Bibcode
Roth, Martin M.; Sandin, Christer; Kamann, Sebastian; Husser, Tim-Oliver; Weilbacher, Peter M.; Monreal-Ibero, Ana; Bacon, Roland; den Brok, Mark; Dreizler, Stefan; Kelz, Andreas; Marino, Raffaella Anna; Steinmetz, Matthias
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 618, id.A3, 36 pp.
Advertised on:
10
2018
Journal
Citations
40
Refereed citations
29
Description
Aims: As a new approach to the study of resolved stellar
populations in nearby galaxies, our goal is to demonstrate with a pilot
study in NGC 300 that integral field spectroscopy with high spatial
resolution and excellent seeing conditions reaches an unprecedented
depth in severely crowded fields. Methods: Observations by MUSE
with seven pointings in NGC 300 have resulted in data cubes that are
analyzed in four ways: (1) Point spread function-fitting 3D spectroscopy
with PampelMUSE, as already successfully pioneered in globular clusters,
yields de-blended spectra of individually distinguishable stars, thus
providing a complete inventory of blue and red supergiants, and
asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars of type M and C. The technique is
also applicable to emission line point sources and provides samples of
planetary nebulae (PNe) that are complete down to m5007 = 28.
(2) Pseudo-monochromatic images, created at the wavelengths of the most
important emission lines and corrected for continuum light with the P3D
visualization tool, provide maps of H II regions, supernova remnants
(SNR), and the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) at a high level of
sensitivity, where also faint point sources stand out and allow for the
discovery of PNe, Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, etc. (3) The use of the P3D
line-fitting tool yields emission line fluxes, surface brightness, and
kinematic information for gaseous objects, corrected for absorption line
profiles of the underlying stellar population in the case of Hα.
(4) Visual inspection of the data cubes by browsing through the
row-stacked spectra image in P3D is demonstrated to be efficient for
data mining and the discovery of background galaxies and unusual
objects. Results: We present a catalog of luminous stars, rare
stars such as WR, and other emission line stars, carbon stars, symbiotic
star candidates, PNe, H II regions, SNR, giant shells, peculiar diffuse
and filamentary emission line objects, and background galaxies, along
with their spectra. Conclusions: The technique of crowded-field
3D spectroscopy, using the PampelMUSE code, is capable of deblending
individual bright stars, the unresolved background of faint stars,
gaseous nebulae, and the diffuse component of the ISM, resulting in
unprecedented legacy value for observations of nearby galaxies with
MUSE.
Based on observations obtained at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) of the
European Southern Observatory, Paranal, Chile (ESO Programme ID
094.D-0116(A), 094.D-0116(B), 095.D-0173(A)).The full version of Tables
6, 9 and the reduced dat-acube (FITS file) are only available at the CDS
via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr
(ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/618/A3
Related projects
Nuclear Activity in Galaxies: a 3D Perspective from the Nucleus to the Outskirts
This project consists of two main research lines. First, the study of quasar-driven outflows in luminous and nearby obscured active galactic nuclei (AGN) and the impact that they have on their massive host galaxies (AGN feedback). To do so, we have obtained Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC) infrared and optical observations with the instruments
Cristina
Ramos Almeida