Unveiling the Assembly History of Galaxies by Dissecting their Structure, Chemical Evolution, and Stellar Populations

通过剖析星系的结构、化学演化和恒星种群来揭示星系的组装历史

• 批准号: 1413652
• 负责人: Shardha Jogee
• 金额: $ 29.76万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1413652&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Unveiling; Assembly; History; Galaxies; Dissecting

Understanding how galaxies -- the luminous building blocks of the Universe -- evolve is one of the fundamental goals of astronomy and a critical step toward understanding our origins. This project will explore the different physical processes through which galaxies grow by dissecting the distribution, velocities, chemical content, and excitation conditions of their constituent stars and gas. It will analyze both imaging data and exquisite, cutting-edge, spectroscopic data from a survey conducted at the McDonald Observatory, a research unit of the University of Texas at Austin. The analyses in this project will lay the groundwork for future explorations planned by next-generation astronomical facilities with heavy US investments. As part of this program, the team will also provide science-ready data products from the survey and educational materials to the community at large. This program will include nationally-recognized professional development workshops for several dozen secondary school teachers and impact over 15,000 secondary students. Nearly 50% of these students are expected to be Hispanic, a demographic group strongly underrepresented in science fields. Curriculum content and workshop practices will align with the National Science Education Standards, the new Next Generation Science Standards, and Texas science standards. Understanding the assembly history of galaxies as a function of epoch is one of the fundamental goals of astronomy. This project will explore the relative importance of different assembly modes by combining structural archaeology, chemical evolution, and the star formation history of galaxies. Combining photometric surveys with the spatially-resolved integral field spectroscopic data from a survey conducted at McDonald observatory, the team will be able to dissect spiral galaxies into dynamically different regions, such as the bulge, bar, spiral arms, and outer disk, as well as regions of different excitations. The project will examine the distributions of stellar and gas properties and determine how the abundance gradient varies across galaxies with different Hubble types and establish whether different gas-phase metallicity indicators show the same gradient and patterns within a galaxy. As part of this program, the team will also provide science-ready data products from the survey and educational materials to the community at large. The broader impact of this program incorporates Teacher Professional Development Workshops. The program is designed to insure maximum direct transfer of information gained by the teachers to their students in the classroom. The teachers involved in the program typically teach classes with a 51% Hispanic demographic, so the potential impact of the program on underrepresented minority students is substantial.

了解星系-宇宙的发光积木-如何演变是天文学的基本目标之一，也是了解我们起源的关键一步。该项目将通过解剖其组成恒星和气体的分布、速度、化学含量和激发条件来探索星系生长的不同物理过程。它将分析成像数据和来自德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校麦克唐纳天文台研究单位的精致，尖端的光谱数据。该项目的分析将为美国大量投资的下一代天文设施计划的未来探索奠定基础。作为该计划的一部分，该团队还将向整个社区提供调查和教育材料中的科学数据产品。该计划将包括为数十名中学教师举办的国家认可的专业发展讲习班，并影响15，000多名中学生。预计这些学生中有近50%是西班牙裔，这是一个在科学领域代表性极低的人口群体。课程内容和研讨会的做法将符合国家科学教育标准，新的下一代科学标准，和得克萨斯州的科学标准。了解星系的组装历史作为时代的函数是天文学的基本目标之一。本项目将结合结构考古学、化学演化和星系的星星形成历史，探索不同组装模式的相对重要性。将测光调查与麦克唐纳天文台进行的调查中的空间分辨积分场光谱数据相结合，该团队将能够将螺旋星系解剖成动态不同的区域，例如凸起，酒吧，旋臂和外盘，以及不同激发的区域。该项目将研究恒星和气体性质的分布，确定不同哈勃类型星系的丰度梯度如何变化，并确定不同的气相金属丰度指标是否在星系内显示相同的梯度和模式。作为该计划的一部分，该团队还将向整个社区提供调查和教育材料中的科学数据产品。该方案的更广泛影响包括教师专业发展讲习班。该计划旨在确保教师在课堂上获得的信息最大限度地直接传递给学生。参与该计划的教师通常教授51%的西班牙裔人口，因此该计划对代表性不足的少数民族学生的潜在影响是巨大的。