RUI: The Circumgalactic Medium in the Local Universe

天文学家试图了解恒星和星系是如何形成的。星系的存在与它们周围弥漫的气体有关。了解这种关系对于理解包括我们自己的星系（银河系）在内的星系是如何演变成现在的形式至关重要。Ribaudo和他的同事们将把阿雷西博天文台对附近星系及其周围气体的观测结果与其他地面观测结果以及哈勃太空望远镜的档案数据结合起来。这些综合观测探测了星系周围气体的成分及其物理分布。这些信息揭示了这些气体和内部星系之间的相互关系。该项目将为Utica学院的三名本科生提供教育研究机会，并为本科教育提供实验室活动。该项目还将包括向尤蒂卡儿童协会(Utica Children？PI之前曾参与过该博物馆。这些外展活动可能包括创建？脏雪球?说明彗星的形成和动手光谱和观测程序。Ribaudo和合作者将使用阿雷西博遗产快速阿尔法星系（ALFALFA）调查的结果来生成一个用于研究的星系样本。它们的物理性质是根据斯隆数字巡天（SDSS）的数据确定的。利用哈勃太空望远镜宇宙起源光谱仪资料中的背景类星体吸收光谱研究了环银河系介质（CGM）。他们将使用吸收线诊断来表征CGM，包括Lyman-alpha、CII、SiII、SiIII、NV和OVI。他们将研究覆盖分数、光谱线的等效宽度和金属丰度。这些研究人员将描述附近宇宙中星系的CGM的特性，并将它们与之前在z0.1的研究和更近星系的小型研究进行比较。这项工作的结果将由本科生在区域（纽约地区）和国家（AAS）天文学会议上介绍，并发表在评审期刊上。

Astronomers seek to understand how stars and galaxies formed. Galaxies have come to exist in relation to the diffuse gas that surrounds them. Understanding this relationship is essential for understanding how galaxies, including our own galaxy (the Milky Way), evolved into their present forms. Ribaudo and colleagues will combine observations of nearby galaxies and their surrounding gas made with the Arecibo Observatory with other ground-based observations as well Hubble Space Telescope archival data. These combined observations probe the constituents of the gas surrounding galaxies and its physical distribution. Such information reveals the inter-relationship between this gas and the galaxies within. This project will provide educational research opportunities for three undergraduate students at Utica College and laboratory activities for undergraduate education. This project will also include outreach to the Utica Children?s Museum, where the PI has previously been involved. Such outreach activities may include creating ?dirty snowballs? to illustrate comet formation and hands-on spectroscopy and observing programs.Ribaudo and collaborators will use results of the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) Survey to generate a sample of galaxies for study. Their physical properties are determined in conjunction with data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The CircumGalactic Medium (CGM) is investigated using absorption spectroscopy of background quasars from archival Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph data. They will characterize the CGM using absorption line diagnostics including Lyman-alpha, CII, SiII, SiIII, NV and OVI. They will investigate covering fractions, equivalent widths of spectral lines and metallicities. These researchers will characterize the properties of the CGM of galaxies in the nearby universe and compare them to previous studies at z 0.1 and smaller studies of more nearby galaxies. Results of this work will be presented by undergraduates at regional (New York area) and national (AAS) astronomy conferences in addition to being published in refereed journals.