FirstGal · The first protoclusters of galaxies: probes of star formation in the infancy of the Universe
7РП — „Хора“ (Действия „Мария Кюри“)
- Период
- 2013-04-01 → 2017-03-31
- Финансиране от ЕС
- 100 000 €
- Участници
- 1
- Схема
- MC-CIG
Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.
Накратко на български
Формирането на първите галактики и звездни групи се анализира чрез данни от телескопа „Хъбъл“, като например се изследват обекти от времето, когато Вселената е била на 650 милиона години. Това помага да се разбере как ранните структури се развиват в съвременните галактики.
Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.
Резултати накратко
The first protoclusters of galaxies: probes of star formation in the infancy of the Universe
The main focus of the project has been the study of galaxy formation and evolution within the first billion years after the Big Bang, primarily using Hubble Space Telescope data, and related modeling to understand how the early objects subsequently evolve into the galaxies and galaxy clusters observed in the local universe. The initial stage has been very successful in both the observational and modeling aspects, leading to a total of 22 submitted and refereed publications by the Fellow. In particular the project provided the best characterization of the properties of bright galaxies at redshift z~8, which are objects observed when the Universe was just about 650 Million years old (more than 13 billion years ago). In addition, the project studied the clustering properties of galaxies at redshift z>7 for the first time. The clustering measurement is very important because it provides, at least in the statistical sense, the total weight of a galaxy (stars plus dark matter). This measurement allowed the Fellow and his team to demonstrate that galaxies as bright as our own Milky Way were already present at those early times, but had stellar and dark-matter halo masses about ten times smaller. This result derives from the fact that the stars in those galaxies are younger and hotter, and therefore brighter per unit mass at the wavelengths observed by Hubble, compared to the old stellar population of our own galaxy. In addition, the Fellow modeled (1) the connection between assembly of galaxies and of their dark-matter halos; (2) the link between star formation and Gamma Ray Burst explosions; and (3) the evolution of dense stellar systems using sophisticated computer simulations. Overall, these activities contributed to the advancement of the state of the art of galaxy formation and evolution, and provided new clues to address one of the most fundamental questions of astronomy: "Where do we come from?". An early termination of the project after about 18 months has been triggered by the relocation of the Fellow to The University of Melbourne, Australia where he joined the School of Physics as faculty member. The Fellow started there a new research group and the later stages of the project discussed in the proposal are now continuing to be carried out through support from the Australian Research Council. Further information on the Hubble Space Telescope observations can be found on the website of the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) survey, led by the Fellow: http://borg.physics.ucsb.edu/. The website has links to astronomical data images released to the public, both for outreach and for exploitation by other scientists. Overall, the project strengthened existing international collaborations between Europe and the United States, and led to the establishment of new ones, in particular within Europe (UK-Spain) and with Australia.
Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз
Цел на проекта
The formation of stars and galaxies in the first billion of years after the Big Bang presents many open questions and opportunities for (unexpected) discoveries. How and when the first stars and galaxies were formed? How do they evolve with time into the galaxies, stars and black holes that we observe today? To address these fundamental questions, we propose to study star formation in the first protoclusters of galaxies during the infancy of the Universe. We started finding these rare overdensities with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) as early as 650 million years after the Big Bang (at redshift z~8, more than 13 billion light years from us). Now, we aim at characterizing their properties. Our approach is based on combining observations using the most powerful telescopes, such as HST, Spitzer, ALMA, VLT and Keck, with computer simulations and theoretical modeling to interpret the datasets. Protocluster galaxies live in overdense regions with an earlier than average assembly history, hence they are ideal to investigate the very first instances of star formation and cosmic reionization. Our project will (1) characterize galaxies in the most distant protocluster known to date, which we discovered thanks to a large HST campaign; (2) discover new protoclusters at similar redshift in the short term, and out to redshift z~15 (300 Myr after the Big Bang) in the future with the James Webb Space Telescope; (3) model the formation and evolution of these systems across cosmic time, testing not only our understanding of how stars and galaxies are born, but also of the fundamental nature of dark matter particles. The project is based on ongoing observations and modeling started in the United States, and supported by ample NASA funding awarded to the researcher before his reintegration into the EU. The award of a CIG will ensure that the scientific leadership is permanently established in the EU, contributing to its scientific excellency.
Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).
Участници
- THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE · CAMBRIDGEКоординаторОбединеното кралство
Връзки
Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз