The 2X-HI disks of spiral galaxies

The outskirts of galaxies - especially the very extended HI disks of galaxies - are strongly affected by their local environment. I highlight the giant 2X-HI disks of nearby galaxies (M 83, NGC 3621, and NGC 1512), studied as part of the Local Volume HI Survey (LVHIS), their kinematics and relation to XUV disks, signatures of tidal interactions and accretion events, the MHI - DHI relation as well as the formation of tidal dwarf galaxies. - Using multi-wavelength data, I create 3D visualisations of the gas and stars in galaxies, with the shape of their warped disks obtained through kinematic modelling of their HI velocity fields.Comment: 3 pages, incl. one page of colour figures; Proceedings of the IAU Symposium No. 321, 2016, Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Outskirts, eds. A. Gil de Paz, J. Knapen, & J. Le

Radio observations of HD 93129A: The earliest O star with the highest mass loss?

We present the results of radio continuum observations towards the open cluster Tr 14, where our main targets are the early-type O stars HD 93129A/B and HD 93128. The observations were carried out at 3 cm (8.64 GHz) and 6 cm (4.80 GHz) with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Only HD 93129A (type O2 If*) was detected; we measure flux densities of S3cm = 2.0 ± 0.2 mJy and S6cm = 4.1 ± 0.4 mJy. The resulting spectral index of α = -1.2 ± 0.3 (Sv ∝ vα) indicates predominantly non-thermal emission, suggesting HD 93129A may be a binary system. We propose that the observed 3 cm radio emission is mostly coming from the non-thermal wind collision region of a binary, and, to a lesser extent, from the thermal winds of the primary and secondary stars in HD 93129A. At a stellar distance of 2.8 kpc, we derive a mass-loss rate M = 5.1 × 10-5 M⊙ yr-1, assuming the thermal fraction of the 3 cm emission is ∼0.5.Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y GeofísicasInstituto Argentino de Radioastronomí

XMM-Newton observation of the interacting galaxies NGC1512 and NGC1510

The galaxy NGC1512 is interacting with the smaller galaxy NGC1510 and shows a peculiar morphology, characterised by two extended arms immersed in an HI disc whose size is about four times larger than the optical diameter of NGC1512. For the first time we performed a deep X-ray observation of the galaxies NGC1512 and NGC1510 with XMM-Newton to gain information on the population of X-ray sources and diffuse emission in a system of interacting galaxies. We identified and classified the sources detected in the XMM-Newton field of view by means of spectral analysis, hardness-ratios calculated with a Bayesian method, X-ray variability, and cross-correlations with catalogues in optical, infrared, and radio wavelengths. We also made use of archival Swift (X-ray) and Australia Telescope Compact Array (radio) data to better constrain the nature of the sources detected with XMM-Newton. We detected 106 sources in the energy range of 0.2-12 keV, out of which 15 are located within the D_25 regions of NGC1512 and NGC1510 and at least six sources coincide with the extended arms. We identified and classified six background objects and six foreground stars. We discussed the nature of a source within the D_25 ellipse of NGC1512, whose properties indicate a quasi-stellar object or an intermediate ultra-luminous X-ray source. Taking into account the contribution of low-mass X-ray binaries and active galactic nuclei, the number of high-mass X-ray binaries detected within the D_25 region of NGC1512 is consistent with the star formation rate obtained in previous works based on radio, infrared optical, and UV wavelengths. We detected diffuse X-ray emission from the interior region of NGC1512 with a plasma temperature of kT=0.68(0.31-0.87) keV and a 0.3-10 keV X-ray luminosity of 1.3E38 erg/s, after correcting for unresolved discrete sources.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics. 20 pages. Appendix B will be published electronically onl

Massive envelopes and filaments in the NGC 3603 star forming region

The formation of massive stars and their arrival on the zero-age main-sequence occurs hidden behind dense clouds of gas and dust. In the giant Hii region NGC 3603, the radiation of a young cluster of OB stars has dispersed dust and gas in its vicinity. At a projected distance of 2:5 pc from the cluster, a bright mid-infrared (mid-IR) source (IRS 9A) had been identified as a massive young stellar object (MYSO), located on the side of a molecular clump (MM2) of gas facing the cluster. We investigated the physical conditions in MM2, based on APEX sub-mm observations using the SABOCA and SHFI instruments, and archival ATCA 3 mm continuum and CS spectral line data. We resolved MM2 into several compact cores, one of them closely associated with IRS 9A. These are likely infrared dark clouds as they do not show the typical hot-core emission lines and are mostly opaque against the mid-IR background. The compact cores have masses of up to several hundred times the solar mass and gas temperatures of about 50 K, without evidence of internal ionizing sources. We speculate that IRS 9A is younger than the cluster stars, but is in an evolutionary state after that of the compact cores

Deep Near-Infrared Surface Photometry and Properties of Local Volume Dwarf Irregular Galaxies

We present deep H-band surface photometry and analysis of 40 Local Volume galaxies, a sample primarily composed of dwarf irregulars in the Cen A group, obtained using the IRIS2 detector at the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope. We probe to a surface brightness of ~25 mag arcsec$^{-2}$, reaching a 40 times lower stellar density than the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). Employing extremely careful and rigorous cleaning techniques to remove contaminating sources, we perform surface photometry on 33 detected galaxies deriving the observed total magnitude, effective surface brightness and best fitting S\'ersic parameters. We make image quality and surface photometry comparisons to 2MASS and VISTA Hemispheric Survey (VHS) demonstrating that deep targeted surveys are still the most reliable means of obtaining accurate surface photometry. We investigate the B-H colours with respect to mass for Local Volume galaxies, finding that the colours of dwarf irregulars are significantly varied, eliminating the possibility of using optical-NIR colour transformations to facilitate comparison to the more widely available optical data sets. The structure-luminosity relationships are investigated for our `clean' sample of dwarf irregulars. We demonstrate that a significant fraction of the Local Volume dwarf irregular population have underlying structural properties similar to both Local Volume and Virgo Cluster dwarf ellipticals. Linear regressions to structure-luminosity relationships for the Local Volume galaxies and Virgo Cluster dwarf ellipticals show significant differences in both slope and scatter around the established trend lines, suggesting that environment might regulate the structural scaling relationships of dwarf galaxies in comparison to their more isolated counterparts.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, 5 table