The Governors of the University of Alberta
Astrosat Resolves the Heating Mechanisms of the Molecular ISM — 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.