Hubble post-servicing "first light" press release

The full list of HST post-servicing "first-light" press release images and spectra (in image form, sigh) featuring WFC3 and COS can be found at the STScI website here.

Interesting Astrophysics: Sep 07 to Sep 11

Of particular note there are interesting papers on theoretical models of dust-driven stellar winds (Mattsson et al) and SN Ia-driven galactic winds (Tang et al), along with observations of z~3 star forming galaxies showing signs of superwinds driven by core collapse supernova activity (Lemoine-Busserolle et al).

I also found Guio & Achilleos's paper on image decomposition using Voronoi tessellation quite interesting.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Cosmic-ray driven dynamo in the interstellar medium of irregular galaxies
H. Siejkowski, M. Soida, K. Otmianowska-Mazur, M. Hanasz, D.J. Bomans, arXiv:0909.0926 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 6 figures, submitted to A&A

The Distribution of Stars and Stellar Remnants at the Galactic Center
David Merritt, arXiv:0909.1318 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 22 pages, 18 figures

2D Kinematics and Physical Properties of z~3 Star-Forming Galaxies
M. Lemoine-Busserolle, A. Bunker, F. Lamareille, M. Kissler-Patig, arXiv:0909.1386 [pdf, other]
Comments: 14 pages and 16 figures

Their UV spectra show ISM lines blue shifted with respect to [O III]. Galactic winds! Although of course I shouldn't be surprised.

MMTF-Halpha and HST-FUV Imaging of the Filamentary Complex in Abell 1795
Michael McDonald, Sylvain Veilleux, arXiv:0909.1554 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, 6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

Investigating the far-IR/radio correlation of star-forming Galaxies to z= 3
N. Seymour, M. Huynh, T. Dwelly, M. Symeonidis, A. Hopkins, I. M. McHardy, M. J. Page, G. Rieke, 2009, MNRAS, 398, 1573
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 751K)

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Numerical Astrophysics & Hydrodynamics

Storm fronts over galaxy discs: models of how waves generate extraplanar gas and its anomalous kinematics
Curtis Struck and Daniel C. Smith, 2009, MNRAS, 398, 1069
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 23343K)

The VOISE algorithm: a versatile tool for automatic segmentation of astronomical images
P. Guio and N. Achilleos, 2009, MNRAS, 398, 1254
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 1354K)

Type Ia supernova-driven Galactic bulge wind
Shikui Tang, Q. Daniel Wang, Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, M. Ryan Joung, 2009, MNRAS, 398, 1468
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 18550K)

The fragmentation of expanding shells – I. Limitations of the thin-shell approximation
James E. Dale, Richard Wünsch, Anthony Whitworth, Jan Palouš, 2009, MNRAS, 398, 1537
Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 16967K)

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Stars, Supernovae and Planets

The relation between the most-massive star and its parental star cluster mass
C. Weidner, P. Kroupa, I. Bonnell, arXiv:0909.1555 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 26 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Dust Driven Mass Loss from Carbon Stars as Function of Stellar Parameters - I. A Grid of Solar-metallicity Wind Models
Lars Mattsson, Rurik Wahlin, Susanne Hoefner, arXiv:0909.1513 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 27 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Off to Mars, but not the Moon?

The summary of the Human Space Flight Review Committee report requested by the Obama administration advocates a long-term program with Mars as the long term goal (i.e. no set date), de-emphasising any return to the Moon:

... NASA has drafted a concept proposal called "Generation Mars" which envisions a 30-year blueprint for developing technologies, staging precursor missions to asteroids and other destinations, and building grassroots support for eventual human expeditions to Mars.

It also offers an unsurprising warning:

"The U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory. It is perpetuating the perilous practice of pursuing goals that do not match allocated resources," the report summary said.

[Hat tip: TPM/Reuters]

Interesting Astrophysics: Sep 01 to Sep 04

Of the 270 preprints that appeared on arXiv.org in the last week there were 16 that caught my eye.

Just on my favorite subject of galactic winds, Swinbank et al find evidence a galactic wind in a starburst galaxy at redshift z=4.9, Martin & Bouche present their Fe II and Mg II absorption line studies of wind in local ULIRGs, and Heesen et al present radio data on NGC 253's wind.

