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FIGGS: Faint Irregular Galaxies GMRT Survey – overview, observations and first results.
- Source :
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . May2008, Vol. 386 Issue 3, p1667-1682. 16p. 3 Charts, 14 Graphs. - Publication Year :
- 2008
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Abstract
- The Faint Irregular Galaxies GMRT Survey (FIGGS) is a Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) based H i imaging survey of a systematically selected sample of extremely faint nearby dwarf irregular galaxies. The primary goal of FIGGS is to provide a comprehensive and statistically robust characterization of the neutral interstellar medium properties of faint, gas-rich dwarf galaxies. The FIGGS galaxies represent the extremely low mass end of the dwarf irregular galaxies population, with a median and median H i mass of , extending the baseline in mass and luminosity space for a comparative study of galaxy properties. The H i data are supplemented with observations at other wavelengths. In addition, distances accurate to ∼10 per cent are available for most of the sample galaxies. This paper gives an introduction to FIGGS, describes the GMRT observations and presents the first results from the H i observations. From the FIGGS data, we confirm the trend of increasing H i to optical diameter ratio with decreasing optical luminosity; the median ratio of for the FIGGS sample is 2.4. Further, on comparing our data with aperture synthesis surveys of bright spirals, we find at best marginal evidence for a decrease in average surface density with decreasing H i mass. To a good approximation, the discs of gas-rich galaxies, ranging over three orders of magnitude in H i mass, can be described as being drawn from a family with fixed H i average surface density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00358711
- Volume :
- 386
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 31815598
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13150.x