2005-02-08

Spitzer, bowtie, CLASS/JVAS

Morad and I slaved away on Spitzer proposals, and Blanton and I argued over email about the expected flux of a r=16 mag dwarf galaxy (for the proposals). Eventually Morad and I decided that its minimum possible flux would be about 0.07 mJy at 10 microns, if it has a very blue spectrum and absolutely no hot dust or PAH emission. Most dwarfs ought to be substantially brighter.

Morad reminded me that one of the principal reasons to observe K+A galaxies with Spitzer is to rule out the possibility that they appear K+A only because the O and B stars are enshrouded in dust. This dust problem is not likely to be important, but it needs to be ruled out.

For sanity, I made some pretty pictures; check out this "bowtie" bulge-dominated galaxy with a dust lane. A merger remnant?

I discussed by email with Chris Fassnacht the possibility of doing a correlation function of flat-spectrum radio sources, inspired by an argument of mine that they could be used to accurately measure the merger rate (subject to many provisos). Unfortunately, it appears that nobody on CLASS/JVAS is interested, and I certainly don't have time. Any takers?

1 comment:

  1. I read your abstract on PAH emissions and I actually understand your findings. Astro-physics is cool! (But please, can you at least try to call them "little galaxies"?)

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