We use integral field spectroscopic (IFS) observations from Gemini North Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-N) of a group of four H II regions and the surrounding gas in the central region of the blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy NGC 4670. At spatial scales of $\sim$ 9 pc, we map the spatial distribution of a variety of physical properties of the ionised gas: internal dust attenuation, kinematics, stellar age, star-formation rate, emission line ratios and chemical abundances. The region of study is found to be photoionised. Using the robust direct T$_e$-method, we estimate metallicity, nitrogen-to-oxygen ratio and helium abundance of the four H II regions. The same parameters are also mapped for the entire region using the HII-CHI-mistry code. We find that log(N/O) is increased in the region where the Wolf-Rayet bump is detected.The region coincides with the continuum region, around which we detect a slight increase in He abundance. We estimate the number of WC4, WN2-4 and WN7-9 stars from the integrated spectrum of WR bump region. We study the relation between log(N/O) and 12 + log(O/H) using the spatially-resolved data of the FOV as well as the integrated data of the H II regions from ten BCDs. We find an unexpected negative trend between N/O and metallicity. Several scenarios are explored to explain this trend, including nitrogen enrichment, and variations in star formation efficiency via chemical evolution models.
NGC 6441 is one of the most massive and most metal-rich globular clusters in the galaxy, and is noted for an unusual extended horizontal branch which reaches past the instability strip. We find evidence that there are two different populations of stars within the heavily-populated red clump. Once a differential reddening correction is applied, a large but compact group of stars is found at the faint red end of the clump in the color magnitude diagram. Brighter, bluer stars in the clump are found to be more centrally concentrated within the cluster at very high level of significance. Curiously,…
The isolated elliptical (IE) NGC 7796 is accompanied by an interesting early-type dwarf galaxy, named NGC7796-DW1. It exhibits a tidal tail, very boxy isophotes, and multiple nuclei or regions (A, B, and C) that are bluer than the bulk population of the galaxy, indicating a younger age. These properties are suggestive of a dwarf-dwarf merger remnant. We use the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the VLT to investigate NGC 7796-DW1. We extract characteristic spectra to which we apply the STARLIGHT population synthesis software to obtain ages and metallicities of the various population …
The galaxy NGC1313 has attracted the attention of various studies due to the peculiar morphology observed in optical bands, although it is classified as a barred, late-type galaxy with no apparent close-by companions. However, the velocity field suggests an interaction with a satellite companion. Using resolved stellar populations, we study different parts of the galaxy to understand further its morphology. Based on HST/ACS images, we estimated star formation histories by means of the synthetic CMD method in different areas in the galaxy. Incompleteness limits our analysis to ages younger than…
A key characteristic of many active galactic nuclei (AGN) is their variability, but its origin is poorly understood, especially in the radio domain. Williams et al. (2017) reported a ~50 per cent increase in peak flux density of the AGN in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151 at 1.5 GHz with the e-MERLIN array. We present new high resolution e-MERLIN observations at 5 GHz and compare these to archival MERLIN observations to investigate the reported variability. Our new observations allow us to probe the nuclear region at a factor three times higher-resolution than the previous e-MERLIN study. We separa…
We performed long-slit spectral observations of two SB-type galaxies: NGC 5347, UGC 1344. They were previously suspected as the galaxies with unusually low mass-to-light ratios (on the ground of mass estimates from the Hi linewidths), which are in conflict with their observed colours. The observations were conducted at the Russian 6-m telescope. The aim of the study was to clarify the kinematics and structure, as well as the properties of stellar populations of the galaxies. The results of observations disproved the peculiarly low mass-to-light ratios of both galaxies. The most probable reason…
