New far-infrared and submillimeter photometry from the Herschel Space Observatory is presented for 61 nearby galaxies from the Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: A Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel ...(KINGFISH) sample. The spatially integrated fluxes are largely consistent with expectations based on Spitzer far-infrared photometry and extrapolations to longer wavelengths using popular dust emission models. Dwarf irregular galaxies are notable exceptions, as already noted by other authors, as their 500 mu m emission shows evidence for a submillimeter excess. In addition, the fraction of dust heating attributed to intense radiation fields associated with photodissociation regions is found to be (21 + or - 4)% larger when Herschel data are included in the analysis. Dust masses obtained from the dust emission models of Draine & Li are found to be on average nearly a factor of two higher than those based on single-temperature modified blackbodies, as single blackbody curves do not capture the full range of dust temperatures inherent to any galaxy. The discrepancy is largest for galaxies exhibiting the coolest far-infrared colors.
Context. Low surface brightness galaxies (LSBGs) represent a significant percentage of local galaxies but their formation and evolution remain elusive. They may hold crucial information for our ...understanding of many key issues (i.e., census of baryonic and dark matter, star formation in the low density regime, mass function). The most massive examples - the so called giant LSBGs - can be as massive as the Milky Way, but with this mass being distributed in a much larger disk. Aims. Malin 1 is an iconic giant LSBG - perhaps the largest disk galaxy known. We attempt to bring new insights on its structure and evolution on the basis of new images covering a wide range in wavelength. Methods. We have computed surface brightness profiles (and average surface brightnesses in 16 regions of interest), in six photometric bands (FUV, NUV, u, g, i, z). We compared these data to various models, testing a variety of assumptions concerning the formation and evolution of Malin1. Results. We find that the surface brightness and color profiles can be reproduced by a long and quiet star-formation history due to the low surface density; no significant event, such as a collision, is necessary. Such quiet star formation across the giant disk is obtained in a disk model calibrated for the Milky Way, but with an angular momentum approximately 20 times larger. Signs of small variations of the star-formation history are indicated by the diversity of ages found when different regions within the galaxy are intercompared. Conclusions. For the first time, panchromatic images of Malin 1 are used to constrain the stellar populations and the history of this iconic example among giant LSBGs. Based on our model, the extreme disk of Malin 1 is found to have a long history of relatively low star formation (about 2 M sub(middot in circle)yr super(-1)). Our model allows us to make predictions on its stellar mass and metallicity.
Context.
Malin 1 is the largest known low surface brightness (LSB) galaxy, the archetype of so-called giant LSB galaxies. The structure and origin of such galaxies are still poorly understood, ...especially because of the lack of high-resolution kinematics and spectroscopic data.
Aims.
We use emission lines from spectroscopic observations of Malin 1 aiming to bring new constraints on the internal dynamics and star formation history of Malin 1.
Methods.
We extracted a total of 16 spectra from different regions of Malin 1 and calculated the rotational velocities of these regions from the wavelength shifts and star formation rates from the observed H
α
emission line fluxes. We compared our data with existing data and models for Malin 1.
Results.
For the first time we present the inner rotation curve of Malin 1, characterised in the radial range
r
< 10 kpc by a steep rise in the rotational velocity up to at least ∼350 km s
−1
(with a large dispersion), which had not been observed previously. We used these data to study a suite of new mass models for Malin 1. We show that in the inner regions dynamics may be dominated by the stars (although none of our models can explain the highest velocities measured) but that at large radii a massive dark matter halo remains necessary. The H
α
fluxes derived star formation rates are consistent with an early-type disc for the inner region and with the level found in extended UV galaxies for the outer parts of the giant disc of Malin 1. We also find signs of high metallicity but low dust content for the inner regions.
Physical conditions of the interstellar medium in galaxies are closely linked to the ambient radiation field and the heating of dust grains. In order to characterize dust properties in galaxies over ...a wide range of physical conditions, we present here the radial surface brightness profiles of the entire sample of 61 galaxies from Key Insights into Nearby Galaxies: Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel (KINGFISH). The main goal of our work is the characterization of the grain emissivities, dust temperatures, and interstellar radiation fields (ISRFs) responsible for heating the dust. We first fit the radial profiles with exponential functions in order to compare stellar and cool-dust disk scalelengths, as measured by 3.6 μm and 250 μm surface brightnesses. Our results show thatthe stellar and dust scalelengths are comparable, with a mean ratio of 1.04, although several galaxies show dust-to-stellar scalelength ratios of 1.5 or more. We then fit the far-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) in each annular region with single-temperature modified blackbodies using both variable (MBBV) and fixed (MBBF) emissivity indices β, as well as with physically motivated dust models. The KINGFISH profiles are well suited to examining trends of dust temperature Tdust and β because they span a factor of ~200 in the ISRF intensity heating the bulk of the dust mass, Umin. Results from fitting the profile SEDs suggest that, on average, Tdust, dust optical depth τdust, and Umin decrease with radius. The emissivity index β also decreases with radius in some galaxies, but in others is increasing, or rising in the inner regions and falling in the outer ones. Despite the fixed grain emissivity (average β ~ 2.1) of the physically-motivated models, they are well able to accommodate flat spectral slopes with β ≲ 1. An analysis of the wavelength variations of dust emissivities in both the data and the models shows that flatter slopes (β ≲ 1.5) are associated with cooler temperatures, contrary to what would be expected from the usual Tdust – β degeneracy. This trend is related to variations in Umin since β and Umin are very closely linked over the entire range in Umin sampled by the KINGFISH galaxies: low Umin is associated with flat β ≲ 1. Both these results strongly suggest that the low apparent β values (flat slopes) in MBBV fits are caused by temperature mixing along the line of sight, rather than by intrinsic variations in grain properties. Finally, a comparison of dust models and the data show a slight ~10% excess at 500 μm for low metallicity (12 + log (O/H) ≲ 8) and low far-infrared surface brightness (Σ500).
