The Galaxy Evolution Explorer – Early Data

Author(s):  
Christopher Martin ◽  
the GALEX Team
2005 ◽  
Vol 216 ◽  
pp. 221-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Martin ◽  

We report on early data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA Explorer Mission launched on April 28, with a nominal mission start of June 19. GALEX is performing the first space UV sky-survey, including imaging and grism surveys in two bands (1350–1750 Å and 1750–2800 Å). The surveys include an all-sky imaging survey (limit AB∼20–21), a medium imaging survey of 1000 sq. deg (limit AB∼23.5), a deep imaging survey of 100 deg2 (limit AB∼25.5), and a nearby galaxy survey. Spectroscopic grism surveys (R=100–300) will be performed with various depths and sky coverage. Many targets overlap existing or planned surveys, including SDSS, DEEP, NOAODWS, VIRMOS, SWIRE, SINGS, SIRTF-GTO, Chandra, and HST/ACS. We will use the measured UV properties of local galaxies, along with corollary observations, to calibrate the UV-global star formation rate relationship in galaxies. We will apply this calibration to distant galaxies discovered in the deep imaging and spectroscopic surveys to map the history of star formation in the universe over the redshift range 0<z<2. The GALEX mission will include a Guest Investigator program for primary observations and supporting data analysis. This will support a wide variety of investigations made possible by the first UV sky survey.


Author(s):  
Andrea Afruni ◽  
Filippo Fraternali ◽  
Gabriele Pezzulli

Abstract The characterization of the large amount of gas residing in the galaxy halos, the so called circumgalactic medium (CGM), is crucial to understand galaxy evolution across cosmic time. We focus here on the the cool (T ∼ 104 K) phase of this medium around star-forming galaxies in the local universe, whose properties and dynamics are poorly understood. We developed semi-analytical parametric models to describe the cool CGM as an outflow of gas clouds from the central galaxy, as a result of supernova explosions in the disc (galactic wind). The cloud motion is driven by the galaxy gravitational pull and by the interactions with the hot (T ∼ 106 K) coronal gas. Through a bayesian analysis, we compare the predictions of our models with the data of the COS-Halos and COS-GASS surveys, which provide accurate kinematic information of the cool CGM around more than 40 low-redshift star-forming galaxies, probing distances up to the galaxy virial radii. Our findings clearly show that a supernova-driven outflow model is not suitable to describe the dynamics of the cool circumgalactic gas. Indeed, to reproduce the data, we need extreme scenarios, with initial outflow velocities and mass loading factors that would lead to unphysically high energy coupling from the supernovae to the gas and with supernova efficiencies largely exceeding unity. This strongly suggests that, since the outflows cannot reproduce most of the cool gas absorbers, the latter are likely the result of cosmological inflow in the outer galaxy halos, in analogy to what we have previously found for early-type galaxies.


2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S235) ◽  
pp. 230-230
Author(s):  
Ivelina Momcheva ◽  
Kurtis Williams ◽  
Ann Zabludoff ◽  
Charles Keeton

AbstractPoor groups are common and interactive environments for galaxies, and thus are important laboratories for studying galaxy evolution. Unfortunately, little is known about groups at z ≥ 0.1, because of the difficulty in identifying them in the first place. Here we present results from our ongoing survey of the environments of strong gravitational lenses, in which we have so far discovered six distant (z ≥ 0.5) groups of galaxies. As in the local Universe, the highest velocity dispersion groups contain a brightest member spatially coincident with the group centroid, whereas lower-dispersion groups tend to have an offset brightest group galaxy. This suggests that higher-dispersion groups are more dynamically relaxed than lower-dispersion groups and that at least some evolved groups exist by z ~ 0.5. We also compare the galaxy and hot gas kinematics with those of similarly distant clusters and of nearby groups.


