Multi-epoch radio-interferometric observations of young stellar objects can be used to measure their displacement over the celestial sphere with a level of accuracy that currently cannot be attained at any other wavelength. In particular, the accuracy achieved using carefully calibrated, phase-referenced observations with Very Long Baseline Interferometers such as NRAO's Very Long Baseline Array is better than 50 micro-arcseconds. This is sufficient to measure the trigonometric parallax and the proper motion of any radio-emitting young star within several hundred parsecs of the Sun with an accuracy better than a few percent. Using that technique, the mean distances to Taurus, Ophiuchus, Perseus and Orion have already been measured to unprecedented accuracy.
With improved telescopes and equipment, the distance to all star-forming regions within 1 kpc of the Sun and beyond, as well as their internal structure and dynamics could be determined. This would significantly improve our ability to compare the observational properties of young stellar objects with theoretical predictions, and would have a major impact on our understanding of low-mass star-formation.
The LkH$α$ 101 cluster takes its name from its more massive member, the LkH$α$ 101star, which is an $\sim15$ M$_\odot$ star whose true nature is still unknown. The distance to the LkH$α$ 101 cluster has been controversial for the last few decades, with estimated values ranging from 160 to 800 pc. We have observed members and candidate members of the LkH$α$ 101 cluster with signs of magnetic activity, using the Very Long Baseline Array, in order to measure their trigonometric parallax and, thus, obtain a direct measurement of their distances. A young star member, LkH$α$ 101 VLA J043001.15+35172…
We present a study of star forming regions and its demographics in the nearby dwarf irregular galaxy WLM using the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) multi band observations in three filters F148W, N245M and N263M. We find that the UV emission is extended at least up to 1.7 kpc, with the NUV emission more extended than the FUV. We create UV color maps ((F148W$-$N245M) and (F148W$-$N263M)) to study the temperature morphology of young stellar complexes with the help of theoretical models. We identify several complexes with temperature T $>$ 17500 K which are likely to be the OB associations p…
Spatial correlations among proto-planetary disk orientations carry unique information on physics of multiple star formation processes. We select five nearby star-forming regions that comprise a number of proto-planetary disks with spatially-resolved images with ALMA and HST, and search for the mutual alignment of the disk axes. Specifically, we apply the Kuiper test to examine the statistical uniformity of the position angle (PA: the angle of the major axis of the projected disk ellipse measured counter-clockwise from the north) distribution. The disks located in the star-forming regions, exce…
Investigating Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies in the Ultraviolet with HST/COS Spectroscopy. I: Spectral Analysis and Interstellar Abundance Determinations
Prospects of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) for the study of very high energy gamma-ray emission from nearby star-forming galaxies are investigated. In the previous work, we constructed a model to calculate luminosity and energy spectrum of pion-decay gamma-ray emission produced by cosmic-ray interaction with the interstellar medium (ISM), from four physical quantities of galaxies [star formation rate (SFR), gas mass, stellar mass, and effective radius]. The model is in good agreement with the observed GeV--TeV emission of several nearby galaxies. Applying this model to nearby galaxies th…
We present a study of molecular outflows using six molecular lines (including 12CO/13CO/C18O/HCO+(J = 1-0) and SiO/CS(J = 2-1)) toward nine nearby high-mass star-forming regions with accurate known distances. This work is based on the high-sensitivity observations obtained with the 14-m millimeter telescope of Purple Mountain Observatory Delingha (PMODLH) observatory. The detection rate of outflows (including 12CO, 13CO, HCO+, and CS) is 100\%. However, the emission of SiO was not detected for all sources. The full line widths ($ΔV$) at 3$σ$ above the baseline of these molecular lines have the…
