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DDO68 C: The Actual Appearance of a Ghost Satellite Dwarf through Adaptive Optics at the Large Binocular Telescope
Get PDFThrough adaptive optics (AO) imaging with the SOUL+LUCI instrument at the Large Binocular Telescope we were able to resolve, for the first time, individual stars in the gas-rich galaxy DDO68 C. This system was already suggested to be interacting with the extremely metal-poor dwarf DDO68, but its nature has remained elusive so far because of the presence of a bright foreground star close to its line of sight that hampers a detailed study of its stellar population and distance. In our study, we turned this interloper star into an opportunity to have a deeper insight on DDO68 C, using it as a guide star for the AO correction. Although the new data do not allow for a direct distance measurement through the red giant branch tip method, the combined analysis of the resolved-star color-magnitude diagram, of archival GALEX far-UV and near-UV photometry, and of Hα data provides a self-consistent picture in which DDO68 C is at the same ∼13 Mpc distance as its candidate companion DDO68. These results indicate that DDO68 is a unique case of a low-mass dwarf, less massive than the Magellanic Clouds, interacting with three satellites (DDO68 C and two previously confirmed accreting systems), providing useful constraints on cosmological models and a potential explanation for its anomalous extremely low metallicity
UAV-Based Measurement of Sharp Spectral Resonances in Mutually Coupled SKA-Low Elements
Get PDFStrong mutual coupling between antennas can have detrimental effects in very sensitive radio telescopes based on aperture arrays. For the low-frequency instrument of the square kilometer array, narrowband perturbations in the radiation patterns of the inner elements have been predicted through electromagnetic simulations. This phenomenon deteriorates the spectral smoothness properties and disturbs the station calibration at very specific frequencies. In this letter, we present a new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based methodology to experimentally characterize such narrowband phenomena with a high-frequency resolution by means of independently-sweeping transmitting and receiving equipment. This solution does not add complexity to the system (e.g., by tethering the UAV). Results and predictions are in good agreement confirming both the presence of spurious resonances and the validity of the simulation approach
Ultraviolet and Visible Reflectance Spectra of Phobos and Deimos as Measured by the ExoMars-TGO/NOMAD-UVIS Spectrometer
Get PDFSpectroscopic measurements are a powerful tool to investigate the surface composition of airless bodies and provide clues of their origin. The composition and origin of Phobos and Deimos are still unknown and are currently widely debated. We present spectroscopic measurements of Phobos and Deimos at ultraviolet and visible wavelengths (250–650 nm) made by the NOMAD-Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVIS) on the ExoMars TGO mission. These new spectra cover multiple areas on Phobos and Deimos, and are of generally higher spectral resolution and signal-to-noise than previous spectra, and extend to lower wavelengths than most previous measurements. The UVIS spectra confirm a red-sloped spectrum lacking any strong absorption features; however, we confirm the presence of a previously identified absorption feature near 0.65 μm and tentative absorption near 0.45 μm. The observed Phobos and Deimos spectra are similar to D- and T-type asteroids, adding weight to the captured asteroid hypothesis for the moons' origins. We also find, however, that the UVIS Phobos reflectance spectra of Phobos' red unit is a relatively close match to the olivine-rich, highly shocked Mars meteorite NWA 2737, with a low overall reflectance, a red-sloped spectrum, and lack of olivine-associated absorption bands in the UVIS spectral range. This meteorite, however, exhibits spectral features at longer wavelengths that not observed in the Martian moon spectra, indicating a need for further investigation at longer wavelengths to interpret whether this material could inform our understanding of Phobos' origin
The magnetic field of a magnetohydrodynamic disk wind: Water maser observations and simulations
Get PDFOur goal is to measure and model the magnetic field distribution in the disk
wind of the young stellar object (YSO) IRAS 21078+5211. We performed sensitive
global Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations of the polarized emission
of the 22 GHz water masers tracing individual streamlines of the
magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) disk wind in IRAS 21078+5211. Our
