CHANG-ES, the “Continuum Halos in Nearby Galaxies, an EVLA Survey” project, brings together scientists from all over the globe in order to investigate the occurrence and origin of radio halos, to probe the disk-halo interface, and to study in-disk emission as well as their magnetic fields and the cosmic rays illuminating these fields. The goal is to understand connections between radio halos and the host disk and its environment.
A number of scientists from two Max
Planck Institutes and Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany are co-authors
in a recent study reporting observations of a sample of 35 nearby
edge-on galaxies with the compact D-configuration of the Karl G. Jansky
Very Large Array (VLA) in a number of spectral windows within two
frequency ranges, L-band around 1.5 GHz and C-band around 6 GHz.
A median image constructed from stacking
30 CHANG-ES observations of galaxies at C-band reveals the extent of
the galaxy that is otherwise invisible in optical wavelengths.
A study of spiral galaxies seen edge-on
has revealed that "halos" of cosmic rays and magnetic fields above and
below the galaxies' disks are much more common than previously thought.
An international team of astronomers used the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to study 35 edge-on spiral galaxies at distances from 11 million to 137 million light-years from Earth. The study took advantage of the ability of the VLA, following completion of a decade-long upgrade project, to detect radio emission much fainter than previously possible.
"We knew before that some halos existed, but, using the full power of the upgraded VLA and the full power of some advanced image-processing techniques, we found that these halos are much more common among spiral galaxies than we had realized," says Judith Irwin, of Queen's University in Canada, leader of the project.
Spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, have the vast majority of their stars, gas, and dust in a flat, rotating disk with spiral arms. Most of the light and radio waves seen with telescopes come from objects in that disk. Learning about the environment above and below such disks has been difficult.
"Studying these halos with radio telescopes can give us valuable information about a wide range of phenomena, including the rate of star formation within the disk, the winds from exploding stars, and the nature and origin of the galaxies' magnetic fields," says Theresa Wiegert, also of Queen's University, lead author of a paper in the Astronomical Journal reporting the team's findings. The paper provides the first analysis of data from all 35 galaxies in the study.
An international team of astronomers used the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) to study 35 edge-on spiral galaxies at distances from 11 million to 137 million light-years from Earth. The study took advantage of the ability of the VLA, following completion of a decade-long upgrade project, to detect radio emission much fainter than previously possible.
"We knew before that some halos existed, but, using the full power of the upgraded VLA and the full power of some advanced image-processing techniques, we found that these halos are much more common among spiral galaxies than we had realized," says Judith Irwin, of Queen's University in Canada, leader of the project.
Spiral galaxies, like our own Milky Way, have the vast majority of their stars, gas, and dust in a flat, rotating disk with spiral arms. Most of the light and radio waves seen with telescopes come from objects in that disk. Learning about the environment above and below such disks has been difficult.
"Studying these halos with radio telescopes can give us valuable information about a wide range of phenomena, including the rate of star formation within the disk, the winds from exploding stars, and the nature and origin of the galaxies' magnetic fields," says Theresa Wiegert, also of Queen's University, lead author of a paper in the Astronomical Journal reporting the team's findings. The paper provides the first analysis of data from all 35 galaxies in the study.
“We have studied the extended halos of
individual galaxies for quite some time”, explains Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar
from Ruhr-University in Bochum, Germany. “The CHANG-ES sample will
provide an additional statistical access to the important question of
galactic feedback.” One of his prime research targets, NGC 5775, was
used as template in order to represent the inner star forming region of
spiral galaxies (see Fig.).
To see how extensive a "typical" halo is, the astronomers scaled their images of 30 of the galaxies to the same diameter, then another of the authors, Jayanne English, of the University of Manitoba in Canada, combined them into a single image. The result, says Irwin, is "a spectactular image showing that cosmic rays and magnetic fields not only permeate the galaxy disk itself, but extend far above and below the disk."
The combined image, the scientists said, confirms a prediction of such halos made in 1961.
Along with the report on their findings, the astronomers also are making their first batch of specialized VLA images available to other researchers. In previous publications, the team described the details of their project and its goals. The team has completed a series of VLA observations and their latest paper is based on analysis of their first set of images. They now are analyzing additional datasets, and also will make those additional images available to other scientists when they publish the results of the later analyses.
"The results from this survey will help answer many unsolved questions in galactic evolution and star formation", concludes Marita Krause of the Max-Planck Institute für Radioastronomie in Bonn, Germany.
The research team comprises Philip
Schmidt, Silvia Carolina Mora, Ancor Damas-Segovia, Marita Krause &
Rainer Beck (all Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn,
Germany), Theresa Wiegert, the lead author, Judith Irwin, Stephen
MacGregor & Amanda DeSouza (all Dept. of Physics, Engineering
Physics & Astronomy, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada), Arpad
Miskolczi, Yelena Stein, Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar, Marek Wezgowiec (all
Astronomisches Institut, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany), Jayanne
English (Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Canada), Richard J. Rand, Isaiah Santistevan (Dept. of Physics
and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA), Rene
Walterbos (Dept. of Astronomy, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces,
USA), Amanda Kepley (NRAO, Charlottesville, USA) , Q. Daniel Wang (Dept.
of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA), George Heald
(ASTRON, Dwingeloo, The Netherlands), Jiangtao Li (Dept. of Astronomy,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA), Megan Johnson (CSIRO, Epping,
Australia), Andrew W. Strong (Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische
Physik, Garching, Germany), Troy A. Porter (Hansen Experimental Physics
Laboratory, Stanford University, USA).
This work was supported by the Natural
Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is run by the National Science
Foundation (NSF).
The work at Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, has been supported by DFG through FOR1048. The support of the Computer Center of the Max Planck Institute (RZG) in Garching, Germany, for the use of archiving facilities is acknowledged.
Local Contact
Dr. Marita Krause
Phone:+49 228 525-312
Email: mkrause@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
Dr. Rainer Beck
Phone:+49 228 525-323
Email: rbeck@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
Dr. Norbert Junkes
Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Phone:+49 228 525-399
Email: njunkes@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
