3,385 research outputs found
Dust in Hot Plasma of Nearby Dusty Elliptical Galaxies Observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope
We report on mid- and far-IR Spitzer observations of 7 nearby dusty
elliptical galaxies by using the Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) and
Infrared Spectrograph (IRS). Our sample galaxies are known to contain an
excessive amount of interstellar dust against sputtering destruction in hot
plasma filling the interstellar space of elliptical galaxies. In order to study
the origin and the properties of the excess dust in the hot plasma, we selected
galaxies with a wide range of X-ray luminosities but similar optical luminos
ities for our Spitzer Guest Observers (GO1) program. The 7 galaxies are
detected at the MIPS 24 um, 70 um, and 160 um bands; the far- to mid-IR flux
ratios of relatively X-ray-bright elliptical galaxies are lower than those of
X-ray-faint galaxies. From the IRS spectra, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
(PAH) emission features are detected significantly from 5 of the 7 galaxies; t
he emission intensities are weaker as the X-ray luminosity of the galaxy is
larger. We have found a correlation between the far- to mid-IR flux ratio and
the equivalent width of the PAH emission feature. We have obtained apparent
spatial correspondence between mid-IR and X-ray distributions in the outer
regions for the three X-ray-brightest galaxies in our sample. Possible
interpretations for our observational results are discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Publications of the
Astronomical Society of Japa
Spatial Distributions of Cold and Warm Interstellar Dust in M101 Resolved with AKARI/Far-Infrared Surveyor (FIS)
The nearby face-on spiral galaxy M101 has been observed with the Far-Infrared
Surveyor (FIS) onboard AKARI. The far-infrared four-band images reveal fine
spatial structures of M101, which include global spiral patterns, giant HII
regions embedded in outer spiral arms, and a bar-like feature crossing the
center. The spectral energy distribution of the whole galaxy shows the presence
of the cold dust component (18 K) in addition to the warm dust component (55
K). The distribution of the cold dust is mostly concentrated near the center,
and exhibits smoothly distributed over the entire extent of the galaxy, whereas
the distribution of the warm dust indicates some correlation with the spiral
arms, and has spotty structures such as four distinctive bright spots in the
outer disk in addition to a bar-like feature near the center tracing the CO
intensity map. The star-formation activity of the giant HII regions that
spatially correspond to the former bright spots is found to be significantly
higher than that of the rest of the galaxy. The latter warm dust distribution
implies that there are significant star-formation activities in the entire bar
filled with molecular clouds. Unlike our Galaxy, M101 is a peculiar normal
galaxy with extraordinary active star-forming regions.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ AKARI special
issu
High-precision CTE measurement of hybrid C/SiC composite for cryogenic space telescopes
This paper presents highly precise measurements of thermal expansion of a
"hybrid" carbon-fiber reinforced silicon carbide composite,
HB-Cesic\textregistered - a trademark of ECM, in the temperature region of
\sim310-10K. Whilst C/SiC composites have been considered to be promising for
the mirrors and other structures of space-borne cryogenic telescopes, the
anisotropic thermal expansion has been a potential disadvantage of this
material. HB-Cesic\textregistered is a newly developed composite using a
mixture of different types of chopped, short carbon-fiber, in which one of the
important aims of the development was to reduce the anisotropy. The
measurements indicate that the anisotropy was much reduced down to 4% as a
result of hybridization. The thermal expansion data obtained are presented as
functions of temperature using eighth-order polynomials separately for the
horizontal (XY-) and vertical (Z-) directions of the fabrication process. The
average CTEs and their dispersion (1{\sigma}) in the range 293-10K derived from
the data for the XY- and Z-directions were 0.8050.003\times10
K and 0.837\pm0.001\times10 K, respectively. The absolute
accuracy and the reproducibility of the present measurements are suggested to
be better than 0.01\times10 K and 0.001\times(10)^{-6} K^{-1},
respectively. The residual anisotropy of the thermal expansion was consistent
with our previous speculation regarding carbon-fiber, in which the residual
anisotropy tended to lie mainly in the horizontal plane.Comment: Accepted by Cryogeincs. 12 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabll
Chandra deep X-ray observation on the Galactic plane
Using the Chandra ACIS-I instruments, we have carried out the deepest X-ray
observation on a typical Galactic plane region at l 28.5 deg, where no discrete
X-ray sources have been known previously. We have detected, as well as strong
diffuse emission, 275 new point X-ray sources (4 sigma confidence) within two
partially overlapping fields (~250 arcmin^2 in total) down to ~3 x 10^{-15} erg
s^{-1} cm^{-2} (2 -- 10 keV) or ~ 7 x 10^{-16} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2} (0.5 -- 2
keV). We have studied spectral distribution of these point sources, and found
that very soft sources detected only below ~ 3 keV are more numerous than hard
sources detected only above ~ 3 keV. Only small number of sources are detected
both in the soft and hard bands. Surface density of the hard sources is almost
consistent with that at high Galactic regions, thus most of the hard sources
are considered to be Active Galactic Nuclei seen through the milky way. On the
other hand, some of the bright hard X-ray sources which show extremely flat
spectra and iron line or edge features are considered to be Galactic,