Extreme mass ratio inspiral (EMRI) events are vulnerable to perturbations by the stellar background, which can abort them prematurely by deflecting EMRI orbits to plunging ones that fall directly into the massive black hole (MBH), or to less eccentric ones that no longer interact strongly with the MBH. A coincidental hierarchy between the collective resonant Newtonian torques due to the stellar background, and the relative magnitudes of the leading-order post-Newtonian precessional and radiative terms of the general relativistic 2-body problem, allows EMRIs to decouple from the background and …
Detailed elemental abundance patterns of metal-poor ([Fe/H] ~ -1~dex) stars in the Galactic bulge indicate that a number of them are consistent with globular cluster (GC) stars and may be former members of dissolved GCs. This would indicate that a few per cent of the Galactic bulge was built up from destruction and/or evaporation of globular clusters. Here an attempt is made to identify such presumptive stripped stars originating from the massive, inner Galaxy globular cluster NGC~6441 using its rich RR Lyrae variable star (RRL) population. We present radial velocities of forty RRLs centered o…
We report the detection of a circular polarization signature in the Stokes $V$ profile of a 25 GHz Class I CH$_3$OH maser toward the high mass star forming region OMC-1. Such a feature usually constitutes a detection of the Zeeman effect. If due to a magnetic field in OMC-1, this would represent the first detection and discovery of the Zeeman effect in the 25 GHz Class I CH$_3$OH maser. The feature in Stokes $V$ is detected in two observations with different angular resolutions taken eight years apart with the Very Large Array (VLA); for our 2009 D-configuration observations, the fitted value …
The color magnitude diagram (CMD) of NGC 1851 presents two subgiant branches (SGB), probably due the presence of two populations differing in total CNO content. We test the idea that a difference in total CNO may simulate an age difference when comparing the CMD of clusters to derive relative ages. We compare NGC 1851 with NGC 6121 (M4), a cluster of very similar [Fe/H]. We find that, with a suitable shift of the CMDs that brings the two red horizontal branches at the same magnitude level, the unevolved main sequence and red giant branch match, but the SGB of NGC 6121 and its red giant branch …
The study of gas-dust interactions occurring in the interstellar medium of a galaxy is essential for understanding various physical processes taking place within it. A comparison of such events at different locations corresponding to diverse astrophysical environments provides more insight into the star-formation as well as dust destruction conditions and time-scales. We present a case study for two galaxies: NGC 3184 and NGC 7793, which are typical examples of a `grand design spiral' and a `flocculent spiral', respectively. We investigate the gas-dust correlations at various spatially resolve…
We analyzed the Rotation Curves of two crucial objects, the Dwarf galaxy Orion and the low luminosity Spiral NGC 3198, in the framework of $R^n$ gravity. We surprisingly found that the no DM power-law f(R) case fits them well, performing much better than $Λ$CDM Dark Matter halo models. The level of this unexpected success can be a boost for $R^n$ gravity.
The Curious Case of Centaurus A: On the Subject of the Quenched satellites
The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Science（卡内基科学研究所天文台）；Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland（马里兰大学天文学系）；University of Calgary（卡尔加里大学）；Carnegie Science Observatories（卡内基科学天文台）；San Francisco State University（旧金山州立大学）；University of Virginia（弗吉尼亚大学）；NASA Ames Research Center（美国国家航空航天局艾姆斯研究中心）；Bay Area Environmental Research Institute（湾区环境研究所）
We present results from an X-ray and radio study of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 115. We use the full set of 5 Chandra observations taken of A115 to date (360 ks total integration) to construct high-fidelity temperature and surface brightness maps. We also examine radio data from the Very Large Array at 1.5 GHz and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope at 0.6 GHz. We propose that the high X-ray spectral temperature between the subclusters results from the interaction of the bow shocks driven into the intracluster medium by the motion of the subclusters relative to one another. We have identi…
