Investigating the Stellar Populations of M33

调查 M33 的恒星族群

• 批准号: 0307863
• 负责人: Tammy Smecker-Hane
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of California-Irvine
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-07-15 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0307863&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Investigating; Stellar; Populations; M33

AST 0307863PI: Tammy Smecker-HaneINSTITUTION: University of California, IrvineDr. Smecker-Hane and her colleagues will undertake the first major campaign to determine the evolution of M33, a low-mass, late-type, spiral galaxy. Unlike the giant spirals in the Local Group (the Milky Way and M31), M33 has no galactic bulge, only a thin disk and either a thick disk or flattened halo. Hubble Space Telescope imaging has suggested the bulk of M33's globular clusters are significantly younger, by more than 6 Gyr, than globular clusters in the Milky Way and M31. Because hierarchical galaxy formation models, such as Cold Dark Matter, predict low mass galaxies form later than massive galaxies, studies of M33 will yield powerful constraints on galaxy evolution and structure formation theories.These researchers will determine, with high precision, the spatial extent, kinematics, and chemical abundances of the distinct stellar populations of M33 by obtaining spectra of approximately 1000 stars. Smecker-Hane and her graduate students will use the Mosaic Camera on the Kitt Peak National Observatory 4-meter Telescope to complete an imaging survey of the outer disk/halo of M33 designed to separate bona fide M33 red giants from foreground Galactic dwarfs. They will use the Keck II 10-meter Telescope to obtain near-infrared spectra of M33 red giants from which they will derive chemical abundances and radial velocities. The relative masses of the thin disk and thick disk/halo of M33 will be determined and constraints will be place on theories of thick disk/halo formation, e.g., monolithic collapse verses satellite mergers. The metallicity distribution functions can be combined with color-magnitude diagrams to break the degeneracy of age and metallicity and uniquely, and accurately, derive M33's star-formation history.During this project, two graduate students will learn sophisticated data reduction and analysis techniques that are critical to crowded-field photometry and multi-slit spectroscopy. Six undergraduate students will participate in this research: three UCI undergraduates and three NSF REU summer students. The graduate and undergraduate students will participate in numerous educational outreach projects organized by Smecker-Hane. including Visitor Nights at the UCI Observatory for the general public and tours for smaller groups of K-12 students. Each summer, Smecker-Hane and a graduate student will teach in the UCI COSMOS program, a summer program for high-school students who demonstrate excellence in math and science. COSMOS classes have equal numbers of male and female students, and approximately 30% are under represented minorities.***

AST 0307863PI：Tammy Smecker-Haneinstitution：加利福尼亚大学，Irvinedr。 Smecker-Hane和她的同事将开展首次大型运动，以确定M33的演变，这是一个低质量，晚期型，螺旋星系。与本地组中的巨型螺旋（银河系和M31）不同，M33没有银河凸起，只有一个薄磁盘和厚的磁盘或扁平的光环。哈勃太空望远镜成像表明，与银河系和M31相比，M33的大部分球状簇的大部分比球状簇要年轻，超过6 Gyr。因为层次的星系形成模型（例如冷暗物质）可以预测低质量星系比大型星系时间晚，因此M33的研究将对星系演化和结构形成理论产生强大的约束。研究人员将以高精度，空间范围，动力学和恒星的化学丰富度来确定MM33的不同恒星的化学丰富量。 Smecker-Hane和她的研究生将在Kitt Peak National天文台4米望远镜上使用Mosaic摄像头，以完成对M33的外磁盘/光晕的成像调查，该调查旨在将善意的M33红色巨人与前景分离。 他们将使用Keck II 10米望远镜获得M33红色巨人的近红外光谱，从中可以从中得出化学丰度和径向速度。将确定薄磁盘的相对质量和厚的M33磁盘/光环，并将约束放在厚磁盘/光环形成的理论上，例如单片塌陷经文卫星合并。金属性分布功能可以与颜色磁化图相结合，以打破年龄和金属性的脱落性以及独特的，准确地说，它得出了M33的星形形成历史记录。在此项目中，两个研究生将学习复杂的数据降低和分析技术，这些技术降低和分析技术对拥挤的型物体光体积和多体式镜像至关重要。 六名本科生将参加这项研究：三名UCI大学生和三名NSF REU夏季学生。毕业生和本科生将参加Smecker-Hane组织的许多教育外展项目。包括在UCI天文台的访客之夜，以及公众的旅行，较小的K-12学生群体。每年夏天，Smecker-Hane和一名研究生都会在UCI Cosmos课程中任教，UCI Cosmos计划是一个夏季计划，适合在数学和科学方面表现出卓越表现的高中生。宇宙课的男女学生人数相等，大约30％的人在代表的少数民族中。***