Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “Galactic structure”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2019

Spitzer Microlensing Parallax for OGLE-2016-BLG-1067: A Sub-Jupiter Orbiting an M Dwarf in the Disk

We report the discovery of a sub-Jupiter-mass planet orbiting beyond the snow line of an M dwarf most likely in the Galactic disk as part of the joint Spitzer and ground-based monitoring of planetary microlensing anomalies toward the Galactic bulge. Most of the microlensing parameters are strongly constrained by the light-curve modeling, and in particular there is a Spitzer-based measurement of the microlens parallax, π(E). However, there are no caustic crossings, so the angular Einstein radius has only an upper limit based on the light-curve modeling alone. Additionally, the analysis leads us to identify eight degenerate configurations: the fourfold microlensing parallax degeneracy being doubled by a degeneracy in the caustic structure present at the level of the ground-based solutions. To calculate the physical parameters, and at the same time to break the parallax degeneracy, we make use of a series of arguments: the χ(exp 2) hierarchy, the Rich argument (stating that the small-parallax solution is more likely), and a prior Galactic model. The preferred configuration, favored by a likelihood ratio of at least 4000, is for a host at D(L)={3.73}(-0.67+0.66)kpc with mass M(L)=0.30(-0.12+0.15) M(☉) , orbited by a Saturn-like planet with M(planet) =0.43(-0.17+0.21) M(Jup) at projected separation a(⊥) =1.70(-0.39+0.38) au, about 2.1 times beyond the system snow line. Therefore, it adds to the growing population of sub-Jupiter planets orbiting beyond the snow line of M dwarfs discovered by microlensing. Based on the rules of the real-time protocol for the selection of events to be followed up with Spitzer, this planet will not enter the sample for measuring the Galactic distribution of planets.

S. Calchi Novati↗
NASA NTRS1994

Optical studies of interstellar material in low density regions of the Galaxy

We analyze high-resolution Na I and Ca II interstellar absorption line data obtained in an earlier spectroscopic survey of 57 stars along extended sight lines through the Galactic disk and halo. We find that the Na I lines trace a diffuse cloudy medium and the CA II lines trace both the cloudy medium and a more extended (intercloud) medium. High latitude and interarm sight lines that do not cross spiral arms have clouds that are more diffuse on average than those along sight lines that cross spiral arms. Spiral structure may play an important role in determinating the average absorption properties along extended sight lines and/or interesting physical differences may exist between sight lines that cross spiral arms and those that do not. These might include a harder radiation field and/or higher electron tempertures along the high latitude and 'clean' interarm sight lines. On average, 10% of the Ca II column density occurs at velocities forbidden by the Galactic rotation law by more than 10 km/s. In contrast, only a small precentage of the Na I column density occurs at these velocites. The Ca II to Na I ratio increases by a factor of 15 over forbidden velocities from 0 to 50 km/s and rises rapidly thereafter. A two component model of the Ca II column density per unit velocity over the range l = 325 deg to 360 deg indicates that two distinct distributions exists, one with sigma = 8 km/s and one with sigma = 21 km/s. As much as 60% of the Ca II column density at forbidden velocities may be associated with the faster distribution, which we attribute to warm intercloud material. We estimate expontential scale heights of 0.4-0.5 kpc for the neutral gas traced by the E(B-V), Na I, and H I distributions along the low density sight lines, and we find that Ca II has a larger scale height of 0.8 kpc.

Sembach, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS2024

SOFIA/HAWC+ Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large Area CMZ Exploration Survey II: Detection of a Magnetized Dust Ring in the Galactic Center

We present the detection of a magnetized dust ring (M0.8–0.2)in the central molecular zone (CMZ) of the Galactic center. The results presented in this paper utilize the first data release of the Far-Infrared Polarimetric Large Area CMZE mission (FIREPLACE) survey (i.e., Paper I of this series). The FIREPLACE survey is a 214μm polarimetric survey of the Galactic center using the SOFIA/HAWC+ telescope. The M0.8–0.2 ring is a region of gas and dust that has a circular morphology with a central depression. The dust polarization in the M0.8–0.2 ring implies a curved magnetic field that traces the ring-like structure of the cloud. We posit an interpretation in which an expanding shell compresses and concentrates the ambient gas and magnetic field. We argue that this compression results in strengthening of the magnetic field, as we infer from the observations toward the interior of the ring.

