The Astrophysical Journal Letters最新文献

{"title":"Hedgehog: An Isolated Quiescent Dwarf Galaxy at 2.4 Mpc","authors":"Jiaxuan Li, 嘉轩 李, Jenny E. Greene, Scott G. Carlsten and Shany Danieli","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad5b59","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad5b59","url":null,"abstract":"It is well known that almost all isolated dwarf galaxies are actively forming stars. We report the discovery of dw1322m2053 (nicknamed Hedgehog), an isolated quiescent dwarf galaxy at a distance of 2.40 ± 0.15 Mpc with a stellar mass of M⋆ ≈ 105.8M⊙. The distance is measured using surface brightness fluctuations with both Legacy Surveys and deep Magellan/IMACS imaging data. Hedgehog is 1.7 Mpc from the nearest galaxy group, Centaurus A, and has no neighboring galaxies within 1 Mpc, making it one of the most isolated quiescent dwarf galaxies at this stellar mass. It has a red optical color and early-type morphology and shows no UV emission. This indicates that Hedgehog has an old stellar population and no ongoing star formation. Compared with other quiescent dwarfs in the Local Group and Local Volume, Hedgehog appears smaller in size for its luminosity but is consistent with the mass–size relations. Hedgehog might be a backsplash galaxy from the Centaurus A group, but it could also have been quenched in the field by ram pressure stripping in the cosmic web, reionization, or internal processes such as supernova and stellar feedback. Future observations are needed to fully unveil its formation, history, and quenching mechanisms.","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142556272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Atmospheric Retrievals Suggest the Presence of a Secondary Atmosphere and Possible Sulfur Species on L98-59 d from JWST Nirspec G395H Transmission Spectroscopy","authors":"Agnibha Banerjee, Joanna K. Barstow, Amélie Gressier, Néstor Espinoza, David K. Sing, Natalie H. Allen, Stephan M. Birkmann, Ryan C. Challener, Nicolas Crouzet, Carole A. Haswell, Nikole K. Lewis, Stephen R. Lewis and Jingxuan Yang","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad73d0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad73d0","url":null,"abstract":"L 98-59 d is a Super-Earth planet orbiting an M-type star. We performed retrievals on the transmission spectrum of L 98-59 d obtained using NIRSpec G395H during a single transit, from JWST Cycle 1 GTO 1224. The wavelength range of this spectrum allows us to detect the presence of several atmospheric species. We found that the spectrum is consistent with a high mean molecular weight atmosphere. The atmospheric spectrum indicates the possible presence of the sulfur-bearing species H2S and SO2, which could hint at active volcanism on this planet if verified by future observations. We also tested for signs of stellar contamination in the spectrum and found signs of unocculted faculae on the star. The tentative signs of an atmosphere on L 98-59 d presented in this work from just one transit bodes well for possible molecular detections in the future, particularly as it is one of the best targets among small exoplanets for atmospheric characterization using JWST.","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142541277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Swiftly Chasing Gravitational Waves across the Sky in Real Time","authors":"Aaron Tohuvavohu, Jamie A. Kennea, Christopher J. Roberts, James DeLaunay, Samuele Ronchini, S. Bradley Cenko, Becca Ewing, Ryan Magee, Cody Messick, Surabhi Sachdev and Leo P. Singer","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad87ce","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad87ce","url":null,"abstract":"We introduce a new capability of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, dubbed “continuous commanding,” that achieves 10 s latency response time on orbit to unscheduled target-of-opportunity requests received on the ground. We show that this will allow Swift to respond to premerger (early-warning) gravitational-wave (GW) detections, rapidly slewing the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) across the sky to place the GW origin in the BAT field of view at or before merger time. This will dramatically increase the GW/gamma-ray burst (GRB) codetection rate and enable prompt arcminute localization of a neutron star merger. We simulate the full Swift response to a GW early-warning alert, including input sky maps produced at different early-warning times, a complete model of the Swift attitude control system, and a full accounting of the latency between the GW detectors and the spacecraft. 60 s of early warning can double the rate of a prompt GRB detection with arcminute localization, and 140 s guarantees observation anywhere on the unocculted sky, even with localization areas ≫1000 deg2. While 140 s is beyond current GW detector sensitivities, 30–70 s is achievable today. We show that the detection yield is now limited by the latency of LIGO/Virgo cyberinfrastructure and motivate a focus on its reduction. Continuous commanding has been integrated as a general capability of Swift, significantly increasing its versatility in response to the growing demands of time-domain astrophysics. We demonstrate this potential on an externally triggered fast radio burst (FRB), slewing 81° across the sky, and collecting X-ray and UV photons from the source position <150 s after the trigger was received from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, thereby setting the earliest and deepest such constraints on high-energy activity from nonrepeating FRBs. The Swift Team