Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 43 views

    Shrey Ansh: Draft Version December 4, 2020 Typeset Using L Tex Default Style in Aastex63

    Uploaded by

    Shrey Ansh
    The document summarizes research on dwarf galaxies. It begins by introducing dwarf galaxies as smaller, less luminous galaxies that can provide insights into early universe physics. It classifies dwarf galaxies and discusses their importance. It then highlights observations of the dwarf galaxy Leo A using the Hubble Space Telescope, noting its low metallicity and star formation history. It concludes by stating that future telescopes like Lynx and JWST will enable more detailed multi-band analyses of dwarf galaxies to investigate puzzles about the early universe.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Shrey Ansh: Draft Version December 4, 2020 Typeset Using L Tex Default Style in Aastex63

    Uploaded by

    Shrey Ansh
    43 views4 pages
    The document summarizes research on dwarf galaxies. It begins by introducing dwarf galaxies as smaller, less luminous galaxies that can provide insights into early universe physics. It classifies dwarf galaxies and discusses their importance. It then highlights observations of the dwarf galaxy Leo A using the Hubble Space Telescope, noting its low metallicity and star formation history. It concludes by stating that future telescopes like Lynx and JWST will enable more detailed multi-band analyses of dwarf galaxies to investigate puzzles about the early universe.

    Original Title

    galaxies

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document summarizes research on dwarf galaxies. It begins by introducing dwarf galaxies as smaller, less luminous galaxies that can provide insights into early universe physics. It classifies dwarf galaxies and discusses their importance. It then highlights observations of the dwarf galaxy Leo A using the Hubble Space Telescope, noting its low metallicity and star formation history. It concludes by stating that future telescopes like Lynx and JWST will enable more detailed multi-band analyses of dwarf galaxies to investigate puzzles about the early universe.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    43 views4 pages

    Shrey Ansh: Draft Version December 4, 2020 Typeset Using L Tex Default Style in Aastex63

    Uploaded by

    Shrey Ansh
    The document summarizes research on dwarf galaxies. It begins by introducing dwarf galaxies as smaller, less luminous galaxies that can provide insights into early universe physics. It classifies dwarf galaxies and discusses their importance. It then highlights observations of the dwarf galaxy Leo A using the Hubble Space Telescope, noting its low metallicity and star formation history. It concludes by stating that future telescopes like Lynx and JWST will enable more detailed multi-band analyses of dwarf galaxies to investigate puzzles about the early universe.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 4

    Draft version December 4, 2020

    Typeset using LATEX default style in AASTeX63

    Stellar Activities in Dwarf Galaxies


    Shrey Ansh1
    1 University of Alabama in HUntsville

    (Received December 3, 2020)

    Submitted to Dr. Stephen Walker

    ABSTRACT
    Dwarf galaxies are considered to be the remnant of early galaxies as they never underwent any major
    mergers, therefore they can serve as a gateway to the past. In this paper we review the criteria and
    classification of dwarf galaxies as well as highlighted their importance in the study of early universe
    physics.