Dust continuum emmision↗
NASA NTRS1992

The near-infrared counterpart of a variable galactic plane radio source

A near-infrared counterpart to the highly variable, unresolved galactic plane radio source GT 0116 + 622 is identified. This source is of particular interest, as it has been previously suggested to be the counterpart of the gamma-ray source Cas gamma-l. The present NIR and red images detect a faint, spatially extended (3 arcsec FWHM), very red object coincident with the radio position. There is complex spatial structure which may be due in part to an unrelated superposed foreground object. Observations on multiple nights show no evidence for flux variability, despite the high amplitude variability on a time-scale of days reported for the radio source. The data are consistent with an interpretation of GT 0116 + 622 as an unusually variable, obscured active galaxy at a distance of several hundred megaparsecs, although more exotic, and in particular galactic, interpretations cannot yet be ruled out. If the object is extragalactic, the previously suggested identification with the gamma-ray source would seem unlikely.

Margon, Bruce↗
NASA NTRS1971

Large nebular complexes in the northern portion of the galaxy

Several northern complexes of ionized hydrogen, stars, and possibly nonthermal radio emission are known whose properties are similiar to those of the Gum nebula. Among the best known complexes are the Ori I and Ceph IV associations and IC 1795, IC 1805, and IC 1848. Each of these complexes contains an extended ring structure and requires more excitation than is available from the known early stars. The properties of these objects were examined and many of the properties of the Gum nebula are common to such galactic complexes.

Webster, W. J., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Far-infrared Spectroscopy of Interstellar Gas

Research results of far-infrared spectroscopy with the Kuiper Airborne Observatory are discussed. Both high and intermediate resolution have been successfully employed in the detection of many new molecular and atomic lines including rotational transition of hydrides such as OH, H2O, NH3 and HCl; high J rotational transitions of CO; and the ground state fine structure transitions of atomic carbon, oxygen, singly ionized carbon and doubly ionized oxygen and nitrogen. These transitions have been used to study the physics and chemistry of clouds throughout the galaxy, in the galactic center region and in neighboring galaxies. This discussion is limited to spectroscopic studies of interstellar gas.

Phillips, T. G.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Imaging with INTEGRAL

The INTEGRAL mission was proposed in response to the ESA M2 call for proposals and is dedicated to the fine spectroscopy and imaging of celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy range 15 keV to 10 MeV. Cosmic gamma-rays are emitted on a wide range of angular scales and structures for a diverse population of astronomical objects. The emission, which includes discrete spectral lines and continuum radiation is derived from point sources, localized regions, as well as a diffuse band along the Galactic plane. Much of the gamma-ray sky is composed from transient phenomena which range from the few second timescale associated with gamma-ray bursts to larger lived events lasting some days or more. These class of events pose the challenge of firstly identification and secondly that of precise positional location of 'random' short lived events which arrive isotropically. In this article the imaging requirements are evaluated in light of current observational astronomical data and practical solutions for the INTEGRAL telescope are discussed. Some of the key problems are highlighted.

Dean, A. J.↗
NASA NTRS1994

EUV energy distributions of accretion disks in active galactic nuclei

We have calculated UV/EUV (300 A less than or = lambda less than or = 1500 A) continuous energy distributions of accretion disks in the centers of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) for disk luminosities in the range 0.1 L(sub Edd) and central masses ranging from 10(exp 8) solar mass to 10(exp 10) solar mass. The vertical gas pressure structure of the disk is obtained analytically, the temperature stratification and the resulting continuum radiation fields are calculated numerically. We show that weak Lyman edges are an intrinsic feature of such disks. The strength of the H I Lyman edge decreases for increasing accretion rate and fixed mass of the central black hole. It increases for increasing central mass and fixed luminosity in terms of the Eddington luminosity.

Storzer, H.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Distribution of gas in the halo of the galaxy

Results are presented from a high-resolution, ultraviolet study of interstellar gas situated away from the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, using the nuclei of Seyfert galaxies Mkn 509 and F9 as background probes. In these directions, low-velocity, galactic gas were detected as well as two extragalactic clouds, one probably associated with the Magellanic Stream and the other with Mkn 509. These data were combined with results from other lines of sight to show that the ultraviolet species extend about 10 kpc from the plane, assuming the high-latitude gas corotates with the galactic disk. Complimentary observations of the optical Ca II and Na I species suggests that these do not extend as far - perhaps 2 to 3 kpc from the plane. Further, the exceedingly complex velocity structure found only in Magellanic Cloud directions suggests that these sight-lines are not typical of high-latitude gas in general.

Blades, J. C.↗
NASA NTRS1987

Bimodal star formation - Constraints from the solar neighborhood

The chemical evolution resulting from a simple model of bimodal star formulation is investigated, using constraints from the solar neighborhood to set the parameters of the initial mass function and star formation rate. The two modes are an exclusively massive star mode, which forms stars at an exponentially declining rate, and a mode which contains stars of all masses and has a constant star formation rate. Satisfactory agreement with the age-metallicity relation for the thin disk and with the metallicity structure of the thin-disk and spheroid stars is possible only for a small range of parameter values. The preferred model offers a resolution to several of the long-standing problems of galactic chemical evolution, including explanations of the age-metallicity relation, the gas consumption time scale, and the stellar cumulative metallicity distributions.

