Rate of star formation, dynamical parameters, and interstellar gas density in our Galaxy and M83

1980 ◽  
Vol 235 ◽  
pp. 821 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J., Jr. Talbot
1974 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 375-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. Oort

Some results are discussed of recent – still largely unpublished – high-resolution studies of bright spirals, both in the radio continuum and in the 21-cm line radiation. Special emphasis is given to observations of M51, M81 and NGC 4258.The most important new data are (1) Estimates of the contrast in gas density between arms and interarm regions (M81 and M101); the contrast appears to be quite strong. It provides an important parameter for the density wave. (2) Evidence for a pronounced decrease of gas density along the arms when these are followed towards the centre. Considerable line radiation is observed from outer regions where the optical intensity of the arms is very low. (3) Extension of rotation curves to larger distances from the centre. (4) Data on the motions in the spiral waves. (5) Determination of the shift between synchrotron and optical arms, providing direct evidence for the formation of stars as a consequence of the passage of the interstellar gas through the spiral density wave. From the shift measured in M51 the formation time is found to be roughly ten million years. If the data for (2) are ascribed to the depletion of the gas by star formation, the average net fraction of the gas consumed in star formation is found to be between 2% and 3% per passage through the spiral wave (Table I). (6) Separation of nuclear and disk synchrotron radiation in spirals. (7) Evidence for a recent expulsion of about 108 solar masses from the nuclear region of NGC 4258.


2020 ◽  
Vol 633 ◽  
pp. L3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nushkia Chamba ◽  
Ignacio Trujillo ◽  
Johan H. Knapen

Now almost 70 years since its introduction, the effective or half-light radius has become a very popular choice for characterising galaxy size. However, the effective radius measures the concentration of light within galaxies and thus does not capture our intuitive definition of size which is related to the edge or boundary of objects. For this reason, we aim to demonstrate the undesirable consequence of using the effective radius to draw conclusions about the nature of faint ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) when compared to dwarfs and Milky Way-like galaxies. Instead of the effective radius, we use a measure of galaxy size based on the location of the gas density threshold required for star formation. Compared to the effective radius, this physically motivated definition places the sizes much closer to the boundary of a galaxy. Therefore, considering the sizes and stellar mass density profiles of UDGs and regular dwarfs, we find that the UDGs have sizes that are within the size range of dwarfs. We also show that currently known UDGs do not have sizes comparable to Milky Way-like objects. We find that, on average, UDGs are ten times smaller in extension than Milky Way-like galaxies. These results show that the use of size estimators sensitive to the concentration of light can lead to misleading results.


Author(s):  
Monique C. Aller ◽  
Varsha P. Kulkarni ◽  
Donald G. York ◽  
Daniel E. Welty ◽  
Giovanni Vladilo ◽  
...  

AbstractGas and dust grains are fundamental components of the interstellar medium and significantly impact many of the physical processes driving galaxy evolution, such as star-formation, and the heating, cooling, and ionization of the interstellar material. Quasar absorption systems (QASs), which trace intervening galaxies along the sightlines to luminous quasars, provide a valuable tool to directly study the properties of the interstellar gas and dust in distant, normal galaxies. We have established the presence of silicate dust grains in at least some gas-rich QASs, and find that they exist at higher optical depths than expected for diffuse gas in the Milky Way. Differences in the absorption feature shapes additionally suggest variations in the silicate dust grain properties, such as in the level of grain crystallinity, from system-to-system. We present results from a study of the gas and dust properties of QASs with adequate archival IR data to probe the silicate dust grain properties. We discuss our measurements of the strengths of the 10 and 18 μm silicate dust absorption features in the QASs, and constraints on the grain properties (e.g., composition, shape, crystallinity) based on fitted silicate profile templates. We investigate correlations between silicate dust abundance, reddening, and gas metallicity, which will yield valuable insights into the history of star formation and chemical enrichment in galaxies.


