scholarly journals The interstellar medium and star formation in nearby galaxies

2014 ◽  
Vol 335 (5) ◽  
pp. 470-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Bigiel ◽  
D. Cormier ◽  
T. Schmidt
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.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S315) ◽  
pp. 199-206
Author(s):  
Christine D. Wilson

AbstractIn understanding galaxy evolution, one central question is how star formation is regulated in galaxies. Changes in star formation rates are likely tied to changes in the interstellar medium, particularly the molecular gas which is the fuel for star formation. I will discuss our recent results which use data from the Herschel Space Observatory, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and other telescopes to determine the typical density, temperature, and surface density of the molecular gas in various nearby galaxies. Comparing the properties of molecular gas in starburst and other active galaxies with more quiescent spiral disks provides some clues as to how changes in the physical state of the gas, such as mean density, can lead to enhanced star formation rates.


1992 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
J. M. Van Der Hulst

AbstractRecent observations of the several phases of the interstellar medium in galaxies reveal a wide range of structures and physical properties. The HI structure in nearby galaxies is very filamentary with a large number of shells and filaments suggestive of a close interaction between the star formation in the disk and the surrounding interstellar medium.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S237) ◽  
pp. 76-83
Author(s):  
Elias Brinks ◽  
Ioannis Bagetakos ◽  
Fabian Walter ◽  
Erwin de Blok

AbstractHI observations at sufficiently high spatial and velocity resolution have revealed a wealth of structures such as shells and bubbles in the ISM of late–type galaxies. These structures are filled with metal–enriched, coronal gas from SNe which, through overpressure, powers their expansion. Material swept up by these expanding shells can go “critical” and form subsequent (secondary or propagating) star formation. Shells that grow larger than the thickness of the gas layer will blow out of the disk, spilling enriched material into the halo (or in the case of violent starbursts, the Intergalactic Medium). We review what has been achieved to date and present some first results of a major project based on THINGS (The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey), which aims to extend studies of the ISM in galaxies to 34 nearby systems (<10 Mpc), all observed to the same exacting standards (resolution 6″ × 5 km s−1, or better; typical detection threshold of ~5 × 1019 atom cm−2).


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S359) ◽  
pp. 386-390
Author(s):  
Lucimara P. Martins

AbstractWith the exception of some nearby galaxies, we cannot resolve stars individually. To recover the galaxies star formation history (SFH), the challenge is to extract information from their integrated spectrum. A widely used tool is the full spectral fitting technique. This consists of combining simple stellar populations (SSPs) of different ages and metallicities to match the integrated spectrum. This technique works well for optical spectra, for metallicities near solar and chemical histories not much different from our Galaxy. For everything else there is room for improvement. With telescopes being able to explore further and further away, and beyond the optical, the improvement of this type of tool is crucial. SSPs use as ingredients isochrones, an initial mass function, and a library of stellar spectra. My focus are the stellar libraries, key ingredient for SSPs. Here I talk about the latest developments of stellar libraries, how they influence the SSPs and how to improve them.


2004 ◽  
Vol 217 ◽  
pp. 220-221
Author(s):  
L. Verdes-Montenegro ◽  
J. Sulentic ◽  
D. Espada ◽  
S. Leon ◽  
U. Lisenfeld ◽  
...  

We are constructing the first complete unbiased control sample of the most isolated galaxies of the northern sky to serve as a template in the study of star formation and galaxy evolution in denser environments. Our goal is to compare and quantify the properties of different phases of the interstellar medium in this sample, as well as the level of star formation, both relevant parameters in the internal evolution of galaxies and strongly conditioned by the environment. To achieve this goal we are building a multiwavelength database for this sample to compare and quantify the properties of different phases of the ISM.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S294) ◽  
pp. 325-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Blakesley Burkhart ◽  
Alex Lazarian

AbstractMagnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence is a critical component of the current paradigms of star formation, dynamo theory, particle transport, magnetic reconnection and evolution of the ISM. In order to gain understanding of how MHD turbulence regulates processes in the Galaxy, a confluence of numerics, observations and theory must be imployed. In these proceedings we review recent progress that has been made on the connections between theoretical, numerical, and observational understanding of MHD turbulence as it applies to both the neutral and ionized interstellar medium.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S237) ◽  
pp. 358-362
Author(s):  
M. K. Ryan Joung ◽  
Mordecai-Mark Mac Low

AbstractWe report on a study of interstellar turbulence driven by both correlated and isolated supernova explosions. We use three-dimensional hydrodynamic models of a vertically stratified interstellar medium run with the adaptive mesh refinement code Flash at a maximum resolution of 2 pc, with a grid size of 0.5 × 0.5 × 10 kpc. Cold dense clouds form even in the absence of self-gravity due to the collective action of thermal instability and supersonic turbulence. Studying these clouds, we show that it can be misleading to predict physical properties such as the star formation rate or the stellar initial mass function using numerical simulations that do not include self-gravity of the gas. Even if all the gas in turbulently Jeans unstable regions in our simulation is assumed to collapse and form stars in local freefall times, the resulting total collapse rate is significantly lower than the value consistent with the input supernova rate. The amount of mass available for collapse depends on scale, suggesting a simple translation from the density PDF to the stellar IMF may be questionable. Even though the supernova-driven turbulence does produce compressed clouds, it also opposes global collapse. The net effect of supernova-driven turbulence is to inhibit star formation globally by decreasing the amount of mass unstable to gravitational collapse.


1994 ◽  
Vol 217 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 227-230
Author(s):  
Karen M. Strom ◽  
Lennart Nordh ◽  
Eli Dwek

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