presumably quiescent dwarf novae. The soft sources show thermal spectra and
small interstellar hydrogen column densities, and some of them exhibit X-ray
flares. Therefore, most of the soft sources are probably X-ray active nearby
late type stars.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the "New Visions of the X-Ray
Universe in the XMM-Newton and Chandra Era" symposium at ESTEC, The
Netherlands. 26-30 Nov. 200
Near- to mid-infrared spectroscopy of the heavily obscured AGN LEDA 1712304 with AKARI/IRC
Context. Although heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been
found by many observational studies, the properties of the surrounding dust are
poorly understood. Using AKARI/IRC spectroscopy, we discover a new sample of a
heavily obscured AGN in LEDA 1712304 which shows a deep spectral absorption
feature due to silicate dust. Aims. We study the infrared (IR) spectral
properties of circumnuclear silicate dust in LEDA 1712304. Methods. We perform
IR spectral fitting, considering silicate dust properties such as composition,
porosity, size and crystallinity. Spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting is
also performed to the flux densities in the UV to sub-millimeter range to
investigate the global spectral properties. Results. The best-fit model
indicates 0.1 m-sized porous amorphous olivine (; ) with crystalline pyroxene. The optical
depth is , while the total IR luminosity and stellar
mass are estimated to be and
, respectively. In such low
and ranges, there are few galaxies which show that
large . Conclusions. The silicate dust in the AGN torus of
LEDA 1712304 has properties notably similar to those in other AGNs as a whole,
but slightly different in the wing shape of the absorption profile. The
porosity of the silicate dust suggests dust coagulation or processing in the
circumnuclear environments, while the crystallinity suggests that the silicate
dust is relatively fresh.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Dynamics aspect of subbarrier fusion reaction in light heavy ion systems
Subbarrier fusion of the 7Li + 12C reaction is studied using an
antisymmetrized molecular dynamics model (AMD) with an after burner, GEMINI. In
AMD, 7Li shows an \alpha + t structure at its ground state and it is
significantly deformed. Simulations are made near the Coulomb barrier energies,
i.e., E_{cm} = 3 - 8 MeV. The total fusion cross section of the AMD + GEMINI
calculations as a function of incident energy is compared to the experimental
results and both are in good agreement at E_{cm} > 3 MeV. The cross section for
the different residue channels of the AMD + GEMINI at E_{cm} = 5 MeV is also
compared to the experimental results.Comment: Talk given by Meirong Huang at the 11th International Conference on
Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions (NN2012), San Antonio, Texas, USA, May 27-June 1,
2012. To appear in the NN2012 Proceedings in Journal of Physics: Conference
Series (JPCS
Large-scale distributions of mid- and far-infrared emission from the center to the halo of M82 revealed with AKARI
The edge-on starburst galaxy M82 exhibits complicated distributions of
gaseous materials in its halo, which include ionized superwinds driven by
nuclear starbursts, neutral materials entrained by the superwinds, and
large-scale neutral streamers probably caused by a past tidal interaction with
M81. We investigate detailed distributions of dust grains and polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) around M82 to understand their interplay with the
gaseous components. We performed mid- (MIR) and far-infrared (FIR) observations
of M82 with the Infrared Camera and Far-Infrared Surveyor on board AKARI. We
obtain new MIR and FIR images of M82, which reveal both faint extended emission
in the halo and very bright emission in the center with signal dynamic ranges
as large as five and three orders of magnitude for the MIR and FIR,
respectively. We detect MIR and FIR emission in the regions far away from the
disk of the galaxy, reflecting the presence of dust and PAHs in the halo of
M82. We find that the dust and PAHs are contained in both ionized and neutral
gas components, implying that they have been expelled into the halo of M82 by
both starbursts and galaxy interaction. In particular, we obtain a tight
correlation between the PAH and H emission, which provides evidence
that the PAHs are well mixed in the ionized superwind gas and outflowing from
the disk.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&
AKARI near-infrared spectroscopy of the aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbon emission features in the galactic superwind of M 82
Aims. We investigate the properties of hydrocarbon grains in the galactic
superwind of M 82. Methods. With AKARI, we performed near-infrared (2.5 - 4.5
um) spectroscopic observations of 34 regions in M 82 including its northern and
southern halos. Results. Many of the spectra show strong emission at 3.3 um due
to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and relatively weak features at 3.4
- 3.6 um due to aliphatic hydrocarbons. In particular, we clearly detect the
PAH 3.3 um emission and the 3.4 - 3.6 um features in halo regions, which are
located at a distance of 2 kpc away from the galactic center. We find that the
ratios of the 3.4 - 3.6 um features to the 3.3 um feature intensity
significantly increase with distance from the galactic center, while the ratios
of the 3.3 um feature to the AKARI 7 um band intensity do not. Conclusions. Our
results clearly confirm the presence of small PAHs even in a harsh environment
of the halo of M 82. The results also reveal that the aliphatic hydrocarbons
emitting the 3.4 - 3.6 um features are unusually abundant in the halo,
suggesting that small carbonaceous grains are produced by shattering of larger
grains in the galactic superwind.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in A&
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