1,222 research outputs found
Infrared photometric study of the massive star forming region S235 using Spitzer-IRAC and JHK observations
We present the {\it Spitzer}-IRAC images of the S235 star forming complex
that includes the East~1 & 2, Central and S235 A & B regions. In addition, we
present the near-infrared images of the S235 A & B regions. The IRAC photometry
reveals on-going star formation, with 86 Class 0/I and 144 Class II YSOs in the
entire S235 complex. Nearly 73% of these YSOs are present in clusters with a
maximum surface density of 120 YSOs/pc (in the vicinity of S235A & B
regions). A few YSOs, possibly in an arc-like formation, are identified towards
the south of S235A region, which may be speculated as an evidence for
magnetically super-critical collapse. One of the sources in the arc-like
formation, namely S235AB-MIR, seems to be a young, massive star that is still
accreting matter. SED modeling of some of the newly identified YSOs confirms
the classification made on the basis of IRAC colours. The IRAC ratio map of
Ch2/Ch4 traces clearly the Br emission associated with the HII region
of S235A within the horse-shoe envelope. Outside the horse-shoe structure, the
ratio map indicates shock-excited H emission. Br emission is also
seen around S235B (from the ratio map). The ratio map of Ch2/Ch4 reveals that
the source "e2s3" in the East~2 region may be associated with shock-excited
H emission outflow or jet. The SED modeling of this new source indicates
that it is a very young massive star that is not yet able to drive an HII
region.Comment: 19 pages; 13 figures; 8 tables. Accepted in MNRAS, Feb 201
Sky maps without anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background are a better fit to WMAP's uncalibrated time ordered data than the official sky maps
The purpose of this reanalysis of the WMAP uncalibrated time ordered data
(TOD) was two fold. The first was to reassess the reliability of the detection
of the anisotropies in the official WMAP sky maps of the cosmic microwave
background (CMB). The second was to assess the performance of a proposed
criterion in avoiding systematic error in detecting a signal of interest. The
criterion was implemented by testing the null hypothesis that the uncalibrated
TOD was consistent with no anisotropies when WMAP's hourly calibration
parameters were allowed to vary. It was shown independently for all 20 WMAP
channels that sky maps with no anisotropies were a better fit to the TOD than
those from the official analysis. The recently launched Planck satellite should
help sort out this perplexing result.Comment: 11 pages with 1 figure and 2 tables. Extensively rewritten to explain
the research bette
The infrared dust bubble N22: an expanding HII region and the star formation around it
Aims. To increase the observational samples of star formation around
expanding Hii regions, we analyzed the interstellar medium and star formation
around N22.
Methods. We used data extracted from the seven large-scale surveys from
infrared to radio wavelengths. In addition we used the JCMT observations of the
J = 3-2 line of 12CO emission data released on CADC and the 12CO J = 2-1 and J
=3-2 lines observed by the KOSMA 3 m telescope. We performed a multiwavelength
study of bubble N22.
Results. A molecular shell composed of several clumps agrees very well with
the border of N22, suggesting that its expansion is collecting the surrounding
material. The high integrated 12CO line intensity ratio (ranging from 0.7 to
1.14) implies that shocks have driven into the molecular clouds. We identify
eleven possible O-type stars inside the Hii region, five of which are located
in projection inside the cavity of the 20 cm radio continuum emission and are
probably the exciting-star candidates of N22. Twenty-nine YSOs (young stellar
objects) are distributed close to the dense cores of N22. We conclude that star
formation is indeed active around N22; the formation of most of YSOs may have
been triggered by the expanding of the Hii region. After comparing the
dynamical age of N22 and the fragmentation time of the molecular shell, we
suggest that radiation-driven compression of pre-existing dense clumps may be
ongoing.Comment: accepted in A&A 30/05/2012. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1010.5430 by other author
Pre-main sequence stars with disks in the Eagle Nebula observed in scattered light
NGC6611 and its parental cloud, the Eagle Nebula (M16), are well-studied
star-forming regions, thanks to their large content of both OB stars and stars
with disks and the observed ongoing star formation. We identified 834
disk-bearing stars associated with the cloud, after detecting their excesses in
NIR bands from J band to 8.0 micron. In this paper, we study in detail the
nature of a subsample of disk-bearing stars that show peculiar characteristics.
