A Programme of Technology, Astrophysics and Cosmology in Cardiff, 2022-2025
Lead Research Organisation:
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Astronomers try to answer a wide range of questions, from fundamental ones, such as how stars and galaxies are formed and questions about the structure and evolution of the universe itself, to more detailed questions about the physical and chemical processes occurring in astronomical objects. A powerful way of trying to answer some of the most important ones is to make observations in the submillimetre waveband, one of the newest branches of astronomy. The births of stars and galaxies, for example, occur in huge clouds of gas and dust, and the dust - tiny solid fragments in interstellar space - hides the births from traditional optical telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope. With submillimetre telescopes, however, it is possible to observe radiation from the dust itself, allowing astronomers to observe the very earliest stages in the lives of stars and galaxies. Submillimetre astronomy is one of our specialities in Cardiff, with our group containing both astronomers that use submillimetre telescopes but also scientists that build novel cameras and other devices that work in this waveband - technology that also has many uses outside astronomy. In this proposal we ask for funds from the UK taxpayer to support our research. Much of this research involves using or building submillimetre instruments, but some of the projects we propose will use telescopes in other wavebands or use powerful computers to simulate the processes involved in the birth of a star or the formation of a galaxy. The questions we will try to answer include many of the most important ones. One of the surprising things about planets like ours is that they exist at all, because centimetre-sized solid chunks around a star are likely to be destroyed before they coalesce to form bigger chunks and eventually planets. We will use radio observations to search for chunks of this size in the disks of dust around newly formed stars, with the aim of understanding how small rocky planets like our own were formed, and in another project we will use a new balloon observatory to study the other end of the planetary spectrum - the giant 'hot Jupiters' that have been discovered around nearby stars. We propose several projects to investigate the formation of stars, both the stars that are forming around us today and a special population of stars with very few heavy elements that astronomers think formed just after the Big Bang, using a mixture of observations and computer simulations. We propose two project that will study supernovae, the titanic explosions that occur when a massive star collapses at the end of its life. One project will investigate the formation of dust grains and molecular gas within a supernova explosion, the other the recently discovered superluminous supernovae, up to 100 times more luminous than the standard kind. Again using a mixture of observations and computer simulations, we propose several projects to study galaxies, including a study of the Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest big galaxy, an investigation of the super-massive black holes at the centres of nearby galaxies, a computer simulation of the gas flows around a galaxy, and a project to find more examples of very distant galaxies, which we are seeing only shortly after the Big Bang and that are being highly magnified by the gravity of close galaxies. More examples of these highly magnified galaxies is important because the magnification means that we can study the way galaxies are formed in great detail. We also propose two technical projects, one to develop kinetic inductance detectors, a kind of detector that our group largely discovered and which makes possible revolutionary new instruments, and one to develop further 'meta-materials', a kind of material that makes possible novel components for instruments, such as flat lenses, and which our group has used to make the filters for all submillimetre telescopes, on the ground and in space, over the last 30 years.
Organisations
Publications
Whitworth D
(2025)
Do stars still form in molecular gas within CO-dark dwarf galaxies?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ejlali G
(2025)
Interpreting millimeter emission from IMEGIN galaxies NGC 2146 and NGC 2976
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cusack M
(2025)
The fragmentation of molecular clouds in starburst environments
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Molinari S
(2025)
ALMAGAL I. The ALMA evolutionary study of high-mass protocluster formation in the Galaxy: Presentation of the survey and early results
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Williams T
(2025)
The resolved star-formation efficiency of early-type galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Tau E
(2025)
The role of accreted and in situ populations in shaping the stellar halos of low-mass galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lu A
(2025)
WISDOM project - XXIII. Star formation efficiencies of eight early-type galaxies and bulges observed with SITELLE and ALMA
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Louis T
(2025)
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR6 power spectra, likelihoods and ?CDM parameters
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Muñoz-EcheverrĂa M
(2025)
Thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect at the core of CL J1226.9+3332 revealed by NOEMA
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Matsuura Mikako
(2025)
Shocks and destruction of dust in the ring of Supernova 1987A
in JWST Proposal. Cycle 4
Ashall Chris
(2025)
Building the Legacy of Supernova 2023ixf: How Does Molecule Formation Lead to Dust?