Wyse, Rosemary F. G.↗
NASA NTRS2003

Enhancing and Archiving the APS Catalog of the POSS I

We have worked on two different projects: 1) Archiving the APS Catalog of the POSS I for distribution to NASA's NED at IPAC, SIMBAD in France, and individual astronomers and 2) The automated morphological classification of galaxies. We have completed archiving the Catalog into easily readable binary files. The database together with the software to read it has been distributed on DVD's to the national and international data centers and to individual astronomers. The archived Catalog contains more than 89 million objects in 632 fields in the first epoch Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. Additional image parameters not available in the original on-line version are also included in the archived version. The archived Catalog is also available and can be queried at the APS web site (URL: http://aps.umn.edu) which has been improved with a much faster and more efficient querying system. The Catalog can be downloaded as binary datafiles with the source code for reading it. It is also being integrated into the SkyQuery system which includes the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, 2MASS, and the FIRST radio sky survey. We experimented with different classification algorithms to automate the morphological classification of galaxies. This is an especially difficult problem because there are not only a large number of attributes or parameters and measurement uncertainties, but also the added complication of human disagreement about the adopted types. To solve this problem we used 837 galaxy images from nine POSS I fields at the North Galactic Pole classified by two independent astronomers for which they agree on the morphological types. The initial goal was to separate the galaxies into the three broad classes relevant to issues of large scale structure and galaxy formation and evolution: early (ellipticals and lenticulars), spirals, and late (irregulars) with an accuracy or success rate that rivals the best astronomer classifiers. We also needed to identify a set of parameters derived from the digitized images that separate the galaxies by type. The human eye can easily recognize complicated patterns in images such as spiral arms which can be spotty, blotchy affairs that are difficult for automated techniques. A galaxy image can potentially be described by hundreds of parameters, all of which may have some relation to the morphological type. In the set of initial experiments we used 624 such parameters, in two colors, blue and red. These parameters include the surface brightness and color measured at different radii, ratios of these parameters at different radii, concentration indices, Fourier transforms and wavelet decomposition coefficients. We experimented with three different classes of classification algorithms; decision trees, k-nearest neighbors, and support vector machines (SVM). A range of experiments were conducted and we eventually narrowed the parameters to 23 selected parameters. SVM consistently outperformed the other algorithms with both sets of features. By combining the results from the different algorithms in a weighted scheme we achieved an overall classification success of 86%.

Humphreys, Roberta M.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Active Solid State Dosimetry for Lunar EVA

The primary threat to astronauts from space radiation is high-energy charged particles, such as electrons, protons, alpha and heavier particles, originating from galactic cosmic radiation (GCR), solar particle events (SPEs) and trapped radiation belts in Earth orbit. There is also the added threat of secondary neutrons generated as the space radiation interacts with atmosphere, soil and structural materials.[1] For Lunar exploration missions, the habitats and transfer vehicles are expected to provide shielding from standard background radiation. Unfortunately, the Lunar Extravehicular Activity (EVA) suit is not expected to afford such shielding. Astronauts need to be aware of potentially hazardous conditions in their immediate area on EVA before a health and hardware risk arises. These conditions would include fluctuations of the local radiation field due to changes in the space radiation field and unknown variations in the local surface composition. Should undue exposure occur, knowledge of the dynamic intensity conditions during the exposure will allow more precise diagnostic assessment of the potential health risk to the exposed individual.[2]

Wrbanek, John D.↗
NASA NTRS2016

Investigation of Secondary Neutron Production in Large Space Vehicles for Deep Space

Future NASA missions will focus on deep space and Mars surface operations with large structures necessary for transportation of crew and cargo. In addition to the challenges of manufacturing these large structures, there are added challenges from the space radiation environment and its impacts on the crew, electronics, and vehicle materials. Primary radiation from the sun (solar particle events) and from outside the solar system (galactic cosmic rays) interact with materials of the vehicle and the elements inside the vehicle. These interactions lead to the primary radiation being absorbed or producing secondary radiation (primarily neutrons). With all vehicles, the high-energy primary radiation is of most concern. However, with larger vehicles, there is more opportunity for secondary radiation production, which can be significant enough to cause concern. In a previous paper, we embarked upon our first steps toward studying neutron production from large vehicles by validating our radiation transport codes for neutron environments against flight data. The following paper will extend the previous work to focus on the deep space environment and the resulting neutron flux from large vehicles in this deep space environment.

