Deep Imaging of Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies

Computer Science

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

Conflicting evidence exists regarding whether the most metal-poor and actively star-forming galaxies in the local universe such as I Zw 18 contain evolved stars. We propose to help settle this issue by obtaining deep ACS/HRC U, narrow-V, I, and H-alpha images of nine nearby z < 0.01 extremely metal-poor 12 + O/H < 7.65 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. These objects are only marginally resolved from the ground and appear uniformly blue, strongly motivating HST imaging. The continuum images will establish: 1. If underlying populations of evolved stars are present, by revealing the objects' colors on scales ~10 pc, and 2. The presence of any faint tidal features, dust lanes, and globular or super star clusters, all of which constrain the objects' evolutionary states. The H-alpha images, in combination with ground-based echelle spectroscopy, will reveal 1. Whether the objects are producing "superwinds" that are depleting them of their metals; ground-based images of some of them indeed show large halos of ionized gas, and 2. The correspondence of their nebular and stellar emission on scales of a few parsecs, which is important for understanding the "feedback" process by which supernovae and stellar winds regulate star formation. One of the sample objects, CGCG 269-049, lies only ~2 Mpc away, allowing the detection of individual red giant stars in it if any are present. We have recently obtained Spitzer images and spectra of this galaxy to determine its dust content and star formation history, which will complement the proposed HST observations. [NOTE: THIS PROPOSAL WAS REDUCED TO FIVE ORBITS, AND ONLY ONE OF THE ORIGINAL TARGETS, CGCG 269-049, AFTER THE PHASE I REVIEW]

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Deep Imaging of Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Deep Imaging of Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Deep Imaging of Extremely Metal-Poor Galaxies will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1792641

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.