invites the community to consider and propose novel scientific applications of ultra-low-latency UV, X-ray, and gamma-ray observations.","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142556279","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Intense Star Cluster Formation: Stellar Masses, the Mass Function, and the Fundamental Mass Scale","authors":"Christopher D. Matzner","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad85d4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad85d4","url":null,"abstract":"Within the birth environment of a massive globular cluster, the combination of a luminous young stellar population and a high column density induces a state in which the thermal optical depth and radiation pressure are both appreciable. In this state, the sonic mass scale, which influences the peak of the stellar mass function, is tied to a fundamental scale composed of the Planck mass and the mass per particle. Thermal feedback also affects the opacity-limited minimum mass and how protostellar outflows and binary fragmentation modify stellar masses. Considering the regions that collapse to form massive stars, we argue that thermal stabilization is likely to flatten the high-mass slope of the initial mass function. Among regions that are optically thick to thermal radiation, we expect the stellar population to become increasingly top-heavy at higher column densities, although this effect can be offset by lowering the metallicity. A toy model is presented that demonstrates these effects and in which radiation pressure leads to gas dispersal before all of the mass is converted into stars.","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142541231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From Coasting to Energy-conserving: New Self-similar Solutions to the Interaction Phase of Strong Explosions","authors":"Eric R. Coughlin","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad87cc","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad87cc","url":null,"abstract":"Astrophysical explosions that contain dense and ram-pressure-dominated ejecta evolve through an interaction phase, during which a forward shock (FS), contact discontinuity (CD), and reverse shock (RS) form and expand with time. We describe new self-similar solutions that apply to this phase and are most accurate in the limit that the ejecta density is large compared to the ambient density. These solutions predict that the FS, CD, and RS expand at different rates in time and not as single temporal power laws, are valid for explosions driven by steady winds and homologously expanding ejecta, and exist when the ambient density profile is a power law with a power-law index shallower than ∼3 (specifically when the FS does not accelerate). We find excellent agreement between the predictions of these solutions and hydrodynamical simulations, both for the temporal behavior of the discontinuities and for the variation of the fluid quantities. The self-similar solutions are applicable to a wide range of astrophysical phenomena and—although the details are described in future work—can be generalized to incorporate relativistic speeds with arbitrary Lorentz factors. We suggest that these solutions accurately interpolate between the initial “coasting” phase of the explosion and the later, energy-conserving phase (or, if the ejecta is homologous and the density profile is sufficiently steep, the self-similar phase described in R. A. Chevalier).","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142541232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quantum-mechanical Suppression of Accretion by Primordial Black Holes","authors":"Abraham Loeb","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad887d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad887d","url":null,"abstract":"The Schwarzschild radii of primordial black holes (PBHs) in the mass range of 6 × 1014–4 × 1019 g match the sizes of nuclei to atoms. I discuss the resulting quantum-mechanical suppression in the accretion of matter by PBHs in dense astrophysical environments, such as planets or stars.","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142541278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Cosmological Optical Convergence: Extragalactic Background Light from TeV Gamma Rays","authors":"Lucas Gréaux, Jonathan Biteau and Mireia Nievas Rosillo","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad85c9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad85c9","url":null,"abstract":"The intensity of the extragalactic background (EBL), the accumulated optical and infrared emissions since the first stars, is the subject of a decades-long tension in the optical band. These photons form a target field that attenuates the γ-ray flux from extragalactic sources. This Letter reports the first γ-ray measurement of the EBL spectrum at z = 0 that is purely parametric and independent of EBL evolution with redshift over a wavelength range from 0.18 to 120 μm. Our method extracts the EBL absorption imprint on more than 260 archival TeV spectra from the STeVECat catalog by marginalizing nuisance parameters describing the intrinsic emission and instrumental uncertainties. We report an intensity at 600 nm of 6.9 ± 1.9 nW m−2 sr−1 × h70, which is indistinguishable from the intensity derived from integrated galaxy light (IGL) and compatible with direct measurements taken beyond Pluto’s orbit. We exclude with 95% confidence diffuse contributions to the EBL with an intensity relative to the IGL, fdiff, greater than 20% and provide a measurement of the expansion rate of the Universe at z = 0, km