Download Section I - General Information Proposal Title: The effect of the group

Proposal Identification No.:
A3018
Date Received: 2015-Aug-30 21:49:25
Arecibo Observatory
William E. Gordon Telescope
Observing Time Request
COVER SHEET
Section I - General Information
Submitted for Sep 1 2015.
This proposal has not been submitted before.
Proposal Type:
General Category:
Sub-Category:
Observation Category:
Time Requested this semester:
Hours already used for this project:
Additional Hours required to complete project:
Minimum Useful Time:
Expected Data Storage:
Proposal Title:
ABSTRACT:
Regular
Astronomy
Spectroscopy
Extragalactic
138
0
90 minutes
less than 100 GB
The effect of the group environment on the HI content of nearby galaxies
While it has become clear that there is a strong connection between galaxies and their environment, we
are still struggling to understand how nurture shapes galaxy evolution, and which are the dominant
physical mechanisms involved. Studies of HI in and around galaxies hold the key to reveal the nature and
extent of environmental effects, as demonstrated by surveys of galaxy clusters such as Virgo. However,
what happens to the gas in the more common group environment is still unclear, because we still lack an
HI survey able to probe the gas-poor regime for a statistically significant sample of galaxies in groups.
We propose to use Arecibo to measure the HI content of about 200 galaxies in large groups down to the
levels of HI depletion observed in Virgo. This survey is uniquely designed to provide the reference sample
for studies of gas in group galaxies.
Outreach Abstract:
Galaxies are collections of hundreds of billions of stars formed out of the gaseous matrix that permeated
the early Universe. The observed properties of galaxies are known to depend on their surrounding local
environment. However, astronomers are still struggling to understand to what extent galaxy evolution is
shaped by nurture, and which are the dominant physical processes involved. The key to resolving this
outstanding issue is to study the cold gas component, which is the fuel for star formation, in galaxies
across a range of environments. This program combines ground-based visible and space-based ultraviolet
surveys (which measure the young and old stars in each galaxy) to observations from the Arecibo radio
telescope (which measure the gas content), in order to gain important insights into the physical
mechanisms responsible for transforming galaxies in the group environment.
Name
Barbara Catinella
Institution
UWA/ICRAR
E-mail
[email protected]
Luca Cortese
UWA/ICRAR
[email protected]
1
Phone
+61
356126
481
Student
no
no
Additional Authors
See proposal text
This work is not part of a thesis.
Remote Observing Request
Observer will travel to AO
X
Remote Observing
In Absentia (instructions to operator)
Section II - Time Request
The following times are in LST.
For these observations night-time is required.
Begin – End
Days Needed at
Interval–Interval
This Interval
09:30 – 15:30
23
–
–
–
Time Constraints (Must Be Justified in the Proposal Text)
We request part of the time be scheduled during the last two weeks of March 2016, corresponding to the
spring break periods when members of the Undergraduate ALFALFA Team can travel to Arecibo.
Section III - Instruments Needed
L-wide
Atmospheric Observation Instruments:
Special Equipment or setup:
none
Section IV - RFI Considerations
2
Frequency Ranges Planned
1384-1392
This proposal requires coordination with Punta Salinas radar within the band 1222-1381 MHz..
This proposal requires coordination with GPS L3 at 1381 MHz.
Section V - Observing List
Target List
See proposal text.
3