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OATS-DAUT SEMINAR
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Speaker:
Luciana Bianchi (Johns Hopkins University)
Title:
Learning about Star Formation from the Local Universe
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Abstract:
GALEX is a NASA small explorer mission performing imaging and
spectroscopic surveys of
the sky in the ultraviolet. GALEX provides unprecedented sky maps in two
UV bands, comparable to
the deepest existing surveys at other wavelengths, and unbiased catalogs
of UV sources. I will give a brief
overview of the instrument and of the available data, and present selected
science results. The UV
sources, classified by comparing their UV-to-IR colors to model colors,
significantly increase the
statistics of some classes of astrophysical objects, such as low-redshift
QSOs, and provide an
unprecedented census of white dwarfs in the Milky Way.
A dedicated, deep survey of nearby galaxies offers a snapshot of the
recent star formation across entire
galaxies, shedding new light on the process of star formation and its
modalities in different environments
and conditions. The UV data, combined with IR and optical data, provide a
complete account of the
current SF, obscured and unobscured by dust, down to extremely low SFR,
and suggest a wide variety of
morphologies and conditions across these galaxies. The relationship
UV-to-global star formation rate,
calibrated from local galaxies studies, can ultimately
be applied to distant galaxies from the deep fields to map the
history of star formation in the universe over the redshift range z=0-2.
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