s−1 Mpc −1 × (1 + fdiff), which is EBL-model independent. IGL, direct, and γ-ray measurements agree on the EBL intensity in the optical band, finally reaching a cosmological optical convergence.","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142541227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Potential Chronological Disturbance of the D’Orbigny Angrite Inferred from Discordant 26Al Ages","authors":"Cécile Deligny, Maxime Piralla, Johan Villeneuve, Evelyn Füri and Yves Marrocchi","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad8654","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad8654","url":null,"abstract":"Angrites originate from the early-formed differentiated angrite parent body. The pristine volcanic angrite D’Orbigny is devoid of brecciation, shock effects, or any evidence of secondary processes and is thus key for studying the early stages of planetary accretion and differentiation. However, chronometers used to establish the formation chronology of angrites (including D’Orbigny) yield discordant ages, either (i) suggesting that secondary processes could have disturbed the apparent formation ages or (ii) being taken as evidence of heterogeneous distribution of 26Al in the early solar system. Yet spinel is minimally susceptible to secondary parent body processes and therefore a reliable target for establishing precise 26Al–26Mg ages. Here, we present the first in situ 26Al–26Mg analyses of spinel and plagioclase in D’Orbigny. Individual mineral assemblages provide distinct ages: olivine–spinel shows a well-defined isochron with an initial Al ratio ([26Al/27Al]i) of (5.39 ± 0.85) × 10−6, indicating formation at 2.35 Myr after the formation of calcium–aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs), whereas plagioclase–olivine defines an isochron with [26Al/27Al]i = (7.46 ± 1.87) × 10−7, implying formation at 4.40 Myr after CAIs, consistent with previous MC-ICP-MS studies. This temporal gap can be attributed to secondary processes such as metamorphic or impact-generated diffusion. Thus, D’Orbigny and other angrites do not represent an immaculate anchor for chronometric comparison. This complexity should be considered in future studies, especially when using D’Orbigny as an anchor to discuss the chronology of the early solar system.","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142541230","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Early Radio Afterglow of Short GRB 230217A","authors":"G. E. Anderson, G. Schroeder, A. J. van der Horst, L. Rhodes, A. Rowlinson, A. Bahramian, S. I. Chastain, B. P. Gompertz, P. J. Hancock, T. Laskar, J. K. Leung and R. A. M. J. Wijers","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad85e9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad85e9","url":null,"abstract":"We present the radio afterglow of short gamma-ray burst (GRB) 230217A, which was detected less than 1 day after the gamma-ray prompt emission with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. The ATCA rapid-response system automatically triggered an observation of GRB 230217A following its detection by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and began observing the event just 32 minutes postburst at 5.5 and 9 GHz for 7 hr. Dividing the 7 hr observation into three time-binned images allowed us to obtain radio detections with logarithmic central times of 1, 2.8, and 5.2 hr postburst, the first of which represents the earliest radio detection of any GRB to date. The decline of the light curve is consistent with reverse shock emission if the observing bands are below the spectral peak and not affected by synchrotron self-absorption. This makes GRB 230217A the fifth short GRB (SGRB) with radio detections attributed to a reverse shock at early times (<1 day postburst). Following brightness temperature arguments, we have used our early radio detections to place the highest minimum Lorentz factor ( at ∼1 hr) constraints on a GRB in the radio band. Our results demonstrate the importance of rapid radio follow-up observations with long integrations and good sensitivity for detecting the fast-evolving radio emission from SGRBs and probing their reverse shocks.","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142536556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quadratic Frequency Dispersion in the Oscillations of Intermediate-mass Stars","authors":"Subrata Kumar Panda, Shravan Hanasoge, Siddharth Dhanpal and Vageesh D. C.","doi":"10.3847/2041-8213/ad82e1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad82e1","url":null,"abstract":"Asteroseismology, the study of stellar vibration, has met with great success, shedding light on stellar interior structure, rotation, and magnetism. Prominently known as δ Scutis, the intermediate-mass main-sequence oscillators that often exhibit rapid rotation and possess complex internal stratification are important targets of asteroseismic study. δ Scuti pulsations are driven by the κ (opacity) mechanism, resulting in a set of acoustic modes that can be challenging to interpret. Here, we apply machine learning to identify new patterns in the pulsation frequencies of δ Scuti stars, discovering resonances spaced according to quadratic functions of integer mode indices. This unusual connection between mode frequencies and indices suggests that rotational influence may play an important role in determining the frequencies of these acoustic oscillations.","PeriodicalId":501814,"journal":{"name":"The Astrophysical Journal Letters","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142536527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}