Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2011-11-16
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
This paper is part of a set of three papers on circumgalactic gas observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on HST, to be
Scientific paper
The circumgalactic medium (CGM) is fed by galaxy outflows and accretion of intergalactic gas, but its mass, heavy element enrichment, and relation to galaxy properties are poorly constrained by observations. In a survey of the outskirts of 42 galaxies with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph onboard the Hubble Space Telescope, we detected ubiquitous, large (150 kiloparsec) halos of ionized oxygen surrounding star-forming galaxies, but we find much less ionized oxygen around galaxies with little or no star formation. This ionized CGM contains a substantial mass of heavy elements and gas, perhaps far exceeding the reservoirs of gas in the galaxies themselves. It is a basic component of nearly all star-forming galaxies that is removed or transformed during the quenching of star formation and the transition to passive evolution.
Dav'e Romeel
Ford Amanda Brady
Katz Neal S.
Meiring Joseph. D.
O'Meara John M.
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