    Keywords: Dwarf Galaxies — AGN — Black Holes

    1. INTRODUCTION
    With the advent of new generation of ground and space based telescopes, we have now pushed much deeper into
    the very heart of the universe. Objects that were once obscure are now being routinely observed and studied. Dwarf
    galaxies are one of those objects that have benefited immensely from the newer generation of telescopes and are already
    revealing some of the secrets of the early universe. This paper is divided into three parts - we start by introducing
    dwarf galaxies and then proceeded to explain the current state of research and point out some interesting results that
    were recently obtained. We conclude the paper by talking about future missions and why they are critical in advancing
    our knowledge of these peculiar but important stellar objects.
    2. WHAT ARE DWARF GALAXIES AND WHY ARE THEY SO IMPORTANT
    Dwarf galaxies or satellite galaxies are the smaller, less luminous version of galaxies which may or may not be
    gravitationally bound to the main galaxy. Astronomers have set a cut off mass for dwarf galaxies as 3 × 109 Ms which
    not coincidentally also happens to be the mass of the Magellanic Cloud. Dwarf galaxies typically have a luminosity
    of around 104 1 ergs/s, which is 3-4 order of magnitudes smaller than a typical galaxy. It is widely believed that these
    galaxies hosts intermediate black holes with masses ranging from 104 − 106 Ms (Reines 2020).
    Based on the chemical composition, we can classify dwarf galaxies into three major categories -
    • Ultra compact dwarf galaxies - These are actively star forming Blue Compact galaxies and consists of young,
    hot and massive stars. This class of dwarf galaxies can be used study the intricate relationship between black
    holes and their host galaxies in the realm of intermediate mass black holes.
    • Dwarf irregular galaxies - These are H1 rich system with varying mass, size and luminosity and are currently
    forming stars with varying rates. DI are usually Located at distance ¿400 kpc and are most often studied using
    space based telescopes such as HST.
    • Dwarf Spheroidal galaxies-They are usually devoid of recent star formation and are located at a distance ¡160
    KPc.Compared to DI, it’s easier to do their spectroscopy with ground telescopes owed to their closer location.
    DI and DS are usually preferred if one wants to study the time evolution of galaxies or measure quantities like
    star formation rate or star formation history

    Corresponding author: Shrey Ansh


    sa0124@ua.edu
    2 Shrey Ansh

    The fact that these dwarf galaxies are a gateway to the past of the universe makes them the most important object
    in the universe. For instance one of the most interesting problems of 21st century is the observation of super massive
    black holes at a red shift of 7. Considering the fact that a typical stellar black hole takes billions of years to form, it’s
    puzzling how these gargantuan black holes came into existence just 700 million years after the big bang. Since dwarf
    galaxies are the relics of those early galaxies, we can expect to find some hidden clues in their multi band observations.

    Figure 1. Various ways to form supermassive black holes at high red shifts, dwarf galaxies being the progenitors of these black
    holes could help us to solve this decade long problem

    3. RECENT DWARF GALAXIES OBSERVATIONS- LEO A


    Leo A, a dwarf galaxy was observed using Hubble Space Telescope (Gallart et al.1999). It is an irregular, metal
    poor gas rich dwarf galaxy, that’s located at a distance of 400 KPc from us. The metallicity [Fe/H] which is usually
    expressed in logarithmic terms was calculated using the optical spectrum obtained from HST and was incredibly low
    [Fe/H] = -1.5 which makes it an ideal candidate to study evolution of star formation rate.
    The plot (Figure 2) shows the stellar history of this dwarf galaxy evolving in time. In the present epoch we see some
    non trivial contributions in star formation, thereby implying that Leo A is still forming stars despite being so metal
    Ast 571 3

    poor. However, the majority of contribution to the star formation rate comes from the last 8 Gyr. Surprisingly this
    system has a contribution beyond 12 GYr which makes it a good candidate to study the physics of early universe,
    going back to re ionization era.

    Figure 2. Star formation history of Leo A, majority of the star formation took place in the last 8 Gyr with some contribution
    from stars beyond 10 Gyr

    4. CONCLUSION
    We do not have a time machine to look back into the universe, but these metal poor dwarf galaxies are an excellent
    laboratory to look back into the time right up to the re ionization era. However, our current observations are limited
    due to the limiting technological capabilities. For instance, if someone wants to study dwarf galaxies using chandra
    telescope, then he cannot go beyond 0.7 redshift. Future x ray mission like Lynx can detect x ray sources up to a
    redshift of 12. In the coming decade we would be able to combine the observation powers of Lynx, JWST and TMT
    to do a though multiband analysis of these low mass metal rich dwarf galaxies and can invsetigate some of the most
    puzlzing astronomy problems of the 21st century

    REFERENCES
    4 Shrey Ansh

    • Reines et al. 2020, A New Sample of (Wandering) Massive Black Holes in Dwarf Galaxies from High-resolution
    Radio Observations. The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 888, Issue 1, article id. 36, 16 pp

    • Gallart et al. 1999, HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE Observations of the Local Group Dwarf Galaxy Leo I. The
    Astrophysical Journal, Volume 514, Issue 2, pp. 665-674

    You might also like