar Schmidt telescope and extracted from the STScI Digital Sky Survey (DSS). The database provides accurate coordinates, morphological type, spectral and activity classes, apparent magnitudes and diameters, axial ratios, and position angles, as well as number counts of neighboring objects in a circle of radius 50 kpc. The total number of individual SBS objects in the database is now 1676. The 188 Markarian galaxies which were re-discovered by SBS are not included in this database. We also include redshifts that are now available for 1576 SBS objects, as well as 2MASS infrared magnitudes for 1117 SBS galaxies.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

A combined computational and experimental investigation of the [2Fe–2S] cluster in biotin synthase

Biotin synthase was the first example of what is now regarded as a distinctive enzyme class within the radical S-adenosylmethionine superfamily, the members of which use Fe/S clusters as the sulphur source in radical sulphur insertion reactions. The crystal structure showed that this enzyme contains a [2Fe–2S] cluster with a highly unusual arginine ligand, besides three normal cysteine ligands. However, the crystal structure is at such a low resolution that neither the exact coordination mode nor the role of this exceptional ligand has been elucidated yet, although it has been shown that it is not essential for enzyme activity. We have used quantum refinement of the crystal structure and combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical calculations to explore possible coordination modes and their influences on cluster properties. The investigations show that the protonation state of the arginine ligand has little influence on cluster geometry, so even a positively charged guanidinium moiety would be in close proximity to the iron atom. Nevertheless, the crystallised enzyme most probably contains a deprotonated (neutral) arginine coordinating via the NH group. Furthermore, the Fe···Fe distance seems to be independent of the coordination mode and is in perfect agreement with distances in other structurally characterised [2Fe–2S] clusters. The exceptionally large Fe···Fe distance found in the crystal structure could not be reproduced