Media Release Thursday, 27 July 2017 Scientists unveil new 3D view of galaxies

Media Release

Thursday, 27 July 2017

Scientists unveil new 3D view of galaxies
Unique, high-quality 3D data of 772 galaxies, obtained with the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope as part of the SAMI Galaxy Survey, have been released to the astronomical community. These data are accessible online through the Australian Astronomical Observatory's Data Central, and will help astronomers to understand galaxy evolution.
For many years astronomers have struggled to get good-quality 3D data of galaxies. Although this technique is very powerful as it allows researchers to “dissect” objects, this was a slow process as each galaxy had to be observed independently.
Novel Australian designed and built instrumentation called the “Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral-field” (SAMI) unit at the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) now allows astronomers to simultaneously view many galaxies at the same time.
“The power of SAMI is that it allows us to look into the details of many galaxies at once”, University of Sydney astronomer and SAMI Principal Investigator Prof. Scott Croom said.
The SAMI instrument provides 13 optical fibre units that can "dissect" astronomical objects using spectroscopy, providing unique 3-D data of galaxies.
"The new technology in SAMI called ‘hexabundles' allows us to see galaxies in 3D. Through these 3D ‘glasses' we can not only see what each of the thousands of galaxies looks like, but also see in detail how their gas and stars move”, University of Sydney and Australian Astronomical Observatory senior research fellow. Dr Julia Bryant said.



Yesterday, the SAMI team released to the astronomical community the hiqh-quality 3D data of 772 galaxies (the “SAMI Data Release 1”, DR1). This is around 20% of the full galaxy sample (around 3600 galaxies) that will be obtained with the SAMI instrument at the AAT.
“Only with very large 3D galaxy samples can the processes that drive galaxy formation be isolated and understood”, Dr Julia Bryant said.
“SAMI is uncovering the many and varied formation pathways of galaxies, including when and where in a galaxy star formation is happening”, Prof Scott Croom said.
The SAMI data are available online through the Australian Astronomical Observatory's new Data Central archive system.

“We are very pleased to have the SAMI Survey 1st Data Release launch through Data Central”, Australian Astronomical Observatory astronomer Dr Simon O’Toole said.
“This is a new kind of astronomical data centre, which recognises that survey data is more than just catalogues. It will bring together all optical and infrared astronomical data into one place, allowing for cross-matching and other analyses to take place.”
"With SAMI DR1, we are opening the flood gates for all researchers to have access to this powerful scientific dataset”, Dr Bryant emphasised.
“SAMI data will answer questions such as ‘How does a galaxy’s environment help or hinder its growth in mass and formation of stars, and make it into the shape we see today?’
The AAO is a division of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science.
Publication details:
"The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Data Release One with emission-line physics value-added products", Andrew W. Green, Scott M. Croom, Nicholas Scott, Luca Cortese, Anne M. Medling, Francesco D'Eugenio, Julia J. Bryant, Joss Bland-Hawthorn, J. T. Allen, Rob Sharp, I-Ting Ho, Brent Groves, Michael J. Drinkwater, Elizabeth Mannering, Lloyd Harischandra, Jesse van de Sande, Adam D. Thomas, Simon O'Toole, Richard M. McDermid, Minh Vuong, Katrina Sealey, Amanda E. Bauer, Sarah Brough, Barbara Catinella, Gerald Cecil, Matthew Colless, Warrick J. Couch, Simon P. Driver, Christoph Federrath, Caroline Foster, Michael Goodwin, Elise J. Hampton, A. M. Hopkins, D. Heath Jones, Iraklis S. Konstantopoulos, J.S. Lawrence, Sergio G. León-Saval, Jochen Liske, Ángel R. López-Sánchez,, Nuria P. F. Lorente, Jeremy Mould, Danail Obreschkow, Matt S. Owers, Samuel N. Richards, Aaron S.G. Robotham, Adam L. Schaefer, Sarah M. Sweet, Dan S. Taranu, Edoardo Tescari, Chiara Tonini and Tayyaba Zafar, submitted to MNRAS,
Paper in arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.08402

Link to AAO Data Central with SAMI DR1: http://datacentral.aao.gov.au/asvo/surveys/sami/
Science Contacts:
Dr. Julia Bryant

Senior Research Fellow, Australian Astronomical Observatory, University of Sydney and ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO)

M: [phone] E: [e-mail]
Dr. Ángel López-Sánchez

Research Astronomer, Australian Astronomical Observatory

M: [phone] E: [e-mail]
Media contact:


Dr. Ángel López-Sánchez,

email: [e-mail], Phone: [phone]
Images:



Caption: The SAMI instrument at the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope. Each silver “cable” has a “hexabundle” that allows it to dissect an object. The orange fibres are used for calibration purposes. Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez.

This image is available at:

https://www.aao.gov.au/files/press/SAMI_instrument.jpg


Caption: This figure illustrates the position of 13 galaxies observed at the same time using the SAMI instrument at the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope. The colour images of the galaxies have been obtained using the 3-D data provided by SAMI. Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez, Jesse van de Sande, Andrew Green and the SAMI team.

This image is available at:

https://www.aao.gov.au/files/press/SAMI_plate_images.jpg



Caption: Same figure as before, showing the position of the same 13 galaxies observed with SAMI at the AAT, but now the colour maps show how the gas is moving, where the red parts are gas moving away from us, and the blue parts are gas moving towards us. Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez, Jesse van de Sande, Andrew Green and the SAMI team.

This image is available at:

https://www.aao.gov.au/files/press/SAMI_plate_kinematics.jpg


Caption: This figure shows some of the galaxies included in SAMI DR1 for which diffuse gas is detected. The galaxies are arrayed by stellar mass (horizontal axis) and star-formation activity (vertical axis). For each galaxy, a color-coded map shows the ratio between the bright emission lines H-alpha and [N II], which allows astronomers to distinguish star-forming activity (blue, green, yellow) from other processes, such as the effects induced by a super-massive black hole (red). Credit: Jesse van de Sande, Andrew Green and the SAMI team.

This image is available at:

https://www.aao.gov.au/files/press/SAMI_Mass_SF_diagram.png
Multimedia:




Caption: This astronomical time-lapse video features the unique SAMI ("Sydney-AAO Multi-IFU") instrument at the 3.9m Anglo-Australian Telescope and the beauty of the dark sky over Siding Spring Observatory (NSW, Australia). All the sequences, including the astronomical time-lapses, were taken between September 2015 and March 2017. Credit: Ángel R. López-Sánchez (Australian Astronomical Observatory / Macquarie University).
More details: https://www.aao.gov.au/public/video/a-sami-night-at-the-aat
Video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4yxBwmLxms&feature=youtu.be

Full Media Release in DOC format available in this link:

https://www.aao.gov.au/files/2017-07-27-SAMI-DR1-AAO-Media-Release.docx