Studying the X-ray Properties and Evolution of Extragalactic Sources Using Deep Multiwavelength Surveys

利用深多波长巡天研究河外源的 X 射线特性和演化

• 批准号: PP/E004482/1
• 负责人: Bret Lehmer
• 金额: $ 24.56万
• 依托单位: Durham University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=PP%2FE004482%2F1
• 关键词: Studying; ray; Properties; Evolution; Extragalactic

When reflecting on astronomy, many people's thoughts are flooded with images of planets, stars, and the Milky Way galaxy: sources that make up the majority of the bright objects visible in the night sky. Using X-ray light, I am studying galaxies well outside the Milky Way, reaching 100,000 times further than the brightest, most distant stars that are visible with the human eye! These observations allow us to look at galaxies as they were well back into time, as far as 12 billion light years, practically to the theoretical beginning of the universe! This is possible by using Chandra, a space-borne X-ray telescope analogous to the more well-known Hubble Space Telescope that observes in visible light. The most distant X-ray sources are only detectable by keeping the shutters on Chandra's lenses open for extended periods of time, and in the case of the deepest observations that I use in my research, these observations are as long as 25 days. These X-ray observations have helped me study distant black holes a billion times larger than Earth's sun that are vigorously consuming their surroundings and other more representative galaxies that are actively forming stars. My research also attempts to measure the influence of hot (sometimes exceeding 10 million degrees) gas that is found in galaxies. In addition to these X-ray sources, there is a significant amount of faint X-ray light that has been observed by Chandra in the deepest observations. Using statistical tools, I am studying the distribution of this light to see if it is associated with large gaseous structures that are predicted to exist outside of galaxies, but have not yet been observed. These structures are expected to contain a significant fraction of the Universe's mass, and their presence have important implications for how the Universe has evolved.

当反思天文学时，许多人的思想充斥着行星，星星和银河系的图像：构成夜空中大多数明亮物体的来源。使用X射线灯，我在银河系以外学习星系，比人眼可见的最亮，最遥远的恒星的距离达到了100,000倍！这些观察结果使我们能够回顾一下星系，因为它们已经恢复了120亿光年，实际上是宇宙的理论开始！通过使用Chandra，这是一种可以使用Chandra，这是一种类似于可见光的较知名的哈勃空间望远镜的太空X射线望远镜。最遥远的X射线源只能通过将Chandra镜头上的百叶窗持续很长时间来检测，并且对于我在研究中使用的最深刻的观察结果，这些观察结果为25天。这些X射线观察结果帮助我研究了遥远的黑洞，比地球的太阳大十亿倍，这些太阳大力消耗了周围环境和其他积极形成恒星的代表性星系。我的研究还试图测量星系中发现的热（有时超过1000万度）气体的影响。除了这些X射线源外，Chandra在最深的观察结果中已经观察到了大量微弱的X射线光。使用统计工具，我正在研究该光的分布，以查看它是否与预测存在于星系之外的大气态结构有关，但尚未观察到。这些结构有望包含宇宙质量的很大一部分，它们的存在对宇宙的发展具有重要意义。