We summarise the current status of our project to identify and classify ~ 6-10 galaxies thanks to strong gravitational lensing. Building on the detailed work by Richard et al. (2006), we present results from new follow-up observations undertaken with the ACS/HST and the Spitzer space telescope and compare our results with findings from the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (UDF).

The new molecular image obtained by NANTEN telescope in the galactic center has revealed the existence of the two loop like structures, loop 1 and loop 2, which have never been seen before toward l = 355° to 358°. The velocities of loop 1 and loop 2 are −180 to −90 km s−1 and −90 and −40 km s−1, respectively, and these two loops have strong velocity gradients. The foot points of the loops show a very broad linewidth of ~40 to 80 km s−1 whose large velocity spans are characteristic of the molecular gas near the galactic center. Therefore, we classified the loops as being located in the galactic center and adopt a distance of 8.5 kpc. Then, the projected lengths of loop 1 and loop 2 were estimated as ~500 and ~300 pc, respectively and velocity gradients corresponds to ~80 km s−1 per 250 pc along loop 1 and ~60 km s−1 per 150 pc along loop 2. The heights of these loops are also estimated as ~220 to ~300 pc from the galactic plane, significantly higher than the typical scale height in the nuclear disk.

We have used the SDSS DR 4 to study links between starburst and poststarburst galaxies in the redshift range z=0-0.25. Starburst counterparts to the most luminous postbursts seem to be lacking, probably due to an increasing contribution from dust and AGNs. Starburst lifetimes were derived from spectral evolutionary models and space densities and were found to vary with luminosity, from a few times 107 to the order of Gyr at the low luminosity end.

We discuss the scientific potential of the future space astrometric missions.

We present a mission overview and science possibilities of space astrometry with the Milli-Arcsecond Pathfinder Survey (MAPS).

Star formation on galactic scales is the process driving the evolution of galaxies. It is important to understand its various aspects in the nearby universe to properly interpret high redshift observations, and to construct correct models of the evolution of galaxies. Combining UV (GALEX) and infrared (IRAS) data for 43 nearby spatially resolved galaxies with corollary data (HI,CO), we study the star formation law (“Schmidt” law). The absence of a “threshold radius” in the UV supports the idea that star formation proceed at low gas densities and that the usual threshold observed in H-alpha profiles is a small-number statistic effect.

We investigate how morphological information of galaxies help us to improve photometric redshift estimation. Using a catalog of morphologically classified bright galaxies derived from the Third Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the statistical properties of different photometrical parameters as a function of morphology are examined. Parameters that best correlates with morphology are used as an additional information to better estimate the redhift. Improvements of several percent are obtained.

The study of stellar populations is a discipline that is highly dependent on both imaging and spectroscopy. I discuss techniques in different regimes of resolving power: broadband imaging (R∼4), intermediate band imaging (R∼16, 64), narrowband spectral imaging (R∼256, 1024, 4096). In recent years, we have seen major advances in broadband all-sky surveys that are set to continue across optical and IR bands, with the added benefit of the time domain, higher sensitivity, and improved photometric accuracy. Tunable filters and integral field spectrographs are poised to make further inroads into intermediate and narrowband imaging studies of stellar populations. Further advances will come from AO-assisted imaging and imaging spectroscopy, although photometric accuracy will be challenging. Integral field spectroscopy will continue to have a major impact on future stellar population studies, extending into the near infrared once the OH suppression problem is finally resolved. A sky rendered dark will allow a host of new ideas to be explored, and old ideas to be revisited.

The SAURON integral-field survey reveals that small (~0.1,Re) kinematically decoupled cores (KDCs) in early-type galaxies are increasingly young toward the center and are typically found in fast-rotating galaxies, while large KDCs (~0.5 Re) have homogeneously old stars and are present in non-rotating galaxies (McDermid et al. 2006). GALEX UV imaging further allows the direct identification of regions of recent star formation (≤0.5 Gyr). In NGC 2974 for example, young stars are identified in the center and an outer ring Jeong et al. 2006). Nuclear and inner ionised-gas rings (Sarzi et al. 2006) then suggest that current star formation is bar-driven. The CO detection rate of SAURON early-type galaxies is ≈40% (Combes et al. in prep.). Synthesis imaging reveals that it is generally contained in a well-ordered central disk, both in galaxies with a (young) central stellar disk (e.g. NGC 4459, NGC 4526) or a (young) KDC (e.g. NGC 3032, NGC 4150) (Young et al. in prep.). CO also traces well the young stellar populations and ionised gas distribution and kinematics, but in KDCs not always the stellar kinematics Emsellem et al. 2004; Sarzi et al. 2006; Kuntschner et al. 2006).

We discuss the influence of the magnetic field in the fluid core to the Earth's nutation.

