Integral Field Spectroscopic Constraints on the Physics of Galactic Winds and Gas Accretion

天文学家想知道为什么星系中的一些区域形成恒星，而另一些区域不形成。向内流动的气体提供了恒星形成的材料，但爆炸的恒星产生了外流的风，带走了物质，阻止了进一步的恒星形成。鲁宾和她的合作者将研究恒星形成区气体的流入和流出，以了解气体流动如何塑造星系。为了促进天文学的多样性，将招募当地高中和社区大学的学生以及初级本科生参加一年一度的暑期学校。学生们将参与研究项目并学习计算机编程。对星系周围冷(T 1000K)气体流动的运动学和形态的经验约束是建立完整的星系形成理论的关键。利用多单元光谱探测器(MUSE)在超大望远镜上对附近45个恒星形成星系进行的档案观测将被分析，以进行星际NaI吸收的运动学研究。这将把冷风速和冷气体吸积的发生率限制在~50-100pC尺度上，并建立这些过程与局地恒星形成活动之间的关系。我们将对在FIRE-2宇宙星系形成模拟中预测的冷星系气流的吸收进行比较分析。该项目将在银河系风的能量学和星系气体吸积的形态上产生一组新的经验约束。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Astronomers want to understand why some regions in a galaxy form stars and other regions do not. In-flowing gas delivers star-building material, but exploding stars create outflowing winds, removing material, and preventing further star formation. Rubin and her collaborators will study the inflow and outflow of gas in star forming regions in order to understand how gas flows shape galaxies. To promote diversity in astronomy local high school and community college students and beginning undergraduates will be recruited for an annual summer school. The students will participate in research projects and learn about computer programming. Empirical constraints on the kinematics and morphology of cool (T 1000 K) gas flows around galaxies are crucial to building a complete theory of galaxy formation. Archival observations taken with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope of ~45 nearby star-forming galaxies will be analyzed to conduct a kinematic study of interstellar NaI absorption. This will constrain the cool wind velocity and the incidence of cool gas accretion on ~50 – 100 pc scales, and establish the relationship between these processes and local star formation activity. A comparative analysis of absorption from cool galactic gas flows predicted in the FIRE-2 suite of cosmological galaxy formation simulations will be made. This project will produce a novel set of empirical constraints on the energetics of galactic winds and on the morphology of galactic gas accretion.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.