COSMOS: Hubble Space Telescope Observations Scoville, N; Abraham, R. G; Aussel, H ...
The Astrophysical journal. Supplement series,
09/2007, Letnik:
172, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) was Initiated with an extensive allocation (590 orbits in Cycles 12-13) using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) for high-resolution imaging. Here we review the ...characteristics of the HST imaging with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and parallel observations with NICMOS and WFPC2. A square field (1.8 deg super(2)) has been imaged with single-orbit ACS I-band F814W exposures with 50% completeness for sources 0.5" in diameter at I sub(AB) = 26.0 mag. The ACS is a key part of the COSMOS survey, providing very high sensitivity and high-resolution (0.09" FWHM and 0.05" pixels) imaging and detecting a million objects. These images yield resolved morphologies for several hundred thousand galaxies. The small HST PSF also provides greatly enhanced sensitivity for weak-lensing investigations of the dark matter distribution.
The physical state of interstellar gas and dust is dependent on the processes which heat and cool this medium. To probe heating and cooling of the interstellar medium over a large range of infrared ...surface brightness, on sub-kiloparsec scales, we employ line maps of CII 158 mu m, OI 63 mu m, and NII 122 mu m in NGC 1097 and NGC 4559, obtained with the Photodetector Array Camera & Spectrometer on board Herschel. We matched new observations to existing Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph data that trace the total emission of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We confirm at small scales in these galaxies that the canonical measure of photoelectric heating efficiency, (CII + OI)/TIR, decreases as the far-infrared (far-IR) color, nufunctionof sub(nu)(70 mu m) nufunctionof sub(nu)(100 mu m), increases. In contrast, the ratio of far-IR cooling to total PAH emission, (CII + OI)/PAH, is a near constant ~6% over a wide range of far-IR color, 0.5 < nufunctionof sub(nu)(70 mu m) nufunctionof sub(nu)(100 mu m) <, ~0.95. In the warmest regions, where nufunctionof sub(nu)(70 mu m) nufunctionof sub(nu)(100 mu m) > ~0.95, the ratio (CII + OII)/PAH drops rapidly to 4%. We derived representative values of the local ultraviolet radiation density, G sub(0), and the gas density, n sub(H), by comparing our observations to models of photodissociation regions. The ratio G sub(0)/n sub(H), derived from fine-structure lines, is found to correlate with the mean dust-weighted starlight intensity, left angle bracketUright angle bracket, derived from models of the IR spectral energy distribution. Emission from regions that exhibit a line deficit is characterized by an intense radiation field, indicating that small grains are susceptible to ionization effects. We note that there is a shift in the 7.7/11.3 mu m PAH ratio in regions that exhibit a deficit in (CII + OI)/PAH, suggesting that small grains are ionized in these environments.
We characterize the dust in NGC 628 and NGC 6946, two nearby spiral galaxies in the KINGFISH sample. With data from 3.6 mu m to 500 mu m, dust models are strongly constrained. Using the Draine & Li ...dust model (amorphous silicate and carbonaceous grains), for each pixel in each galaxy we estimate (1) dust mass surface density, (2) dust mass fraction contributed by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, (3) distribution of starlight intensities heating the dust, (4) total infrared (IR) luminosity emitted by the dust, and (5) IR luminosity originating in regions with high starlight intensity. We obtain maps for the dust properties, which trace the spiral structure of the galaxies. The dust models successfully reproduce the observed global and resolved spectral energy distributions (SEDs). The overall dust/H mass ratio is estimated to be 0.0082 + or - 0.0017 for NGC 628, and 0.0063 + or - 0.0009 for NGC 6946, consistent with what is expected for galaxies of near-solar metallicity. Our derived dust masses are larger (by up to a factor of three) than estimates based on single-temperature modified blackbody fits. We show that the SED fits are significantly improved if the starlight intensity distribution includes a (single intensity) "delta function" component. We find no evidence for significant masses of cold dust (T <, ~ 12 K). Discrepancies between PACS and MIPS photometry in both low and high surface brightness areas result in large uncertainties when the modeling is done at PACS resolutions, in which case SPIRE, MIPS70, and MIPS160 data cannot be used. We recommend against attempting to model dust at the angular resolution of PACS.