We present UV data of a small sample of shell galaxies. For the majority of them (namely, NGC 2865 and NGC 7135), the NUV matches the optical emission, while the FUV is present in the innermost regions alone.

We discuss the issue of retrieving diurnal and semi-diurnal signals in Earth rotation from VLBI observations.

Figure 1.

Schematic presentation of our new chemo-dynamical tool. See Champavert & Wozniak (2007a) for full details and references.

We discuss education in astrometry.

We offer a 3D representation of the new transformation from the terrestrial to the celestial system.

We explore the mass-assembly and chemical enrichment histories of star forming galaxies by applying a population synthesis method to a sample of nearly 70k galaxies culled from over 500k galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5. Our method decomposes the entire observed spectrum in terms of a sum of simple stellar populations spanning a wide range of ages and metallicities, thus allowing the reconstruction of galaxy histories. A comparative study of galaxy evolution is presented, where galaxies are grouped onto bins of nebular abundances or mass. We find that galaxies whose warm interstellar medium is poor in heavy elements are slow in forming stars. Their stellar metallicities also rise slowly with time, reaching their current values (Z⋆ ~ 1/4Z⊙) in the last ~100 Myr of evolution. Systems with metal rich nebulae, on the other hand, assembled most of their mass and completed their chemical evolution long ago, reaching Z⋆ ~ Z⊙ already at lookback times of a few Gyr. These same trends, which are ultimately a consequence of galaxy downsizing, appear when galaxies are grouped according to their stellar mass. The reconstruction of galaxy histories to this level of detail out of integrated spectra offers promising prospects in the field of galaxy evolution theories.

Using high-resolution blue and far red spectra from the William Herschel Telescope, we have mapped the velocity field along three different slits in the central kiloparsec of the spiral galaxy NGC 3351. We have measured ionized gas (Hβ and [Oiii]) and stellar (near-IR Ca triplet) velocity dispersions for five individual Circumnuclear Star Forming Regions (CNSFRs) and the nucleus. Velocities and velocity dispersions in the red range were obtained using the cross-correlation technique of Tonry & Davis (1979AJ.84.1511) with a set of eleven templates, following the work by Nelson & Whittle (1995.ApJSS.99.67) with the variations introduced by Palacios et al. (1997.A & A.323.749). The gas velocities and velocity dispersions have been measured by fitting gaussians to the emission lines (Hβ and [OIII] λ5007Å) using three different suitable continua chosen by visual inspection and taking the average of the three results (Jiménez-Benito et al., 2000.MNRAS.317.907).

The rotation velocities derived for gas and stars are in very good agreement, although in some cases the gas seems to rotate slightly faster than stars. The turnover points of the rotational curves seem to be located at the same position than the star forming ring as found in other galaxies (Díaz, R. et al., 1999ApJ.512.623). The derived values are consistent with those previously obtained for the systemic velocity of NGC 3351 (Planesas et al., 1997.A & A.325.81).

The velocity dispersions of the stars are always larger (by between 10 and 25 km/sec) than those derived from Hβ emission lines. In the cases in which it has been possible to use the Paschen emission lines, the results obtained are similar. The twice ionized oxygen, on the other hand, shows velocity dispersions comparable to the stellar ones or, in some cases, even larger. It is however important to point out that in these metal rich regions the [Oiii] lines are very weak and they have a poor signal to noise ratio, then it is more difficult to accurately estimate the global kinematic behaviour from this emission line.

The difference between the behavior of ionized hydrogen and stars could be interpreted by assuming that the gas is confined to the disc and supported by rotation while the stars are mostly supported by dynamical pressure (see Pizzella et al., 2004.A & A.424.447). However, the kinematics of ionized gas as mapped by [Oiii], as we mentioned above, is similar to that of the stellar component.

We have applied the virial theorem to estimate the dynamical masses of the clusters and the galactic nucleus, assuming that the systems are gravitationally bound and spherically symmetric, and using sizes measured from the HST-WFPC2 image in the F606W filter (sizes between 2.6 and 5.1 pc). These values of the masses, estimated from stellar velocity dispersion measurements as mapped by the CaT lines, are in the range between 5.1×106 and 5.0×107 M⊙ for the five studied CNSFRs and 3.6×107 M⊙ for the nucleus of the galaxy, in the inner 23.4 pc.

We make a case for the usefulness of small telescopes astrometry.

We present interferometric CO(3-2), HCO+(4-3) and 870 micron continuum images of the luminous infrared galaxy NGC 6240 obtained at the Submillimeter Array (SMA). Our spatially resolved CO (3–2) and HCO+(4–3) emission peaks between the two nuclear components that are known to both harbor AGNs. The kinematical information provided by the CO (3–2) emission shows a rotating disk centered around the northern AGN and a possible face-on disk around the southern AGN, but the kinematics of gas between the two nuclei is extremely turbulent.