Probing the Evolution of Galaxies and Clusters with Planetary Nebulae

这个项目的目标是使用红移[O III]-5007滤光片来成像和识别与附近星系相关的行星状星云（PNe）： M31, NGC 720, 1399, 4406, 4472和4636，以及在附近星系团中发现的星团内恒星（与PNe相关）。然后将对这些星云进行光谱研究（使用麦克唐纳天文台的霍比-埃伯利望远镜），以获得它们的运动学和丰度，这些运动学和丰度可用于研究它们周围的距离、引力势和演化历史。像太阳这样的恒星不会永远存在。最终，它们膨胀到巨大的体积，脱离大气层，死亡。在这个过程中，恒星变成了“行星状星云”（PN），这是恒星最后的余烬照亮的美丽的发光气体结构。在很远的地方观察时，人们无法看到这些星云的细节。然而，人们可以利用PN的独特发射来研究天体物理学和宇宙学中的许多问题。具体来说，PN可以用于a)更好地定义河外距离尺度和哈勃常数，b)研究老恒星群中渐近后巨支演化，c)探测椭圆星系的恒星运动暗物质含量，d)测量附近星系的化学成分和化学演化，e)通过星系团内恒星研究星系团的结构和演化。我们建议继续我们成功的利用行星状星云来探测这些主题的计划。我们的近期目标将是测量离我们最近的螺旋星系M31的化学和恒星形成历史，探索室女座大型椭圆星系的质量分布，并了解星系团的形成和动态演化。我们的观测结果将直接导致对星系形成和演化的约束，以及暗物质晕的本质的改进

AST-0071238CiardulloThe goals of this project are to use redshifted [O III]-5007 filters to imagie and identify planetary nebulae (PNe) associated with the nearby galaxies: M31, NGC 720, 1399, 4406, 4472, and 4636 and the intracluster stars (associated with PNe) found in nearby galaxy clusters. These PNe will then be studied spectroscopically (using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory) to obtain their kinematics and abundances which can be used to study the distances, gravitational potential, and evolutionary history of their surroundings.Stars like the Sun do not live forever. Eventually, they expand to tremendous size, throw off their atmosphere, and die. In the process, the stars become "planetary nebulae" (PN), beautiful formations of glowing gas that are lit up by the stars' last embers. When viewed at great distances, one cannot see the details of these nebulae. However one can use the PN's distinctive emission to investigate a host of problems in astrophysics and cosmology. Specifically, PN can be use to a) better define the extragalactic distance scale and Hubble Constant, b) study post-asymptotic giant branch evolution in old stellar populations, c) probe the stellar motions dark matter content of elliptical galaxies, d) measure the chemical composition and chemical evolution of nearby galaxies, and e) study the structure and evolution of galaxy clusters via their intracluster stars. We are proposing to continue our successful program of using planetary nebulae to probe these topics. Our immediate goals will be to measure the chemical and star formation history of our nearest spiral galaxy, M31, explore the mass distributions of the large elliptical galaxies of Virgo, and learn about the formation and dynamical evolution of galaxy clusters. Our observations will lead directly to improved constraints on the formation and evolution of galaxies, and the nature of dark matter halos.***