Star formation in galaxies is a hierarchical process with a wide range of scales from smaller clusters to larger stellar complexes. Here, we present an ultra-violet imaging study of the nearby flocculent spiral galaxy NGC 7793, observed with the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT). We find that the disk scale-length estimated in Far-UV (2.64$\pm$0.16 kpc) is larger than that in Near-UV (2.21$\pm$0.21 kpc) and optical (1.08 kpc), which supports the inside-out growth scenario of the galaxy disk. The star-forming UV disk is also found to be contained within the extent of H~I gas of column densi…
The emission-line intensity ratios are used to distinguish the main sources of gas ionization to study the state of galactic interstellar medium (ISM). In intermediate cases, when the contributions of radiation from some sources mix, the identification becomes uncertain. As an extra parameter, the gas velocity dispersion in the line-of-sight can be added to classical diagnostic diagrams (i.e., "BPT-sigma" relations) to help finding an appropriate solution. The minimum distance from the curve that bounds the H II-type ionization region for each point in BPT-sigma diagram can be used to characte…
We present narrowband H$α$ imaging of nearby Wolf-Rayet (WR) galaxies known as a subset of starburst galaxies. The H$α$ images have been used to show morphology of star-forming regions in galaxies, which leads to speculate that the studied galaxies have most likely experienced merger or interaction with low luminous dwarf galaxies or \HI clouds. We further derive the H$α$ based star formation rates (SFRs) in galaxies using our H$α$ observations. These SFRs are well-correlated with SFRs derived using other indicators at far-ultraviolet, far-infrared and 1.4-GHz radio wavebands. It is noticed th…
We present 3, 15, and 33 GHz imaging towards galaxy nuclei and extranuclear star-forming regions using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array as part of the Star Formation in Radio Survey. With $3-33$ GHz radio spectra, we measured the spectral indices and corresponding thermal (free-free) emission fractions for a sample of 335 discrete regions having significant detections in at least two radio bands. After removing 14 likely background galaxies, we find that the median thermal fraction at 33 GHz is $92 \pm 0.8\%$ with a median absolute deviation of $11\%$, when a two-component power-law model i…
Comparing the Nebular and Stellar Dust Attenuation Curves in Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI)（韩国天文与空间科学研究院）；Department of Earth Science Education, Kyungpook National University（庆北国立大学地球科学教育系）；Department of Astronomy and Space Science, Chungnam National University（忠南国立大学天文学与空间科学系）；Astronomy Program, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National University（首尔国立大学物理天文学系天文学项目）；SNU Astronomy Research Center, Seoul National University（首尔国立大学天文研究中心）；Institute for Data Innovation in Science, Seoul National University（首尔国立大学数据创新科学研究院）
Evidence for Hierarchical Turbulent Scaling in Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies
University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学）；Dutch Institute for Emergent Phenomena (DIEP)（荷兰涌现现象研究所）；Institute for Advanced Studies (IAS)（高等研究院）；Korteweg–de Vries Institute for Mathematics（科特韦格-德弗里斯数学研究所）；Institute for Theoretical Physics（理论物理研究所）；Niels Bohr International Academy（尼尔斯·玻尔国际学院）；The Niels Bohr Institute（尼尔斯·玻尔研究所）；University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学）
The high-precision astrometry from the second data release of the Gaia mission has made it possible to greatly improve the census of members of nearby clusters and associations. I have applied the Gaia data to the Taurus star-forming region, refining the sample of known members and identifying candidates for undiscovered members. The resulting samples of members and candidates provide the best constraints to date on the distribution of ages and the initial mass function (IMF) in Taurus. Several studies over the last 30 years have proposed the existence of a population of older stars (>=10 Myr)…
We complement the MALATANG sample of dense gas in nearby galaxies with archival observations of $^{12}\rm CO$ and its isotopologues to determine scaling relations between Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) 12 $μ$m emission and molecular gas tracers at sub-kiloparsec scales. We find that 12 $μ$m luminosity is more tightly correlated with $^{12}\rm CO$ than it is with $^{13}\rm CO$ or dense gas tracers. Residuals between predicted and observed $^{12}\rm CO$ are only weakly correlated with molecular gas mass surface density ($Σ_{\rm mol}$) in regions where $Σ_{\rm mol}$ is very low ($\sim…