2020 ◽  
Vol 492 (3) ◽  
pp. 4268-4282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Soussana ◽  
Nora Elisa Chisari ◽  
Sandrine Codis ◽  
Ricarda S Beckmann ◽  
Yohan Dubois ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The intrinsic correlations of galaxy shapes and orientations across the large-scale structure of the Universe are a known contaminant to weak gravitational lensing. They are known to be dependent on galaxy properties, such as their mass and morphologies. The complex interplay between alignments and the physical processes that drive galaxy evolution remains vastly unexplored. We assess the sensitivity of intrinsic alignments (shapes and angular momenta) to active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback by comparing galaxy alignment in twin runs of the cosmological hydrodynamical Horizon simulation, which do and do not include AGN feedback, respectively. We measure intrinsic alignments in three dimensions and in projection at $z$ = 0 and $z$ = 1. We find that the projected alignment signal of all galaxies with resolved shapes with respect to the density field in the simulation is robust to AGN feedback, thus giving similar predictions for contamination to weak lensing. The relative alignment of galaxy shapes around galaxy positions is however significantly impacted, especially when considering high-mass ellipsoids. Using a sample of galaxy ‘twins’ across simulations, we determine that AGN changes both the galaxy selection and their actual alignments. Finally, we measure the alignments of angular momenta of galaxies with their nearest filament. Overall, these are more significant in the presence of AGN as a result of the higher abundance of massive pressure-supported galaxies.


2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S283) ◽  
pp. 308-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luciana Bianchi ◽  
Arturo Manchado ◽  
Karl Forster

AbstractGALEX (the Galaxy Evolution Explorer) has provided far-UV(1344-1786Å) and near-UV(1771-2831Å) imaging of several Planetary Nebulae (e.g., Bianchi et al. 2008, Bianchi 2012), with flux limits ~27.5 mag/sq.arcsec for objects in the Medium-deph Imaging Survey (MIS). PNe images in the GALEX broad-band UV filters include flux from both nebular line and continuum emission. We use the GALEX grism observing mode to obtain slitless spectral imaging of a sample of PNe with diameters >1′, in the near-UV. We show the first data from this program. The grism produces 2D images of the prominent UV nebular emission lines, when such lines dominate the flux. Combined with monochromatic images of diagnostic lines in the optical domain, such data help detect and interpret ionization and shock fronts, especially in faint nebular regions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 491 (3) ◽  
pp. 3672-3701 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Boardman ◽  
G Zasowski ◽  
A Seth ◽  
J Newman ◽  
B Andrews ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Milky Way provides an ideal laboratory to test our understanding of galaxy evolution, owing to our ability to observe our Galaxy over fine scales. However, connecting the Galaxy to the wider galaxy population remains difficult, due to the challenges posed by our internal perspective and to the different observational techniques employed. Here, we present a sample of galaxies identified as Milky Way analogues on the basis of their stellar masses and bulge-to-total ratios, observed as part of the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory survey. We analyse the galaxies in terms of their stellar kinematics and populations as well as their ionized gas contents. We find our sample to contain generally young stellar populations in their outskirts. However, we find a wide range of stellar ages in their central regions, and we detect central active galactic nucleus-like or composite-like activity in roughly half of the sample galaxies, with the other half consisting of galaxies with central star-forming emission or emission consistent with old stars. We measure gradients in gas metallicity and stellar metallicity that are generally flatter in physical units than those measured for the Milky Way; however, we find far better agreement with the Milky Way when scaling gradients by galaxies’ disc scale lengths. From this, we argue much of the discrepancy in metallicity gradients to be due to the relative compactness of the Milky Way, with differences in observing perspective also likely to be a factor.


2019 ◽  
Vol 623 ◽  
pp. A52 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Boselli ◽  
M. Fossati ◽  
A. Longobardi ◽  
G. Consolandi ◽  
P. Amram ◽  
...  