resistive-radiative-gravito-MHD simulations of a jet around a forming massive
star are able to reproduce the maser kinematics in the inner jet cavity. We
measure a weak level of 0.3%-3.2% of linear and circular polarization in 24 and
8 water masers, respectively. The detected polarized masers sample the
direction and the strength of the magnetic field along five distinct
streamlines within the inner 100 au region of the disk wind. Along the four
streamlines at smaller radii from the jet axis (< 25 au), the sky-projected
direction of the magnetic field forms, in most cases, a small offset angle of <
30 with the tangent to the streamline. Along the stream at larger
radii (50-100 au), the magnetic field is sampled at only three separated
positions, and it is found to be approximately perpendicular to the streamline
tangent at heights of approximately 10 and 40 au, and parallel to the tangent
at about 70 au. According to our simulations, the magnetic field lines should
coincide with the flow streamlines in the inner jet cavity. The small tilt in
the magnetic field direction observed along the inner streams can be well
explained by Faraday rotation, assuming a realistic low level of ionization for
the molecular shell of the jet of namely 10. The magnetic field
amplitudes measured from maser circular polarization are all within a
relatively small range of 100-700 mG, which is in good agreement with the
simulation results and consistent with reduced magnetic diffusivity in the jet
cavity owing to efficient shock ionization
Classification of Chandra X-Ray Sources in Cygnus OB2
Get PDFWe have devised a predominantly Naive Bayes-based method to classify X-ray sources detected by Chandra in the Cygnus OB2 association into members, foreground objects, and background objects. We employ a variety of X-ray, optical, and infrared characteristics to construct likelihoods using training sets defined by well-measured sources. Combinations of optical photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (riz) and Isaac Newton Telescope Photometric Hα Survey (r I i I Hα), infrared magnitudes from United Kingdom Infrared Telescope Deep Sky Survey and Two-Micron All Sky Survey (JHK), X-ray quantiles and hardness ratios, and estimates of extinction A v are used to compute the relative probabilities that a given source belongs to one of the classes. Principal component analysis is used to isolate the best axes for separating the classes for the photometric data, and Gaussian component separation is used for X-ray hardness and extinction. Errors in the measurements are accounted for by modeling as Gaussians and integrating over likelihoods approximated as quartic polynomials. We evaluate the accuracy of the classification by inspection and reclassify a number of sources based on infrared magnitudes, the presence of disks, and spectral hardness induced by flaring. We also consider systematic errors due to extinction. Of the 7924 X-ray detections, 5501 have a total of 5597 optical/infrared matches, including 78 with multiple counterparts. We find that ≈6100 objects are likely association members, ≈1400 are background objects, and ≈500 are foreground objects, with an accuracy of 96%, 93%, and 80%, respectively, with an overall classification accuracy of approximately 95%
GMP-selected dual and lensed AGNs: Selection function and classification based on near-IR colors and resolved spectra from VLT/ERIS, Keck/OSIRIS, and LBT/LUCI
Get PDFThe Gaia Multipeak (GMP) technique can be used to identify large numbers of dual or lensed active galactic nucleus (AGN) candidates at subarcsec separation, allowing us to study both multiple supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in the same galaxy and rare, compact lensed systems. The observed samples can be used to test the predictions of the models of SMBH merging when (1) the selection function of the GMP technique is known, and (2) each system has been classified as a dual AGN, a lensed AGN, or an AGN/star alignment. Here we show that the GMP selection is very efficient for separations above 0.15″ when the secondary (fainter) object has a magnitude G ≲ 20.5. We present the spectroscopic classification of five GMP candidates using VLT/ERIS and Keck/OSIRIS and compare them with the classifications obtained from (a) the near-IR colors of seven systems obtained with LBT/LUCI, and (b) the analysis of the total spatially unresolved spectra. We conclude that colors and integrated spectra can already provide reliable classifications of many systems. Finally, we summarize the confirmed dual AGNs at z > 0.5 selected by the GMP technique, and compare this sample with other such systems from the literature, concluding that GMP can provide a large number of confirmed dual AGNs at separations below 7 kpc...
