276 research outputs found
Cosmic Gravitational Shear from the HST Medium Deep Survey
We present a measurement of cosmic shear on scales ranging from 10\arcsec
to 2\arcmin in 347 WFPC2 images of random fields. Our result is based on
shapes measured via image fitting and on a simple statistical technique;
careful calibration of each step allows us to quantify our systematic
uncertainties and to measure the cosmic shear down to very small angular
scales. The WFPC2 images provide a robust measurement of the cosmic shear
signal decreasing from at 10\arcsec to at 130\arcsec .Comment: 4 pages 2 Postscript figures, uses emulateapj.cls Astrophysical
Journal Letters, December 1, 200
Optical Identification of Cepheids in 19 Host Galaxies of Type Ia Supernovae and NGC 4258 with the Hubble Space Telescope
We present results of an optical search for Cepheid variable stars using the
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in 19 hosts of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) and the
maser-host galaxy NGC 4258, conducted as part of the SH0ES project (Supernovae
and H0 for the Equation of State of dark energy). The targets include 9 newly
imaged SN Ia hosts using a novel strategy based on a long-pass filter that
minimizes the number of HST orbits required to detect and accurately determine
Cepheid properties. We carried out a homogeneous reduction and analysis of all
observations, including new universal variability searches in all SN Ia hosts,
that yielded a total of 2200 variables with well-defined selection criteria --
the largest such sample identified outside the Local Group. These objects are
used in a companion paper to determine the local value of H0 with a total
uncertainty of 2.4%.Comment: ApJ, in press. v2 adds missing co-author to arXiv metadata and text
in acknowledgment
A New H I Survey of Active Galaxies
We have conducted a new Arecibo survey for H I emission for 113 galaxies with
broad-line (type 1) active galactic nuclei (AGNs) out to recession velocities
as high as 35,000 km/s. The primary aim of the study is to obtain sensitive H I
spectra for a well-defined, uniformly selected sample of active galaxies that
have estimates of their black hole masses in order to investigate correlations
between H I properties and the characteristics of the AGNs. H I emission was
detected in 66 out of the 101 (65%) objects with spectra uncorrupted by radio
frequency interference, among which 45 (68%) have line profiles with adequate
signal-to-noise ratio and sufficiently reliable inclination corrections to
yield robust deprojected rotational velocities. This paper presents the basic
survey products, including an atlas of H I spectra, measurements of H I flux,
line width, profile asymmetry, optical images, optical spectroscopic
parameters, as well as a summary of a number of derived properties pertaining
to the host galaxies. To enlarge our primary sample, we also assemble all
previously published H I measurements of type 1 AGNs for which can can estimate
black hole masses, which total an additional 53 objects. The final
comprehensive compilation of 154 broad-line active galaxies, by far the largest
sample ever studied, forms the basis of our companion paper, which uses the H I
database to explore a number of properties of the AGN host galaxies.Comment: To appear in ApJS; 31 pages. Preprint will full-resolution figures
can be downloaded from http://www.ociw.edu/~lho/preprints/ms1.pd
Molecular hydrogen beyond the optical edge of an isolated spiral galaxy
We know little about the outermost portions of galaxies because there is
little light coming from them. We do know that in many cases atomic hydrogen
(HI) extends well beyond the optical radius \cite{Casertano91}. In the centers
of galaxies, however, molecular hydrogen (H2) usually dominates by a large
factor, raising the question of whether H2 is abundant also in the outer
regions but hitherto unseen.Here we report the detection of emission from
carbon monoxide (CO), the most abundant tracer of H2, beyond the optical radius
of the nearby galaxy NGC 4414. The molecular clouds probably formed in the
regions of relatively high HI column density and in the absence of spiral
density waves. The relative strength of the lines from the two lowest
rotational levels indicates that both the temperature and density of the H2 are
quite low compared to conditions closer to the center. The inferred surface
density of the molecular material continues the monotonic decrease from the
inner regions. We conclude that while molecular clouds can form in the outer
region of this galaxy, there is little mass associated with them.Comment: 3 Nature page
HST Measurements of the Expansion of NGC 6543: Parallax Distance and Nebular Evolution
The optical expansion parallax of NGC 6543 has been detected and measured
using two epochs of HST images separated by a time baseline of only three
years. We have utilized three separate methods of deriving the angular
expansion of bright fiducials, the results of which are in excellent agreement.
We combine our angular expansion estimates with spectroscopically obtained
expansion velocities to derive a distance to NGC 6543 of 1001269 pc. The
deduced kinematic age of the inner bright core of the nebula is 1039259
years; however, the kinematic age of the polar caps that surround the core is
larger - perhaps the result of deceleration or earlier mass ejection. The
morphology and expansion patterns of NGC 6543 provide insight into a complex
history of axisymmetric, interacting stellar mass ejections.Comment: Accepted for publication in AJ. 18 pages. 6 figure
Extinction Curves, Distances, and Clumpiness of Diffuse Interstellar Dust Clouds
We present CCD photometry in UBVRI of several thousand Galactic field stars
in four large (>1 degree^2) regions centered on diffuse interstellar dust
clouds, commonly referred to as ``cirrus'' clouds (with optical depth A_V less
than unity). Our goal in studying these stars is to investigate the properties
of the cirrus clouds. A comparison of the observed stellar surface density
between on-cloud and off-cloud regions as a function of apparent magnitude in
each of the five bands effectively yields a measure of the extinction through
each cloud. For two of the cirrus clouds, this method is used to derive UBVRI
star counts-based extinction curves, and U-band counts are used to place
constraints on the cloud distance. The color distribution of stars and their
location in (U-B, B-V) and (B-V, V-I) color-color space are analyzed in order
to determine the amount of selective extinction (reddening) caused by the
cirrus. The color excesses, A_lambda-A_V, derived from stellar color histogram
offsets for the four clouds, are better fit by a reddening law that rises
steeply towards short wavelengths [R_V==A_V/E(B-V)<=2] than by the standard law
(R_V=3.1). This may be indicative of a higher-than-average abundance of small
dust grains relative to larger grains in diffuse cirrus clouds. The shape of
the counts-based effective extinction curve and a comparison of different
estimates of the dust optical depth (extinction optical depth derived from
background star counts/colors; emission optical depth derived from far infrared
measurements), are used to measure the degree of clumpiness in clouds. The set
of techniques explored in this paper can be readily adapted to the Sloan
Digital Sky Survey data set in order to carry out a systematic, large-scale
study of cirrus clouds.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures (postscript, gif, jpg). Accepted for publication
in the Astronomical Journal, scheduled for the May 1999 issue. Full
resolution postscript versions of all figures are available at
http://www.ucolick.org/~arpad
Dual targeting of ptp1b and aldose reductase with marine drug phosphoeleganin: A promising strategy for treatment of type 2 diabetes
An in-depth study on the inhibitory mechanism on protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) and aldose reductase (AR) enzymes, including analysis of the insulin signalling pathway, of phosphoeleganin, a marine-derived phosphorylated polyketide, was achieved. Phosphoeleganin was demonstrated to inhibit both enzymes, acting respectively as a pure non-competitive inhibitor of PTP1B and a mixed-type inhibitor of AR. In addition, in silico docking analyses to evaluate the interaction mode of phosphoeleganin with both enzymes were performed. Interestingly, this study showed that phosphoeleganin is the first example of a dual inhibitor polyketide extracted from a marine invertebrate, and it could be used as a versatile scaffold structure for the synthesis of new designed multiple ligands
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