Rojdev, Kristina↗
NASA NTRS2016

Mapping the Gas Turbulence in the Coma Cluster: Predictions for Astro-H

Astro-H will be able for the first time to map gas velocities and detect turbulence in galaxy clusters. One of the best targets for turbulence studies is the Coma cluster, due to its proximity, absence of a cool core, and lack of a central active galactic nucleus. To determine what constraints Astro-H will be able to place on the Coma velocity field, we construct simulated maps of the projected gas velocity and compute the second-order structure function, an analog of the velocity power spectrum. We vary the injection scale, dissipation scale, slope, and normalization of the turbulent power spectrum, and apply measurement errors and finite sampling to the velocity field. We find that even with sparse coverage of the cluster, Astro-H will be able to measure the Mach number and the injection scale of the turbulent power spectrum-the quantities determining the energy flux down the turbulent cascade and the diffusion rate for everything that is advected by the gas (metals, cosmic rays, etc.). Astro-H will not be sensitive to the dissipation scale or the slope of the power spectrum in its inertial range, unless they are outside physically motivated intervals. We give the expected confidence intervals for the injection scale and the normalization of the power spectrum for a number of possible pointing configurations, combining the structure function and velocity dispersion data. Importantly, we also determine that measurement errors on the line shift will bias the velocity structure function upward, and show how to correct this bias.

clusters: intracluster medium↗
NASA NTRS1979

Predictions of induced background radiations at gamma/X-ray experiment envelopes in NASA spacecraft

This work seeks to predict secondary radiation levels induced in spacecraft structures by space protons. The radiations analyzed are secondary neutrons from spallation and evaporation reactions and gamma and beta rays from the decay of induced radioactivity, as sources of interfering background to spaceborne measurements of galactic and planetary gamma rays below 10 MeV. The spacecraft considered are the Multi-Mission Spacecraft (MMS) and the Space Shuttle, modeled as spherical shells. The proton environment is that of the South Atlantic Anomaly, as well as cosmic ray protons. The induced radioactivity is analyzed in terms of its interference with various gamma-ray lines of astrophysical interest, as well as its contribution to several spectral regions of the gamma-ray continuum. The buildup of the line and continuum radioactivity background is predicted for a period of nearly 9 months in orbit (approximately 4100 orbits). In addition, background contributions from cosmic ray electron bremsstrahlung and earth gamma-ray albedo are estimated.

Fischbein, W. L.↗
NASA NTRS1990

The CfA redshift survey - Data for the NGP + 30 zone

Redshifts and morphological types are presented for a complete sample of 1093 galaxies with m(pg) less than or equal to 15.5 mag in a 6-deg-wide strip crossing the north Galactic pole. Also presented are redshifts for an additional 92 fainter galaxies in the same strip. Outside of the core of the Coma Cluster, both early- and late-type galaxies trace essentially the same structures in redshift space. Thinner slices illustrate the small velocity dispersion perpendicular to the surfaces in the survey.

Huchra, John P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Structure in the COBE differential microwave radiometer first-year maps

Results of the first year of data from the differential microwave radiometers on the Cosmic Background Explorer are presented. Statistically significant structure that is well described as scale-invariant fluctuations with a Gaussian distribution is shown. The rms sky variation, smoothed to a total 10-deg FWHM Gaussian, is 30 +/-5 micro-K for Galactic latitude greater than 20-deg data with the dipole anisotropy removed. The rms cosmic quadrupole amplitude is 13 +/-4 micro-K. The angular autocorrelation of the signal in each radiometer channel and cross-correlation between channels are consistent and give a primordial fluctuation power-law spectrum with index of 1.1 +/-0.5, and an rms-quadrupole-normalized amplitude of 16 +/-4 micro-K. These features are in accord with the Harrison-Zel'dovich spectrum predicted by models of inflationary cosmology.

Smoot, G. F.↗
NASA NTRS1996

The Non-Axisymmetric Milky Way

The Dwek et al. model represents the current state-of-the-art model for the stellar structure of our Galaxy. The improvements we have made to this model take a number of forms: (1) the construction of a more detailed dust model so that we can extend our modeling to the galactic plane; (2) simultaneous fits to the bulge and the disk; (3) the construction of the first self-consistent model for a galactic bar; and (4) the development and application of algorithms for constructing nonparametric bar models. The improved Galaxy model has enabled a number of exciting science projects. In Zhao et al., we show that the number and duration of microlensing events seen by the OGLE and MACHO collaborations towards the bulge were consistent with the predictions of our bar model. In Malhotra et al., we constructed an infrared Tully-Fisher (TF) relation for the local group. We found the tightest TF relation ever seen in any band and in any group of galaxies. The tightness of the correlation places strong constraints on galaxy formation models and provides a independent check of the Cepheid distance scale.

Spergel, David N.↗