Delving deep: A population of extremely dusty dwarfs observed by JWST
Get PDFAims: We take advantage of the NIRCam photometric observations available as part of the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science survey (CEERS) to identify and analyse very red sources in an effort to discover very dusty star forming galaxies. Methods: We select red galaxies as objects with a S/N > 3 at 4.4 μm and a S/N 1.2 considering CEERS depths. This selection is ideal to identify very dusty (AV > 1 mag) galaxies with stellar masses between 106 and 1010 M⊙ at z 18 due to the Lyman absorption, independently of their dust extinction. Results: Our sample of F200W-dropouts contains no strong candidates at z > 6.5, instead it consists almost completely (∼81%) of z 7.3 M⊙. These galaxies show an exceptional dust extinction with median value of AV = 4.9 mag, completely unexpected given their low stellar mass. The remaining galaxies, which are at z V > 1), but they are generally more massive > 107.5 M⊙
Non-parametric galaxy morphology from stellar and nebular emission with the CALIFA sample
Get PDFAims: We present a non-parametric morphology analysis of the stellar continuum and nebular emission lines for a sample of local galaxies. We explore the dependence of the various morphological parameters on wavelength and morphological type. Our goal is to quantify the difference in morphology between the stellar and nebular components. Methods: We derived the non-parametric morphological indicators of 364 galaxies from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) Survey. To calculate those indicators, we applied the StatMorph package on the high-quality integral field spectroscopic data cubes, as well as to the most prominent nebular emission-line maps, namely [O III]λ5007, Hα, and [N II]λ6583. Results: We show that the physical size of galaxies, M20 index, and concentration have a strong gradient from blue to red optical wavelengths. We find that the light distribution of the nebular emission is less concentrated than the stellar continuum. A comparison between the non-parametric indicators and the galaxy physical properties revealed a very strong correlation of the concentration with the specific star formation rate and morphological type. Furthermore, we explore how the galaxy inclination affects our results. We find that edge-on galaxies show a more rapid change in physical size and concentration with increasing wavelength due to the increase in the optical free path. Conclusions: We conclude that the apparent morphology of galaxies originates from the pure stellar distribution, but the morphology of the interstellar medium presents differences with respect to the morphology of the stellar component. Our analysis also highlights the importance of dust attenuation and galaxy inclination in the measurement of non-parametric morphological indicators, especially in the wavelength range 4000−5000 Å. Data are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/673/A63</A
A ring-like accretion structure in M87 connecting its black hole and jet
Get PDFThe nearby radio galaxy M87 is a prime target for studying black hole accretion and jet formation1,2. Event Horizon Telescope observations of M87 in 2017, at a wavelength of 1.3 mm, revealed a ring-like structure, which was interpreted as gravitationally lensed emission around a central black hole3. Here we report images of M87 obtained in 2018, at a wavelength of 3.5 mm, showing that the compact radio core is spatially resolved. High-resolution imaging shows a ring-like structure of 8.4−1.1+0.5 Schwarzschild radii in diameter, approximately 50% larger than that seen at 1.3 mm. The outer edge at 3.5 mm is also larger than that at 1.3 mm. This larger and thicker ring indicates a substantial contribution from the accretion flow with absorption effects, in addition to the gravitationally lensed ring-like emission. The images show that the edge-brightened jet connects to the accretion flow of the black hole. Close to the black hole, the emission profile of the jet-launching region is wider than the expected profile of a black-hole-driven jet, suggesting the possible presence of a wind associated with the accretion flow
JWST/NIRCam detections of dusty subsolar-mass young stellar objects in the Small Magellanic Cloud
Get PDFLow-mass stars are the most numerous stellar objects in the Universe. Before the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we had limited knowledge of how planetary systems around low-mass stars could form at subsolar metallicities. Here we present JWST observations of NGC 346, a star-forming region in the metal-poor Small Magellanic Cloud, revealing a substantial population of subsolar-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) with an infrared excess. We notice that continuing low-mass star formation is concentrated along dust filaments. We detected roughly 500 YSOs and pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars from more than 45,000 unique sources, using all four NIRCam wide filters with deep, high-resolution imaging. From these observations, we construct detailed near-infrared colour-magnitude diagrams with which preliminary categorizations of YSO classes are made. For the youngest, most deeply embedded objects, JWST/NIRCam is ten magnitudes more sensitive than Spitzer observations at comparable wavelengths, and reaches two magnitudes fainter than Hubble Space Telescope for more evolved PMS sources, corresponding to roughly 0.1 M⊙. The infrared sensitivity and resolution of JWST allows us to detect embedded low-mass star formation in an extragalactic environment. Furthermore, evidence of infrared excesses and accretion suggests that the dust required for rocky planet formation is present at metallicities as low as 0.2 Z⊙, which are akin to those in place at cosmic noon