2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (S321) ◽  
pp. 125-125
Author(s):  
Asuka Igarashi ◽  
Masao Mori ◽  
Shin-ya Nitta

AbstractWe study fundamental properties of transonic galactic outflows in the gravitational potential of a cold dark matter halo (DMH) with a central super-massive black hole (SMBH) assuming a polytropic, steady and spherically symmetric state. We have classified the transonic solutions with respect to their topology in the phase space. As a result, we have found two types of transonic solutions characterized by a magnitude relationship between the gravity of DMH and that of SMBH. These two types of solutions have different loci of the transonic points; one transonic point is formed at a central region (< 0.01kpc) and another is at a distant region (> 100kpc). Also, mass fluxes and outflow velocities are different between the two solutions. These two transonic solutions may play different roles on the star formation history of galaxies and the metal contamination of intergalactic space. Furthermore, we have applied our model to the Sombrero galaxy. In this galaxy, the wide-spread hot gas is detected as an apparent trace of galactic outflows while the star-formation rate is disproportionately low, and the observed gas density distribution is quite similar to the hydrostatic state (Li et al. 2011). To solve this discrepancy, we propose a slowly accelerating outflow in which the transonic point forms in a distant region (~ 120 kpc) and the subsonic region spreads across the stellar distribution. In the subsonic region, the gas density distribution is similar to that of the hydrostatic state. Our model predicts the possibility of the slowly accelerating outflow in the Sombrero galaxy. Igarashi et al. 2014 used the isothermal model and well reproduced the observed gas density distribution, but the estimated mass flux (1.8M⊙/yr) is lager than the mass of the gas supplied by stars (0.3-0.4M⊙/yr). Then, we expect that the polytropic model may reproduce the observational mass of the supplied gas (Igarashi et al. 2015). Such slowly accelerating outflows should be distinguished from the conventional supersonic outflows frequently argued in star-forming galaxies.


Author(s):  
James Binney

Most of what we know about the Universe has been gleaned from the study of stars, and a major achievement of 20th-century science was to understand how stars work and their lifecycles from birth to death. ‘Stars’ describes this lifecycle beginning with star formation when a cloud of interstellar gas suffers a runaway of its central density. It then considers nuclear fusion, key stellar masses, and life after the main sequence when the star burns its core helium. The surfaces of stars are described along with stellar coronae and exploding stars—both core-collapse and deflagration supernovae. Finally, globular star clusters, solar neutrinos, stellar seismology, and binary stars are discussed.


1959 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 99-104
Author(s):  
M. Schmidt

The initial luminosity function ψ(Mv) was introduced by Salpeter. He assumed uniform formation of stars and derived the initial luminosity function from the observed main-sequence luminosity function and the life time of a star of magnitude Mvon the main sequence. Recently van den Bergh considered the depletion of the interstellar gas by star formation. He found that at a constant rate of star formation the gas in the solar vicinity will be exhausted about 7 × 108years from now.


1988 ◽  
Vol 101 ◽  
pp. 447-459
Author(s):  
Richard McCray

AbstractRepeated supernovae from an OB association will, in a few ×107 yr, create a cavity of coronal gas in the interstellar medium, with radius > 100 pc, surrounded by a dense expanding shell of cool interstellar gas. Such a cavity will likely burst through the gas layer of a disk galaxy. Such holes and “supershells” have been observed in optical and H I radio emission maps of the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies. The gas swept up in the supershell is likely to become gravitationally unstable, providing a mechanism for propagating star formation that may be particularly effective in irregular galaxies.


1998 ◽  
Vol 184 ◽  
pp. 271-272
Author(s):  
K. Wada ◽  
T. Minezaki ◽  
K. Sakamoto ◽  
H. Fukuda

Numerical modeling of the interstellar gas in galaxies is an effective approach to infer galactic gravitational structure. This is because the dynamical behavior of gas is very sensitive to the background gravitational potential. Since the dynamical resonances depend closely on the mass distribution and the pattern speed of the non-axisymmetric component, it is possible to determine these dynamical parameters by comparison of numerical simulations and gas observations.


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