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Galaxies and Starbursts

Probing the Excitation of Extreme Starbursts: High Resolution Mid-IR Spectroscopy of Blue Compact Dwarfs
Lei Hao, Yanling Wu, V. Charmandaris, H. W. W. Spoon, J. Bernard-Salas, D. Devost, V. Lebouteiller, J. R. Houck, arXiv:0908.4084 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 15 pages, including 1 table and 14 figures. Accepted by ApJ

A Maximum Stellar Surface Density in Dense Stellar Systems
Philip F. Hopkins, Norman Murray, Eliot Quataert, Todd A. Thompson, arXiv:0908.4088 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to MNRAS Letters

A Spatially Resolved Map of the Kinematics, Star-Formation and Stellar Mass Assembly in a Star-Forming Galaxy at z=4.9
Mark Swinbank, Tracy Webb, Johan Richard, Richard Bower, Richard Ellis, Garth Illingworth, Tucker Jones, Mariska Kriek, Ian Smail, Dan Stark, Pieter Van Dokkum, rXiv:0909.0111 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 11 pages, 7 figures

Is this the highest redshift starbursting galaxy with an identified outflow?

Quantitative determination of the AGN content in local ULIRGs through L-band spectroscopy
G. Risaliti, M. Imanishi, E. Sani, arXiv:0908.4544 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 Pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Physical Conditions in the Low-Ionization Component of Starburst Outflows: The Shape of Near-Ultraviolet and Optical Absorption-Line Troughs in Keck Spectra of ULIRGs
Crystal L. Martin, Nicolas Bouche, arXiv:0908.4271 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 28 pages, 10 figures, to appear in ApJ

Very interesting and impressive work. The variation of the cloud covering fraction with velocity should prove a particularly powerful model discriminant.

The starburst-GRB connection
Jens Dreyer, Julia K. Becker, Wolfgang Rhode, arXiv:0909.0158 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 4 pages, 4 figures, contribution to the 31st ICRC, Lodz, Poland, 2009

Transport of cosmic rays in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253
Volker Heesen, Rainer Beck, Marita Krause, Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar, arXiv:0909.0282 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 6 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Astronomische Nachrichten (proceedings of Symposium 6 of the JENAM 2008, Vienna)

Tracing Star Formation in Cool Core Clusters with GALEX
Amalia Hicks, Richard F. Mushotzky, Megan Donahue, arXiv:0909.0257 [pdf, other]
Comments:
4 pages, 4 figures; to appear in proceedings of The Monster's Fiery
Breath: Feedback in Galaxies, Groups, and Clusters (AIP conference
series)

Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies: Spatially resolved mid-infrared observations with Spitzer/IRS
Almudena Alonso-Herrero, Miguel Pereira-Santaella, George H. Rieke, Luis Colina, Charles W. Engelbracht, Pablo Perez-Gonzalez, Tanio Diaz-Santos, J. D. T. Smith, arXiv:0909.0658 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research

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Numerical and Theoretical Astrophysics

Computational Eulerian Hydrodynamics and Galilean Invariance
Brant E. Robertson, Andrey V. Kravtsov, Nickolay Y. Gnedin, Tom Abel, Douglas H. Rudd, arXiv:0909.0513 [ps, pdf, other]

Comments: Submitted to MNRAS. Figures degraded. For high-resolution color figures and movies of the numerical simulations, please visit this http URL

From their abstract: "In this work, we critically examine recent claims [i.e. Springel 2009] that these methods violate Galilean invariance of the Euler equations. We demonstrate that Eulerian hydrodynamics methods do converge to a Galilean-invariant solution, provided a well-defined convergent solution exists. Specifically, we show that numerical diffusion, resulting from diffusion-like terms in the discretized hydrodynamical equations solved by Eulerian methods, accounts for the effects previously identified as evidence for the Galilean non-invariance of these methods."

Oct-tree Method on GPU
N.Nakasato, arXiv:0909.0541 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: Poster paper to be appeared in SC09

Turbulence and Mixing in the Intracluster Medium
P. Sharma, B. D. G. Chandran, E. Quataert, I. J. Parrish, arXiv:0909.0270 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 8 pages, 2 figs., submitted to the conference proceedings of "The Monster's Fiery Breath;" a follow up of arXiv:0901.4786 focusing on the general mixing properties of the ICM

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High Energy Astrophysics

Radial Distribution of X-ray Point Sources near the Galactic Center
Jaesub Hong, Maureen van den Berg, Jonathan E. Grindlay, Silas Laycock, arXiv:0908.4306 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 17 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal

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Stars. Supernovae and Planets

Atlas of Vega: 3850 -- 6860 Angstroms
Hyun-Sook Kim, Inwoo Han, G. Valyavin, Byeong-Cheol Lee, V. Shimansky, G.A. Galazutdinov, arXiv:0908.4081 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 9 pages, 1 table, 4 figures, accepted to be published in The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (PASP)

Balmer-Dominated Shocks: A Concise Review
Kevin Heng, arXiv:0908.4080 [ps, pdf, other]
Comments: 20 pages, 7 figures (double-columned, font size 10). Submitted to PASA. Comments welcome

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Other

A Color All-Sky Panorama Image of the Milky Way
Axel Mellinger, arXiv:0908.4360 [pdf, other]
Comments: 7 figures, submitted to PASP