in JWST Proposal. Cycle 4
Sahai R
(2025)
JWST Observations of the Ring Nebula (NGC 6720). III. A Dusty Disk around Its Central Star
in The Astrophysical Journal
Rintoul T
(2025)
The role of magnetic fields in ram pressure stripping of satellite galaxies in the circumgalactic medium around massive galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Larsson Josefin
(2025)
Expanding shocks and the emergence of the compact object in Supernova 1987A
in HST Proposal
Euclid Collaboration
(2025)
Euclid Quick Data Release (Q1). A probabilistic classification of quenched galaxies
Matsuura M
(2025)
The JWST /MIRI view of the planetary nebula NGC 6302 - I. A UV-irradiated torus and a hot bubble triggering PAH formation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fraser-McKelvie A
(2025)
The GECKOS survey: Identifying kinematic sub-structures in edge-on galaxies
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bhatt C
(2025)
Detection of CH 3 + in the O-rich Planetary Nebula NGC 6302
in The Astrophysical Journal
Mazzilli Ciraulo B
(2025)
The GECKOS Survey: resolved, multiphase observations of mass loading and gas density in the galactic wind of NGC 4666
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Faustino Vieira H
(2025)
Cloud populations versus galactic environment in NGC 4689, NGC 628, NGC 1566, and NGC 4321
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kavanagh Patrick
(2025)
The infancy of a supernova remnant: Probing ejecta dynamics, dust evolution, and the emerging compact object in SN 1987A with JWST
in JWST Proposal. Cycle 4
Kastner J
(2025)
JWST/NIRCam Imaging of the Bipolar Planetary Nebula NGC 6537: The (Infra)red Spider, Revealed
in The Astrophysical Journal
Fehér O
(2025)
Dense gas tracers in and between spiral arms: from Giant Molecular Filaments to star-forming clumps
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bocquet S
(2025)
Multiprobe cosmology from the abundance of SPT clusters and DES galaxy clustering and weak lensing
in Physical Review D
Talbot R
(2025)
Anisotropic thermal conduction on a moving mesh for cosmological simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Werhahn M
(2025)
Environment matters: stronger magnetic fields in satellite galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Sahai Raghvendra
(2025)
The Formation of Crystalline Silicate Dust - Testbed Observations of post-AGB Stars with JWST
in JWST Proposal. Cycle 4
Monteiro H
(2025)
Probing the physical and chemical properties of planetary nebulae using precision photoionization modeling
in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Drew J. E.
(2025)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: VPHAS+ DR3 survey (Drew+, 2025)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Wallström S
(2025)
The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey III. First data release of JCMT CO-line observations
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Pakmor R
(2025)
Auriga Superstars : Improving the resolution and fidelity of stellar dynamics in cosmological galaxy simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Galliano
(2025)
Unveiling the Elusive Dust Properties of the Diffuse ISM of Nearby Galaxies
in PRIMA General Observer Science Book Volume 2
Buchan M
(2025)
Design and end-to-end validation of a cryogenic far-infrared post-dispersed polarizing Fourier transform spectrometer
in Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems
Chou T
(2025)
Measurements of the temperature and E -mode polarization of the cosmic microwave background from the full 500-square-degree SPTpol dataset
in Physical Review D
Zakardjian A
(2025)
Understanding spatially unresolved measurements of molecular line emission
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Glenn J
(2025)
PRIMA mission concept
in Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems
Coerver A
(2025)
Measurement and Modeling of Polarized Atmosphere at the South Pole with SPT-3G
in The Astrophysical Journal
Medler K
(2025)
JWST Observations of SN 2023ixf. II. The Panchromatic Evolution between 250 and 720 Days after the Explosion
in The Astrophysical Journal
McDonald I
(2025)
The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey (NESS) V: properties of volume-limited samples of Galactic evolved stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Scicluna Peter
(2025)
Time-domain studies of stars and stellar remnants with PRIMA
in PRIMA General Observer Science Book Volume 2
Cook A
(2025)
The halo mass dependence of physical and observable properties in the circumgalactic medium at z = 0
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Abitbol M
(2025)
The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts for the enhanced Large Aperture Telescope
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Calabrese E
(2025)
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR6 constraints on extended cosmological models
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Galliano
(2025)
Surveying the Mineralogical Diversity of the ISM
in PRIMA General Observer Science Book Volume 2
Clayton G
(2025)
Very Late-time JWST and Keck Spectra of the Oxygen-rich Supernova 1995N
in The Astrophysical Journal
| Title | Spectral cubes of the IRAM 30m molecular line observations of HCN, HCO+, and N2H+ presented in the paper "Dense gas tracers in and between spiral arms: from Giant Molecular Filaments to star-forming clumps" by O. Feher,... |
| Description | The folder contains the .fits spectral cubes of the dense gas molecular tracer observations (HCN, HCO+, N2H+) that serve as an observational foundation of the paper "Dense gas tracers in and between spiral arms: from Giant Molecular Filaments to star-forming clumps" by O. Feher, S. E. Ragan, F. D Priestley, P. C. Clark, published by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf909The dense gas tracer spectroscopic observations were performed with the IRAM 30m telescope during 2017 and 2022. The details of the observations and basic calibration can be found in the article. The files shared here are the .fits spectral cubes that are:corrected for off-position contaminationbaseline-subtractedconverted from TA antenna temperature to TMB main beam brightness temperatureextracted to the narrow spectral bandwidth around the target spectral linesconverted to a uniform sampling of 5.55" pixelsThe astronomical objects are two Giant Molecular Filaments, one towards the Sagittarius spiral arm, and one towards an interarm region. The interarm filament consists of 4 regions (Regions 1-4), the spiral arm filament 2 regions (Regions 5-6). See the paper for the exact definition and sky coverage of these. This folder contains the HCN, HCO+, and N2H+ spectral cubes observed towards these regions, each file for each region and molecule. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| URL | https://research-data.cardiff.ac.uk/articles/dataset/Spectral_cubes_of_the_IRAM_30m_molecular_line_o... |