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Star formation in the bars of nearby galaxies

Aims: In this study, we quantify the star formation activity in bars as a function of the host stellar mass and the morphological type. We use a sample of 70 barred spiral galaxies in the nearby universe taken from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S⁴G). The data are combined with...

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Main Author: Ngcebetsha, Buntu
Other Authors: Jarrett, Thomas
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Astronomy 2016
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access_status_str Open Access
author Ngcebetsha, Buntu
author2 Jarrett, Thomas
author_browse Jarrett, Thomas
Ngcebetsha, Buntu
author_facet Jarrett, Thomas
Ngcebetsha, Buntu
author_sort Ngcebetsha, Buntu
collection Thesis
description Aims: In this study, we quantify the star formation activity in bars as a function of the host stellar mass and the morphological type. We use a sample of 70 barred spiral galaxies in the nearby universe taken from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S⁴G). The data are combined with Hα data from various optical telescopes. (KPNO, JKT, OHP and CTIO) Methods: We overlay continuum-subtracted Hα emission on 3.6μm images from Spitzer (S⁴G) to quantify the distribution of star formation in each bar. We discern the star formation distribution into three classes: morph-(1): Minimal to no star formation in the bar but intense star formation activity at the bar ends and in the nuclear region; morph-(2): Star formation along the bar, in the nuclear region to the bar ends; morph-(3): Star formation only at the bar ends. To understand the location of the bar and its properties, we used ellipse fitting to identify the bar properties, including the bar size and the bar strength. We also use the host stellar mass of each galaxy measured from the 3.6μm integrated magnitudes from S⁴G to investigate how the three star formation distributions are related to the stellar mass. The host galaxies are divided into Early-Type (SB0-SBbc) and Late-Type Barred Spirals (SBc-SBm) - these morphological types correlate with a variety of galaxy properties that have historically been used to better understand galaxy formation and evolution. For the next stage of this work, we will compare the star formation activity in one galaxy from the sample, NGC 1097 with molecular gas distribution mapped using ALMA. This will be an investigation of the relationship between gas kinematics and star formation using numerical simulations of gas flow. [Please note: this thesis fulltext has been deferred until 9 December 2016]
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/20498
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:08.355Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2016
publishDateRange 2016
publishDateSort 2016
publisher Department of Astronomy
publisherStr Department of Astronomy
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/20498 Star formation in the bars of nearby galaxies Ngcebetsha, Buntu Jarrett, Thomas Sheth, K Astronomy Aims: In this study, we quantify the star formation activity in bars as a function of the host stellar mass and the morphological type. We use a sample of 70 barred spiral galaxies in the nearby universe taken from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S⁴G). The data are combined with Hα data from various optical telescopes. (KPNO, JKT, OHP and CTIO) Methods: We overlay continuum-subtracted Hα emission on 3.6μm images from Spitzer (S⁴G) to quantify the distribution of star formation in each bar. We discern the star formation distribution into three classes: morph-(1): Minimal to no star formation in the bar but intense star formation activity at the bar ends and in the nuclear region; morph-(2): Star formation along the bar, in the nuclear region to the bar ends; morph-(3): Star formation only at the bar ends. To understand the location of the bar and its properties, we used ellipse fitting to identify the bar properties, including the bar size and the bar strength. We also use the host stellar mass of each galaxy measured from the 3.6μm integrated magnitudes from S⁴G to investigate how the three star formation distributions are related to the stellar mass. The host galaxies are divided into Early-Type (SB0-SBbc) and Late-Type Barred Spirals (SBc-SBm) - these morphological types correlate with a variety of galaxy properties that have historically been used to better understand galaxy formation and evolution. For the next stage of this work, we will compare the star formation activity in one galaxy from the sample, NGC 1097 with molecular gas distribution mapped using ALMA. This will be an investigation of the relationship between gas kinematics and star formation using numerical simulations of gas flow. [Please note: this thesis fulltext has been deferred until 9 December 2016] 2016-07-20T07:01:02Z 2016-07-20T07:01:02Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MSc http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20498 eng Department of Astronomy Faculty of Science University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Astronomy
Ngcebetsha, Buntu
Star formation in the bars of nearby galaxies
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Star formation in the bars of nearby galaxies
title_full Star formation in the bars of nearby galaxies
title_fullStr Star formation in the bars of nearby galaxies
title_full_unstemmed Star formation in the bars of nearby galaxies
title_short Star formation in the bars of nearby galaxies
title_sort star formation in the bars of nearby galaxies
topic Astronomy
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/20498
work_keys_str_mv AT ngcebetshabuntu starformationinthebarsofnearbygalaxies