We present deep optical imaging observations of 2 square degree area, covered by the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS), made by the prime-focus camera (Supreme-Cam) on the 8.2 m Subaru Telescope. ...Observations were done in six broadband B (4459.7 AA), g' (4723.1 AA), V (5483.8 AA), r' (6213.0 AA), i' (7640.8 AA), z' (8855.0 AA) and one narrowband (NB 816) filters. A total of 10 super(6) galaxies were detected to r' similar to 26.5 mag. These data, combined with observations at u* and K-band are used to construct the photometric catalogs for the COSMOS, to measure their photometric redshifts, multiband spectral energy distributions, and stellar masses, and to identify high-redshift candidates. This catalog provides multi-wave band data for scientific analysis of the COSMOS survey.
We present the first identification of large-scale structures (LSSs) at z < 1.1 in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS). The structures are identified from adaptive smoothing of galaxy counts in the ...pseudo-3D space ( alpha , delta , z) using the COSMOS photometric redshift catalog. The technique is tested on a simulation including galaxies distributed in model clusters and a field galaxy population--recovering structures on all scales from 1' to 20' without a priori assumptions for the structure size or density profile. The COSMOS photometric redshift catalog yields a sample of 1.5 x 10 super(3) galaxies with redshift accuracy, Delta z sub(PWUM)/(1 + z) less than or equal to 0.1 at z < 1.1 down to I sub(AB) less than or equal to 25 mag. Using this sample of galaxies, we identify 42 LSSs and clusters. Projected surface-density maps for the structures indicate multiple peaks and Internal structure in many of the most massive LSSs. The stellar masses (determined from the galactic SEDs) for the LSSs range from unk similar to 10 super(11) up to similar to 3 x 10 super(13) M unk. Five LSSs have total stellar masses exceeding 10 super(13) M unk. (Total masses including nonstellar baryons and dark matter are expected to be similar to 50-100 times greater.) The derived mass function for the LSSs is consistent (within the expected Poisson and cosmic variances) with those derived from optical and X-ray studies at lower redshift. To characterize structure evolution and for comparison with simulations, we compute a new statistic: the area filling factor as a function of the overdensity value compared to the mean at surface overdensity ( integral of sub(A) capital sigma / capital sigma (z)). The observationally determined f sub(A) has less than 1% of the surface area (in each redshift slice) with overdensities exceeding 10:1, and evolution to higher overdensities is seen at later epochs (lower z); both characteristics are in good agreement with what we find using similar processing on the Millennium Simulation. Although similar variations in the filling factors as a function of overdensity and redshift are seen in the observations and simulations, we do find that the observed distributions reach higher overdensities than the simulation, perhaps indicating overmerging in the simulation. All of the LSSs show a dramatic preference for earlier SED type galaxies in the denser regions of the structures, independent of redshift. The SED types in the central 1 and 1-5 Mpc regions of each structure average about one SED type earlier than the mean type at the same redshift, corresponding to a stellar population age difference of similar to 2-4 Gyr at z = 0.3-1. We also investigate the evolution of key galactic properties--mass, luminosity, SED, and star formation rate (SFR)--with redshift and environmental density as derived from overdensities in the full pseudo-3D cube. Both the maturity of the stellar populations and the "downsizing" of star formation in galaxies vary strongly with redshift (epoch) and environment. For a very broad mass range (10 super(10)-10 super(12) M unk), we find that galaxies in dense environments tend to be older; this is not just restricted to the most massive galaxies. And in low-density environments, the most massive galaxies appear to have also been formed very early (z > 2), compared to the lower mass galaxies there. Over the range z < 1.1, we do not see evolution in the mass of galaxies by more than a factor of similar to 2 separating active and inactive star-forming galaxy populations.
The metal content of a galaxy, a key property for distinguishing between viable galaxy evolutionary scenarios, strongly influences many of the physical processes in the interstellar medium. An ...absolute and robust determination of extragalactic metallicities is essential in constraining models of chemical enrichment and chemical evolution. Current gas-phase abundance determinations, however, from optical fine-structure lines are uncertain to 0.8 dex as conversion of these optical line fluxes to abundances is strongly dependent on the electron temperature of the ionized gas. In contrast, the far-infrared (far-IR) emission lines can be used to derive an O super(++) abundance that is relatively insensitive to temperature, while the ratio of the optical to far-IR lines provides a consistent temperature to be used in the derivation of an O super(+) abundance. We present observations of the OIII 88 mu m fine-structure line in NGC 628 that were obtained as part of the Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: a Far Infared Survey with Herschel program. These data are combined with optical integrated field unit data to derive oxygen abundances for seven H II regions. We find the abundance of these regions to all lie between the high and low values of strong-line calibrations and to be in agreement with estimates that assume temperature fluctuations are present in the H II regions.
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