They appear older than the other members in the V vs. V-I diagram, and/or they
have one or more IRAC colors at pure photospheric values, despite showing NIR
excesses, when optical and infrared colors are compared. We confirm the
membership of these stars to M16 by a spectroscopic analysis. The physical
properties of these stars with disks are studied by comparing their spectral
energy distributions (SEDs) with the SEDs predicted by models of T-Tauri stars
with disks and envelopes. We show that the age of these stars estimated from
the V vs. V-I diagram is unreliable since their V-I colors are altered by the
light scattered by the disk into the line of sight. Only in a few cases their
SEDs are compatible with models with excesses in V band caused by optical
veiling. Candidate members with disks and photospheric IRAC colors are selected
by the used NIR disk diagnostic, which is sensitive to moderate excesses, such
as those produced by disks with low masses. In 1/3 of these cases, scattering
of stellar flux by the disks can also be invoked. The photospheric light
scattered by the disk grains into the line of sight can affect the derivation
of physical parameters of ClassII stars from photometric optical and NIR data.
Besides, the disks diagnostic we defined are useful for selecting stars with
disks, even those with moderate excesses or whose optical colors are altered by
veiling or photospheric scattered light.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Lunar base CELSS: A bioregenerative approach
During the twenty-first century, human habitation of a self-sustaining lunar base could become a reality. To achieve this goal, the occupants will have to have food, water, and an adequate atmosphere within a carefully designed environment. Advanced technology will be employed to support terrestrial life-sustaining processes on the Moon. One approach to a life support system based on food production, waste management and utilization, and product synthesis is outlined. Inputs include an atmosphere, water, plants, biodegradable substrates, and manufacutured materials such as fiberglass containment vessels from lunar resources. Outputs include purification of air and water, food, and hydrogen (H2) generated from methane (CH4). Important criteria are as follows: (1) minimize resupply from Earth; and (2) recycle as efficiently as possible
A Pan-Carina YSO Catalog: Intermediate-Mass Young Stellar Objects in the Carina Nebula Identified Via Mid-Infrared Excess Emission
We present a catalog of 1439 young stellar objects (YSOs) spanning the 1.42
deg^2 field surveyed by the Chandra Carina Complex Project (CCCP), which
includes the major ionizing clusters and the most active sites of ongoing star
formation within the Great Nebula in Carina. Candidate YSOs were identified via
infrared (IR) excess emission from dusty circumstellar disks and envelopes,
using data from the Spitzer Space Telescope Vela--Carina survey and the
Two-Micron All Sky Survey. We model the 1--24 /mu m IR spectral energy
distributions of the YSOs to constrain physical properties. Our Pan-Carina YSO
Catalog (PCYC) is dominated by intermediate-mass (2 Msun < m < 10 Msun) objects
with disks, including Herbig Ae/Be stars and their less evolved progenitors.
The PCYC provides a valuable complementary dataset to the CCCP X-ray source
catalogs, identifying 1029 YSOs in Carina with no X-ray detection. We also
catalog 410 YSOs with X-ray counterparts, including 62 candidate protostars.
Candidate protostars with X-ray detections tend to be more evolved than those
without. In most cases, X-ray emission apparently originating from
intermediate-mass, disk-dominated YSOs is consistent with the presence of
low-mass companions, but we also find that X-ray emission correlates with
cooler stellar photospheres and higher disk masses. We suggest that
intermediate-mass YSOs produce X-rays during their early pre-main sequence
evolution, perhaps driven by magnetic dynamo activity during the convective
atmosphere phase, but this emission dies off as the stars approach the main
sequence. Extrapolating over the stellar initial mass function scaled to the
PCYC population, we predict a total population of >2x10^4 YSOs and a
present-day star formation rate (SFR) of >0.008 Msun/yr. The global SFR in the
Carina Nebula, averaged over the past ~5 Myr, has been approximately constant.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, accepted for the ApJS Special Issue on the
Chandra Carina Complex Project (CCCP), scheduled for publication in May 2011.