We present the first comprehensive abundance study of the massive, outer halo globular cluster (GC) M 75 (NGC 6864). This unique system shows a very extended trimodal horizontal branch (HB), but no other clues for multiple populations have been detected in its colour-magnitude diagram (CMD). Based on high-resolution spectroscopic observations of 16 red giant stars, we derived the abundances of a large variety of alpha, p-capture, iron-peak, and n-capture elements. We found that the cluster is metal-rich ([Fe/H] = -1.16 +/- 0.02 dex, [alpha/Fe] = +0.30 +/- 0.02 dex), and shows a marginal spread…
Since NGC300 is a bulge-less, isolated low-mass galaxy and has not experienced radial migration during its evolution history, it can be treated as an ideal laboratory to test simple galactic chemical evolution models. By assuming its disk forms gradually from continuous accretion of primordial gas and including the gas-outflow process, we construct a simple chemical evolution model for NGC300 to build a bridge between its SFH and its observed data, especially the present-day radial profiles and global observed properties (e.g., cold gas mass, star-formation rate and metallicity). By means of c…
We investigate the dynamical status of the low-mass globular cluster Palomar 13 by means of N-body computations to test whether its unusually high mass-to-light ratio of about 40 and its peculiarly shallow surface density profile can be caused by tidal shocking. Alternatively, we test - by varying the assumed proper motion - if the orbital phase of Palomar 13 within its orbit about the Milky Way can influence its appearance and thus may be the origin of these peculiarities, as has been suggested by Kuepper et al. (2010). We find that, of these two scenarios, only the latter can explain the obs…
Gaia DR2 5932173855446728064 was recently proposed to be unbound from the Milky Way based on the $-614.3\pm2.5\;\mathrm{km}\;\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ median radial velocity given in Gaia DR2. We obtained eight epochs of spectroscopic follow-up and find a very different median radial velocity of $-56.5 \pm 5.3\;\mathrm{km}\;\mathrm{s}^{-1}$. If this difference were to be explained by binarity, then the unseen companion would be an intermediate-mass black hole; we therefore argue that the Gaia DR2 radial velocity must be in error. We find it likely that the spectra obtained by Gaia were dominated by the…
Aims. Recent ATCA, XMM-Newton and MCELS observations of the Magellanic Clouds (MCs) cover a number of new and known SNRs which are poorly studied, such as SNR J0528-6714 . This particular SNR exhibits luminous radio-continuum emission, but is one of the unusual and rare cases without detectable optical and very faint X-ray emission (initially detected by ROSAT and listed as object [HP99] 498). We used new multi-frequency radio-continuum surveys and new optical observations at Hα, [S ii] and [O iii] wavelengths, in combination with XMM-Newton X-ray data, to investigate the SNR properties and to…
High nitrogen abundance is characteristic of Type I planetary nebulae as well as their highly filamentary structure. In the present work we test the hypothesis of shocks as a relevant excitation mechanism for a Type-I nebula, NGC 6302, using recently released diagnostic diagrams to distinguish shocks from photoexcitation. The construction of diagrams depends on emission line ratios and kinematical information. NGC 6302 shows the relevance of shocks in peripheral regions and the importance to the whole nebula. Using shocks, we question the usual assumption of ICF calculation, justifying a warni…
Planets and their host stars carry a long-term memory of their origin in their chemical compositions. Thus, identifying planets formed in different environments improves our understating of planetary formation. Although restricted to detecting exoplanets within the solar vicinity, we might be able to detect planetary systems that formed in small external galaxies and later merged with the Milky Way. In fact, Gaia data have unequivocally shown that the Galaxy underwent several significant minor mergers during its first billion years of formation. The stellar debris of one of these mergers, Gaia…
We used the Z-transformed Discrete Correlation Function (ZDCF) and the Stochastic Process Estimation for AGN Reverberation (SPEAR) methods for the time series analysis of the continuum and the H$α$ and H$β$ line fluxes of a sample of well known type 1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs): Arp 102B, 3C 390.3, NGC 5548, and NGC 4051, where the first two objects are showing double-peaked emission line profiles. The aim of this work is to compare the time lag measurements from these two methods, and check if there is a connection with other emission line properties. We found that the obtained time lags f…
