The Governors of the University of Alberta

Published purpose

This project will be using new images from the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope on the Astrosat satellite mission to study the ultraviolet (UV) light from high mass stars in a nearby galaxy. Theories predict that this high-energy UV light is thought to heat the surrounding gas in the galaxy, but, until now, the combination of high-resolution UV maps (from Astrosat) and sensitive maps of the gas that can trace gas temperature (from a ground-based radio telescope) were not abailable simultaneously. The project will measure whether there is a signature of gas heating from high mass stars. This measurement is important for understanding how galaxies evolve: the current theory of galaxy evolution proposes that the radiation of high mass stars reduces the efficiency of star formation in a galaxy’s gas. This work will test whether the heating from the stars seen in the Astrosat data is sufficient to change gas conditions and potentially star formation efficiency.