Mapping the Galaxy and Nearby Galaxies

Mapping the Galaxy and Nearby Galaxies
Author: Keiichi Wada
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2007-12-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 038772768X

Readers with any kind of an interest in astronomy will find this work fascinating, detailing as it does the proceedings of the symposium of the same name held in Japan in 2006. The symposium focused on mapping the interstellar media and other components in galactic disks, bulges, halos, and central regions of galaxies. Thanks to recent progress in observations using radio interferometers and optical/infrared telescopes in ground and space, our knowledge on structures of our Galaxy and nearby galaxies has been growing for the last decade.

New Vision Of An Old Cluster, A - Untangling Coma Berenices

New Vision Of An Old Cluster, A - Untangling Coma Berenices
Author: Alain Mazure
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 246
Release: 1998-08-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9814545414

Together with Virgo, the Coma Berenices cluster is one of the most well-studied clusters at all wavelengths and in all aspects, from the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect to star formation in galaxies. In a way, it is the prototype of rich clusters. Recent observational results, linked to the improvement of techniques such as X-ray and UV observations, along with multi-object spectroscopy, have shown that they could change our vision of this cluster. It is thus time for observers and theoreticians to confront all these new ideas and observations on the Coma cluster.The topics in this volume include: cosmological aspects of the Coma cluster, comparison with distant clusters; substructures; matter content and distribution; Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect; dynamical modelling, cluster dynamics; environmental effects on galaxies, star formation.

The Star Formation History of Virgo Spiral Galaxies

The Star Formation History of Virgo Spiral Galaxies
Author: Cirino Pappalardo
Publisher:
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2010
Genre:
ISBN:

This thesis investigates the influence of ram pressure stripping on the star formation history of cluster spiral galaxies. Ram pressure stripping is the hydrodynamical interaction between the interstellar medium (ISM) of a spiral galaxy that is moving inside the potential well of a cluster, and the intracluster medium (ICM). If the dynamical pressure exerted by the ICM is larger than the restoring force due to the galactic potential, the galaxy loses gas from the outer disk. The Virgo cluster is an ideal laboratory to study environmental effects on galaxy evolution, because it is rich in spirals and dynamically young. From observations we know that the amount of atomic gas in Virgo spirals is less than that of galaxies in the field. In particular cluster spirals show truncated HI disks (Giovanelli & Haynes 1983, Cayatte et al. 1990). For those galaxies that also show a symmetrical stellar distribution, ram pressure stripping is the most probably origin of the gas-disk truncation.

Molecular Gas and Star Formation in Nearby Galaxies

Molecular Gas and Star Formation in Nearby Galaxies
Author: Dyas Utomo
Publisher:
Total Pages: 136
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:

In the local Universe, stars form within molecular clouds. Therefore, the properties of molecular clouds may determine the star formation rate. Conversely, star formation also gives feedback to the clouds where the stars reside. In this dissertation, I present the interplay between the molecular gas and star formation, through three parts below. First, I identify and characterize the properties of molecular clouds in NGC4526, resulting in the first catalog of molecular clouds in an early-type galaxy. As a population, the molecular clouds in NGC4526 are gravitationally bound and have a steeper mass distribution than that in the Milky Way. These molecular clouds are also more luminous, denser, and have a higher velocity dispersion than their counterparts in the Milky Way. These different properties may be due to a more intense interstellar radiation field than in the Galactic disk and a weaker external pressure than in the Galactic center. Second, I combine the mm-wave interferometric data from CARMA and the optical Integral Field Unit data from CALIFA to study the molecular depletion time on kilo-parsec scales of nearby galaxies. In particular, the molecular depletion time between the galactic centers and disks is compared. I find that some galactic centers have shorter depletion time than that in the disks, which means that those centers form stars more efficiently per unit molecular gas mass. This places the galactic centers as an intermediate regime between galactic disks and starburst galaxies. The central drop of depletion time is also correlated with a central increase in the stellar mass surface density, suggesting that a shorter depletion time is associated with the molecular gas compression by the stellar gravitational potential. Third, the feedback from star formation to maintain turbulence in the interstellar matter of M33 is investigated. I show that supernovae have enough energy to maintain atomic gas turbulence inside 4 kpc radius and within molecular clouds, assuming a constant value of turbulent dissipation time of 9.8 Myrs. In the outer parts, the energy from the differential rotation of galaxy is large enough to maintain atomic gas turbulence through the magneto-rotational instability (MRI). I conclude that the sum of supernovae and MRI energy maintains turbulence at all radii where atomic hydrogen is detected in M33.