We observed the giant elliptical galaxy M 87 during the Virgo Environmental Survey Tracing Galaxy Evolution (VESTIGE), a blind narrow-band Hα+[NII] imaging survey of the Virgo cluster carried out with MegaCam at the Canada French Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). The deep narrow-band image confirmed the presence of a filament of ionised gas extending up to ≃3 kpc in the north-western direction and ≃8 kpc to the southeast, with a couple of plumes of ionised gas, the weakest of which, at ≃18 kpc from the nucleus, was previously unknown. The analysis of deep optical images taken from the NGVS survey confirms that this gas filament is associated with dust seen in absorption which is now detected up to ≃2.4 kpc from the nucleus. We also analysed the physical and kinematical properties of the ionised gas filament using deep IFU MUSE data covering the central 4.8 × 4.8 kpc2 of the galaxy. The spectroscopic data confirm a perturbed kinematics of the ionised gas, with differences in velocity of ≃700–800 km s−1 on scales of ≲1 kpc. The analysis of 2D diagnostic diagrams and the observed relationship between the shock-sensitive [OI]/Hα line ratio and the velocity dispersion of the gas suggest that the gas is shock-ionised.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (S334) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Baslio Santiago ◽  
Elmer Luque ◽  
Adriano Pieres ◽  
Anna Bárbara Queiroz

AbstractThe stellar spheroidal components of the Milky-Way contain the oldest and most metal poor of its stars. Inevitably the processes governing the early stages of Galaxy evolution are imprinted upon them. According to the currently favoured hierarchical bottom-up scenario of galaxy formation, these components, specially the Galactic halo, are the repository of most of the mass built up from accretion events in those early stages. These events are still going on today, as attested by the long stellar streams associated to the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy and several other observed tidal substructure, whose geometry, extent, and kinematics are important constraints to reconstruct the MW gravitational potential and infer its total (visible + dark) mass. In addition, the remaining system of MW satellites is expected to be a fossil record of the much larger population of Galactic building blocks that once existed and got accreted. For all these reasons, it is crucial to unravel as much of this remaining population as possible, as well as the current stellar streams that orbit within the halo. The best bet to achieve this task is to carry out wide, deep, and multi-band photometric surveys that provide homogeneous stellar samples. In this contribution, we summarize the results of several years of work towards detecting and characterizing distant MW stellar systems, star clusters and dwarf spheroidals alike, with an emphasis on the analysis of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES). We argue that most of the volume in distance, size and luminosity space, both in the Galaxy and in the Clouds, is still unprobed. We then discuss the perspectives of exploring this outer MW volume using the current surveys, as well as other current and future surveys, such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).


2019 ◽  
Vol 486 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
R M Bielby ◽  
J P Stott ◽  
F Cullen ◽  
T M Tripp ◽  
J N Burchett ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT We present the first results from a study of O vi absorption around galaxies at z &lt; 1.44 using data from a near-infrared grism spectroscopic Hubble Space Telescope Large Programme, the Quasar Sightline and Galaxy Evolution (QSAGE) survey. QSAGE is the first grism galaxy survey to focus on the circumgalactic medium at z ∼ 1, providing a blind survey of the galaxy population. The galaxy sample is H α flux limited (f(H α) &gt; 2 × 10−17 erg s−1 cm−2) at 0.68 &lt; z &lt; 1.44, corresponding to ≳0.2–0.8 M⊙ yr−1. In this first of 12 fields, we combine the galaxy data with high-resolution STIS and COS spectroscopy of the background quasar to study O vi in the circumgalactic medium. At z ∼ 1, we find O vi absorption systems up to b ∼ 350 kpc (∼4Rvir) from the nearest detected galaxy. Further, we find ${\sim }50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of ≳1 M⊙ yr−1 star-forming galaxies within 2Rvir show no associated O vi absorption to a limit of at least N(O vi) = 1013.9 cm−2. That we detect O vi at such large distances from galaxies and that a significant fraction of star-forming galaxies show no detectable O vi absorption disfavours outflows from ongoing star formation as the primary medium traced by these absorbers. Instead, by combining our own low- and high-redshift data with existing samples, we find tentative evidence for many strong (N(O vi) &gt; 1014 cm−2) O vi absorption systems to be associated with M⋆ ∼ 109.5–10 M⊙ mass galaxies (Mhalo ∼ 1011.5–12 M⊙ dark matter haloes), and infer that they may be tracing predominantly collisionally ionized gas within the haloes of such galaxies.


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