{"id":8640,"date":"2022-11-14T19:08:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T00:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=8640"},"modified":"2022-11-14T19:08:12","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T00:08:12","slug":"uci-led-astronomers-capitalize-on-early-access-to-james-webb-space-telescope-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/?p=8640","title":{"rendered":"UCI-Led Astronomers Capitalize on Early Access to James Webb Space Telescope Data"},"content":{"rendered":"
Vivian U, UCI assistant research scientist in physics and astronomy, is a member of a James Webb Space Telescope Early Release Science team that\u2019s using access to data from the JWST\u2019s advanced new instruments to learn unexpected things about nuclear dynamics in nearby galaxies. Steve Zylius \/ UCI<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First in line to receive data transmissions from the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions is using the unprecedentedly clear observations to reveal the secret inner workings of galaxies.<\/p>\n

In a paper published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters<\/em><\/a>, the researchers describe their examination of the nearby galaxy NGC 7469 with the JWST\u2019s ultrasensitive mid-infrared detection instruments. They conducted the most detailed analysis yet of the interactions between an active galactic nucleus dominated by a supermassive black hole and the star-forming galaxy regions surrounding it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are seeing in this system has been a surprise for us,\u201d said lead author Vivian U, UCI assistant research scientist in physics and astronomy and member of one of 13 JWST Early Release Science<\/a> teams. \u201cViewing this galaxy face-on, we are able to see not only winds from the supermassive black hole blowing in our direction but also \u2018shock heating\u2019 of the gas induced by said winds very close to the central active galactic nucleus, which is something we had not expected to be able to discern so clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

U noted that shock heating happens when wind from a black hole in a galaxy\u2019s center pushes on surrounding dense gas, creating a shock front that deposits energy into the interstellar medium. This effect could influence star formation in two opposing ways, she said. By compressing the gas into molecular form, it can foster the birth of new stars, or excessively strong feedback processes from the galactic wind can prevent birth by destroying stellar nurseries.<\/p>\n

According to U, NGC 7469 is a Seyfert galaxy with an active center hosting a supermassive black hole and a ring of star-forming regions. For decades, astronomers have tried to study the detailed dynamics of these systems, which make up about 10 percent of all galaxies, but dust \u2013 commonly abundant at the center of them \u2013 has made that a challenge. The JWST gave U and her co-authors access to what lies behind the dust veil.<\/p>\n

Using the telescope\u2019s 6.5-meter mirror and advanced suite of tools, including the Mid-Infrared Instrument, the researchers were able to map several key ionized and molecular gas emission lines that inform astronomers about the conditions of the interstellar medium \u2013 the gas, dust and radiation that exist between star systems in a galaxy \u2013 pinpointing star-forming regions within a starburst ring. They also detected a high-velocity outflow of ionized gas that\u2019s \u201cblueshifted,\u201d meaning it\u2019s coming toward the observer versus traveling in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe newly realized capability of mid-infrared integral field spectroscopy from the JWST\u2019s Mid-Infrared Instrument now allows us to see not just what\u2019s there behind the dust but also how things are moving at very small scales that we couldn\u2019t previously see at these wavelengths,\u201d U said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe now have a more coherent picture \u2013 at least in this system \u2013 of how the active galactic nucleus is driving out gas and how that\u2019s impacting the surrounding material,\u201d she added. \u201cWe see definitive signs of the black hole-driven winds dumping energy out into the interstellar medium.\u201d<\/p>\n

U said that a significant contributor to the roiling dynamics of NGC 7469 is the fact that it\u2019s merging with a second galaxy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interaction with another galaxy means that galactic materials are being moved around as a result of tidal forces, and they file toward the center of the galaxy system when angular momentum is lost. This process tends to make the galaxy center very dusty,\u201d she explained. \u201cThat\u2019s why you need instruments like the ones aboard the JWST that allow us to peer through the dust and facilitate our understanding of the dusty cores of merging galaxies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today’s publication is among the first in a series of papers from U and her collaborators that analyze data from the JWST Early Release Science program No. 1328. According to U, the spectacular imaging and spectroscopic data from the JWST offer an in-depth view of how galaxies evolve through the merging mechanism and enable her team to delve into the physics of star formation, black hole growth and feedback in nearby merging galaxies. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First in line to receive data transmissions from the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions is using the unprecedentedly clear observations to reveal the secret inner workings of galaxies. In a paper published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the researchers describe their examination of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":8642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/news.uci.edu\/files\/2022\/11\/U22_Fig3.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"UCI-Led Astronomers Capitalize on Early Access to James Webb Space Telescope Data","footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8641,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8640\/revisions\/8641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceandplanetarynewswire.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}