The evolution of collapsing clouds embedded in different star-forming environments is investigated using three-dimensional non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics simulations considering different cloud metallicities ($Z/\thinspace Z_\odot$ = 0, 10$^{-5}$, 10$^{-4}$, 10$^{-3}$, 10$^{-2}$, 10$^{-1}$ and 1) and ionisation strengths ($C_ζ$=0, 0.01, 1 and 10, where $C_ζ$ is a coefficient controlling the ionisation intensity and $C_ζ=1$ corresponds to the ionisation strength of nearby star-forming regions). With all combinations of these considered values of $Z/\thinspace Z_\odot$ and $C_ζ$, 28 different st…
The processes regulating star formation in galaxies are thought to act across a hierarchy of spatial scales. To connect extragalactic star formation relations from global and kpc-scale measurements to recent cloud-scale resolution studies, we have developed a simple, robust method that quantifies the scale dependence of the relative spatial distributions of molecular gas and recent star formation. In this paper, we apply this method to eight galaxies with roughly 1 arcsec resolution molecular gas imaging from the PHANGS-ALMA and PAWS surveys that have matched resolution, high quality narrowban…
Star Formation and the Interstellar Medium In Nearby Tidal Streams (SAINTS): Spitzer Mid-infrared Spectroscopy and Imaging of Intergalactic Star-forming Objects
We present a far-UV (FUV) study of the star-forming complexes (SFCs) in three nearby galaxies using the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT). The galaxies are close to face-on and show significant outer disk star formation. Two of them are isolated (NGC 628, NGC 6946), and one is interacting with distant companions (NGC 5457). We compared the properties of the SFCs inside and outside the optical radius (R$_{25}$). We estimated the sizes, star formation rates (SFRs), metallicities, and the Toomre Q parameter of the SFCs. We find that the outer disk SFCs are at least ten times smaller in area th…
Measurements of the galaxy UV luminosity function at z>6 suggest that young stars hosted in low-mass star-forming galaxies produced the bulk of hydrogen-ionizing photons necessary to reionize the intergalactic medium (IGM) by redshift z~6. Whether star-forming galaxies dominated cosmic reionization, however, also depends on their stellar populations and interstellar medium properties, which set, among other things, the production rate of H-ionizing photons, $ξ_\text{ion}^\star$, and the fraction of these escaping into the IGM. Given the difficulty of constraining with existing observatories th…
Observations of the interstellar medium are key to deciphering the physical processes regulating star formation in galaxies. However, observational uncertainties and detection limits can bias the interpretation unless carefully modeled. Here I re-analyze star formation rates and gas masses of a representative sample of nearby galaxies with the help of multi-dimensional Bayesian modeling. Typical star forming galaxies are found to lie in a 'star forming plane' largely independent of their stellar mass. Their star formation activity is tightly correlated with the molecular and total gas content,…
As deep spectroscopic campaigns extend to higher redshifts and lower stellar masses, the interpretation of galaxy spectra depends increasingly upon models for very young stellar populations. Here we present new HST/COS ultraviolet spectroscopy of seven nearby ($<120$ Mpc) star-forming regions hosting very young stellar populations ($\sim$ 4-20 Myr) with optical Wolf-Rayet stellar wind signatures, ideal laboratories in which to test these stellar models. We detect nebular C III] in all seven, but at equivalent widths uniformly $< 10$ Å. This suggests that even for very young stellar populations…
Luminosity Functions of Spitzer Identified Protostars in Nine Nearby Molecular Clouds
