1

Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Our Place in Space

Dr Rhys Morris, Astrophysics Group,

Physics DeptUniversity of Bristol

2

Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Our place in the Solar System: A quick history.

Aristarchus of Samos

The first person to get it right!

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Copernicus

Galileo

Kepler

Putting the Sun at

the Centre of the

Solar System

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

In the early 20th centrury, along came Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn.

Our place in the Universe

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

NASA's Astronomical Data System (ADS)

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

The first Determination of the Shape of our Galaxy

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

8

Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

The size is wrong, and there are no spiral arms, but

otherwise largely correct.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

So we now know the shape of the galaxy.

But hints were emerging that the “spiral nebulae” could be

other “island universes”.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Edwin Hubble Vesto slipher

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

12

Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Having ascertained that there were stellar systems

Outside our own, the next step was to measure the distance

to them using Cepheid variables.

It turned out the Universe was much bigger than we

thought!

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

And so it went on, until 1998 when there came another twist

in the tale.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

15

Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

My own research: Galactic Recycling Processes using

Large Scale Galactic Surveys.

Following on from the work of Kapteyn and using a survey

Of the galactic plane (aka the milky way) in broadband

and narrow band filters.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

The Milky Way

Our home galaxy.

Occasionally seen from the UK.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

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A “You are Here”diagram.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

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Area of the survey.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

The Isaac Newton Telescope (La Palma)

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

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A typical data frame from IPHAS

36 megapixels of data.

Each exposure is67megabytes....

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Astronomical Broadband Filters

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Narrow Band Filters

H-alpha (aka Balmer alpha)

narrow band filter.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

INT Photometric H-Alpha Survey (IPHAS) Facts

Area covered: -5 < b < +5 in the Northern Sky = 1800 deg2

Each pixel is 0.33” by 0.33” 4 CCDs, each of 2048 x 4096 pixels 15 270 pointings, each in R, I and H-Alpha filters Survey is about 80% done, so several Tb of data exists. Also need calibration frames... A parameterarised catalogue of objects is created for each frame. Expect final catalogue to contain 80 000 000 objects, or 0.1%of the objects in the Milky Way.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

My Main Research: Planetary Nebulae

The most common question!

Are Planetary Nebulae anything to do with planets?

No, the first ones to be discovered reminded Sir William Herschel of Saturn.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

The Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R)Diagram.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Another H-Rdiagram showingwhere PlanetaryNebulae lie.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Confirming objects are what we think they are!

Raw spectrum from the South African Astrophysical

Observatory (SAAO) 1.9m telescope. Next slide shows

a processed version.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Example Follow-up Spectroscopy of a Planetary Nebula

H-alpha

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Data Organisation

The many Tb of data are kept in FITS format in a postgresdatabase, queryable using a web page.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Data Mining

Use colour-colour diagram.

Also search for“H-Alpha excess”objects.

3D plots useful.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Some New Discoveries

Discovered by aBristol projectstudent!

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

PN Gallery

Cat’s eye nebula as

seen by the HST.Dumbbell nebula as

seen by the VLT.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

PN Gallery

Egg nebula as

seen by the HST. Hourglass nebula as

seen by the HST.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

PN Gallery

Little ghost nebula as

seen by the HST.

NGC6751 nebula as

seen by the HST.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

PN Gallery

Spirograph nebula as

seen by the HST.

Stingray nebula as

seen by the HST.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

How Many PN are there?

Estimates vary, but the theoretical estimates are much higher

than known number, so where are they hiding?

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

How effective are PN at recycling material from stars into

The Interstellar Medium (ISM)?

This can only be answered by detailed observations and

modeling of the the physical processes involved

39

Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Some more IPHAS pictures

Combine lots of individual dataframes into one large mosaiceg IC1396 a starformation region.

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

More Mosaics

Planetary nebula ngc6781

Planetary nebula ngc6804

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

More Mosaics

Supernovaremnant sh2-242

Supernovaremnant sh-271

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

43

Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Sheer volume of dataEffects of interstellar extinction (being calibrated now).Calibration of the whole survey to standard calibratorsTo understand how matter is processed through stars, to the Interstellar

medium and into more stars and planets.

Problems

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Rhys Morris, Bristol Astrophysics Group

For more information see http://www.star.bris.ac.uk

January 30 2010

Our Place in Space

Thank you for listening.

Any questions?

The End