Collaborative Research: Through the Gas Darkly: Birth and Death in the Milky Way

AST 0206309贝克尔银河系中大多数恒星的诞生和死亡都发生在光学望远镜看不到的地方。厘米级的无线电波和硬X射线可以穿透气体和尘埃，这些气体和尘埃模糊了我们的视线，但是有限的角分辨率和灵敏度使我们只能在黑暗中窥视气体，试图建立银河系恒星形成和消亡的普查。 哥伦比亚大学的大卫·赫尔方博士和加州大学戴维斯分校的罗伯特·贝克尔博士将利用甚大阵列（VLA）对银河平面进行新的调查，以及广泛的光学和近红外跟踪观测，以补充目前正在使用XMM-牛顿卫星进行的新的硬X射线银河平面调查。该小组的所有观测（批准和提议的，在X射线和无线电波长）都是非专有的，他们打算遵循FIRST调查模型创建一个公共网站，一旦构建和验证，就可以提供所有缩小的图像。因此，这项调查将为任何从事银河系天文学工作的天文学家提供有用的数据库。然而，这些研究人员已经确定了一些他们打算关注的具体问题：银河系超新星遗迹的完整普查，大质量星星形成的普查，以及吸积动力双星系统完整样本的定义。这些调查将为银河系中大质量星星的形成打开一扇新的窗口。所有由质量大于B 0的恒星提供动力的HII区域，在银河系对面的太阳圈都可以清楚地看到，因为它们的射电源与MSX卫星在该平面的中红外线图上探测到的红外线辐射相一致;此外，这些星星形成复合体中的许多都可以在XMM-牛顿图上探测到，从而根据X射线吸收柱密度提供了距离估计。 该小组将使用MDM 2.4米望远镜上的新红外相机跟踪所有HII区域候选者。结果将是迄今为止对银河系中大质量星星形成的最完整的普查。 几类X射线瞬变和稳定双星的亮度函数，来自于对XMM牛顿图像中选定的X射线点源样本的广泛光学和近红外跟踪，将比现有数据弱2-3个数量级，为近距离双星演化和吸积模型提供重要的新约束。由于X射线和无线电观测时间已经分配，MDM 2.4米望远镜上有一个新的8 K光学相机和一个近红外成像仪/光谱仪，并可以使用Lick和Keck天文台，这些研究人员有足够的资源来提供银河系引人注目的新视图。***

AST 0206309BeckerThe majority of stellar births and stellar deaths in the Milky Way take place shrouded fromthe view of optical telescopes. Centimeter radio waves and hard X-rays can penetrate the gas anddust which obscure our vision, but the limited angular resolution and sensitivity of all previoussearches has left us peering through the gas darkly in an attempt to construct a census of starformation and demise in the Galaxy. Drs. David Helfand, at Columbia University, and Robert Becker, at the University of California at Davis, will carry out a new survey of the Galactic Plane with the Very Large Array (VLA), as well as extensive optical and near-infrared follow up observations, to complement a new hard X-ray Galactic plane survey now underway using the XMM-Newton satellite. All of this group's observations (approved and proposed, at X-ray and radio wavelengths) are nonproprietary, and they intend to follow the FIRST survey model in creating a public website which will make available all reduced images as soon as they are constructed and verified. Thus, thesurvey will provide databases of use to any astronomer working in Galactic astronomy. However,these researchers have identified a number of specific problems on which they intend to focus: a complete census of Galactic supernova remnants, a census of massive star formation, and the definition of complete samples of accretion-powered binary systems. The surveys will open a new window on massive star formation in the Milky Way. All HII regions powered by stars more massive than B0 will be clearly visible to the solar circle on the opposite side of the Galaxy as radio sources coincident with infrared emission detected in the MSX satellite mid-infrared maps of the plane; in addition, many of these star formation complexes will be detectable in the XMM-Newton maps, providing a distance estimate from the X-ray absorption column density. This group will follow up all HII region candidates with a new infrared camera on the MDM 2.4m telescope. Theresult will be the most complete census yet of massive star formation in the Galaxy. Luminosity functions for several classes of X-ray transients and steady binaries, derived from extensive optical and near-infrared follow up of selected samples of X-ray point sources from the XMM Newtonimages, will extend 2-3 orders of magnitude fainter than existing data allow, providing important new constraints on close-binary evolution and models for accretion. With both X-ray and radio observing time already allocated, with a new 8K optical camera and a near-infrared imager/spectrometer on the MDM 2.4m telescope and access to the Lick and Keck Observatories, these researchers have the resources in place to provide a striking new view of the Milky Way. ***