We identify protostars in Spitzer surveys of nine star-forming molecular clouds within 1 kpc: Serpens, Perseus, Ophiuchus, Chamaeleon, Lupus, Taurus, Orion, Cep OB3, and Mon R2, which combined host over 700 protostar candidates. Our diverse cloud sample allows us to compare protostar luminosity functions in these varied environments. We combine photometry from 2MASS J, H, and Ks bands and Spitzer IRAC and MIPS 24 micron bands to create 1 - 24 micron spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Using protostars from the c2d survey with well-determined bolometric luminosities (Lbol), we derive a relati…
It is well known that gas in galaxy discs is highly turbulent, but there is much debate on which mechanism can energetically maintain this turbulence. Among the possible candidates, supernova (SN) explosions are likely the primary drivers but doubts remain on whether they can be sufficient in regions of moderate star formation activity, in particular in the outer parts of discs. In this paper, we measure the SN efficiency $η$, namely the fraction of the total SN energy needed to sustain turbulence in galaxies, and verify that SNe can indeed be the sole driving mechanism. The key novelty of our…
We present results from a resolved stellar population search for dwarf satellite galaxies of six nearby (D $<5$ Mpc), sub-Milky-Way mass hosts using deep ($m\sim27$ mag) optical imaging from the Large Binocular Telescope. We perform image simulations to quantify our detection efficiency for dwarfs over a large range in luminosity and size, and develop a fast catalog-based emulator that includes a treatment of unresolved photometric blending. We discover no new dwarf satellites, but we recover two previously known dwarfs (DDO 113 and LV J1228+4358) with $M_{\text{V}}<-12$ that lie in our survey…
We present a study of the evolution of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) in a sample of clusters at $0.05 \leq z<0.35$ from the SDSS and WISE with halo masses in the range $6 \times 10^{13}M_\odot$ (massive groups) - $10^{15.5}M_\odot$ (Coma-like clusters). We analyse optical and infrared colours and stellar masses of BCGs as a function of the mass of their host haloes. We find that BCGs are mostly red and quiescent galaxies and that a minority ($\sim 9$\%) of them are star-forming. We find that the optical $g-r$ colours are consistent with those of red sequence galaxies at the same redshifts;…
The PHANGS-Hα survey. Ground-based narrow-band imaging of nearby star-forming galaxies
Universidad de Chile（智利大学）；Carnegie Institution for Science（卡内基科学机构）；University of Western Australia（西澳大利亚大学）；European Southern Observatory（欧洲南方天文台）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；Tamkang University（淡江大学）；INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri（意大利国家天体物理研究所阿切特里天文台）；Université Côte d’Azur（蔚蓝海岸大学）；University of Alberta（阿尔伯塔大学）；Universität Heidelberg（海德堡大学）
The stellar surface density within the inner 1 kpc ($Σ_{1}$) has become a popular tool for understanding the growth of galaxies and its connection with the quenching of star formation. The emerging picture suggests that building a central dense core is a necessary condition for quenching. However, it is not clear whether changes in $Σ_{1}$ trace changes in stellar kinematics and the growth of dispersion-dominated bulges. In this paper, we combine imaging from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with stellar kinematics from the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral-field unit (SAMI) and Mapping Nearby Gala…
KDG 162: A Nearby Isolated Star-forming Dwarf Galaxy
Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）；Special Astrophysical Observatory, Russian Academy of Sciences（俄罗斯科学院特殊天体物理观测台）；University of Washington（华盛顿大学）；University of California Berkeley（加州大学伯克利分校）；University of Hawaii（夏威夷大学）；Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）；Raytheon（雷神公司）；University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学）；University of Maryland（马里兰大学）
We study the r31=L'CO(3-2)/L'CO(1-0) luminosity line ratio in a sample of nearby (z < 0.05) galaxies: 25 star-forming galaxies (SFGs) from the xCOLD GASS survey, 36 hard X-ray selected AGN host galaxies from BASS and 37 infrared luminous galaxies from SLUGS. We find a trend for r31 to increase with star-formation efficiency (SFE). We model r31 using the UCL-PDR code and find that the gas density is the main parameter responsible for variation of r31, while the interstellar radiation field and cosmic ray ionization rate play only a minor role. We interpret these results to indicate a relation b…
