Study of the Global Structure of Interstellar Gas Cycle in Galaxies

利用安装在miniTAO 1m望远镜上的近红外相机ANIR，对银道面和附近41个星暴星系进行了氢Paschen-α(1.87μm)窄带成像观测。由于miniTAO位于Co. Chajnantor山顶，海拔5640m，这使得我们能够从地面进行观测Pa-α的发射，这是非常困难的。我们获得了关于星系形成和演化的新见解：(1)kennicut - schimdt定律中已知的色散（分子气体质量与恒星形成速率之间的相关性）似乎依赖于恒星形成区域的年龄；(2)在星系的星暴活动中可能存在以前未知的恒星形成模式。

We have carried out hydrogen Paschen-α(1.87μm) narrow-band imaging observations of the Galactic Plane and 41 nearby starburst galaxies, utilizing the near-infrared camera ANIR installed on the miniTAO 1m telescope. As the miniTAO is located at the summit of Co. Chajnantor with extremely high altitude of 5640m, it enables us to carry out observations of Pa-α emission from the ground, which is otherwise very difficult. We obtained new insights into the galaxy formation and evolution that (1) the dispersion known in the Kennicutt-Schimdt law (the correlation between molecular gas masses and star-formation rates) seems to be dependent on the age of star forming regions, and that (2) there may be a previously unknown star-forming mode in the starburst activities of galaxies.