All 16 CCCP Special Issue papers, including a version of this article with
high-quality figures and full electronic tables, are available at
http://cochise.astro.psu.edu/Carina_public/special_issue.html (through 2011
at least
The Next Generation of the Montage Image Mosaic Toolkit
The scientific computing landscape has evolved dramatically in the past few years, with new schemes for organizing and storing data that reflect the growth in size and complexity of astronomical data sets. In response to this changing landscape, we are, over the next two years, deploying the next generation of the Montage toolkit ([ascl:1010.036]). The first release (October 2015) supports multi-dimensional data sets ("data cubes"), and insertion of XMP/AVM tags that allows images to "drop-in" to the WWT. The same release offers a beta-version of web-based interactive visualization of images; this includes wrappers for visualization in Python. Subsequent releases will support HEALPix (now standard in cosmic background experiments); incorporation of Montage into package managers (which enable automated management of software builds), and support for a library that will enable Montage to be called directly from Python. This next generation toolkit will inherit the architectural benefits of the current engine - component based tools, ANSI-C portability across Unix platforms and scalability for distributed processing. With the expanded functionality under development, Montage can be viewed not simply as a mosaic engine, but as a scalable, portable toolkit for managing, organizing and processing images
Improving Software Citation and Credit
The past year has seen movement on several fronts for improving software
citation, including the Center for Open Science's Transparency and Openness
Promotion (TOP) Guidelines, the Software Publishing Special Interest Group that
was started at January's AAS meeting in Seattle at the request of that
organization's Working Group on Astronomical Software, a Sloan-sponsored
meeting at GitHub in San Francisco to begin work on a cohesive research
software citation-enabling platform, the work of Force11 to "transform and
improve" research communication, and WSSSPE's ongoing efforts that include
software publication, citation, credit, and sustainability.
Brief reports on these efforts were shared at the BoF, after which
participants discussed ideas for improving software citation, generating a list
of recommendations to the community of software authors, journal publishers,
ADS, and research authors. The discussion, recommendations, and feedback will
help form recommendations for software citation to those publishers represented
in the Software Publishing Special Interest Group and the broader community.Comment: Birds of a Feather session organized by the Astrophysics Source Code
Library (ASCL, http://ascl.net/ ); to be published in Proceedings of ADASS
XXV (Sydney, Australia; October, 2015). 4 page
Gliotransmitters travel in time and space.
The identification of the presence of active signaling between astrocytes and neurons in a process termed gliotransmission has caused a paradigm shift in our thinking about brain function. However, we are still in the early days of the conceptualization of how astrocytes influence synapses, neurons, networks, and ultimately behavior. In this Perspective, our goal is to identify emerging principles governing gliotransmission and consider the specific properties of this process that endow the astrocyte with unique functions in brain signal integration. We develop and present hypotheses aimed at reconciling confounding reports and define open questions to provide a conceptual framework for future studies. We propose that astrocytes mainly signal through high-affinity slowly desensitizing receptors to modulate neurons and perform integration in spatiotemporal domains complementary to those of neurons
The RMS Survey: The Bolometric Fluxes and Luminosity Distributions of Young Massive Stars
Context: The Red MSX Source (RMS) survey is returning a large sample of
massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) and ultra-compact (UC) \HII{} regions
using follow-up observations of colour-selected candidates from the MSX point
source catalogue. Aims: To obtain the bolometric fluxes and, using kinematic
distance information, the luminosities for young RMS sources with far-infrared
fluxes. Methods: We use a model spectral energy distribution (SED) fitter to
obtain the bolometric flux for our sources, given flux data from our work and
the literature. The inputs to the model fitter were optimised by a series of
investigations designed to reveal the effect varying these inputs had on the
resulting bolometric flux. Kinematic distances derived from molecular line
observations were then used to calculate the luminosity of each source.
Results: Bolometric fluxes are obtained for 1173 young RMS sources, of which
1069 have uniquely constrained kinematic distances and good SED fits. A
comparison of the bolometric fluxes obtained using SED fitting with trapezium
rule integration and two component greybody fits was also undertaken, and
showed that both produce considerable scatter compared to the method used here.
Conclusions: The bolometric flux results allowed us to obtain the luminosity
distributions of YSOs and UC\HII{} regions in the RMS sample, which we find to
be different. We also find that there are few MYSOs with L
10\lsol{}, despite finding many MYSOs with 10\lsol{} L
10\lsol{}.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, accepted to A&A. The full versions of
tables 1 and 2 will be available via the CDS upon publicatio
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