COLUMBIA, MD., January 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Ionized carbon is an important tracer of astronomical processes and understanding how the angle of a galaxy affects ionized carbon can be key to improving analyzes of all of these processes.
Because the effects of perspective viewing are complex, spiral galaxies tend to be studied only if their orientation is right, that is, if telescopes can view them head-on rather than side-on. bias. Now a study of the galaxy NGC 7331 with the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the NASA Airborne Observatory has begun to characterize these effects.
Universities Space Research Association Jessica Sutter, the study’s lead author, investigated the various factors that can affect a galaxy’s ionized carbon emission, including the galaxy’s tilt angle. His presentation, “A Map of the Molecular Ring and Arms of a Spiral Galaxy,” at the American Astronomical Society’s virtual press conference will take place on January 10 at 10:15 a.m. MT. An article on this subject has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Astrophysics.
“One of the reasons more people haven’t looked at ionized carbon emissions from side galaxies is that you can’t do it from ground-based observations. You need a platform observation at least from the stratosphere, if not from space,” Sutter said. noted. “With SOFIA, we have more opportunities to get those full maps, and we see how useful that can be.”
Ionized carbon is an important measurement in astronomy because it can indicate the presence of star formation, cooling of the space between stars, and other processes. Additionally, it tends to be quite bright, making it easily detectable in galaxies tens of billions of light-years away, which is especially useful for galaxies with little other data available.
“Knowing where the ionized carbon emission comes from – whether it’s regions of photodissociation, or regions of ionized hydrogen, or diffuse ionized gas – is going to affect how we might use it to trace molecular gas, or star formation, or photodissociation conditions,” Sutter said. . “Our viewing angle can have an effect.”
As NGC 7331 is a tilted galaxy, the fraction of ionized carbon observed varied depending on which side of the galaxy was observed. “This should be an important consideration for researchers, especially if they are unsure of the inclination angle of the galaxy they are studying. With the help of SOFIA unique ability to study ionized carbon from within Earth’s stratosphere, we hope to extend this analysis by mapping ionized carbon emissions from an additional set of galaxies,” Sutter said. This will help uncover how tilt and other structural factors influence the significance of the charged atom in analyses, helping to demystify the history of the universe.
SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German space agency, DLR. The DLR provides the telescope, scheduled aircraft maintenance, and other support for the mission. NASA Ames Research Center in California Silicon Valley runs SOFIA program, science and mission operations in cooperation with the Space Research Association of Universities, headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, and German SOFIA Institute of the University of stuttgart. The aircraft is maintained and operated by NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center Building 703, in Palmdale, California.
About the USRA
Founded in 1969, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences at the request of the United States government, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to advancing science, technology, and engineering related to space. The USRA operates scientific institutes and facilities and conducts other major research and educational programs, with federal funding. USRA engages the academic community and employs in-house scientific leadership, innovative research and development, and project management expertise. More information about the USRA is available at www.usra.edu.
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SOURCE Space Research Association of Universities