We present a detailed clustering analysis of the young stellar population across the star-forming ring galaxy NGC 6503, based on the deep HST photometry obtained with the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS). We apply a contour-based map analysis t
echnique and identify in the stellar surface density map 244 distinct star-forming structures at various levels of significance. These stellar complexes are found to be organized in a hierarchical fashion with 95% being members of three dominant super-structures located along the star-forming ring. The size distribution of the identified structures and the correlation between their radii and numbers of stellar members show power-law behaviors, as expected from scale-free processes. The self-similar distribution of young stars is further quantified from their autocorrelation function, with a fractal dimension of ~1.7 for length-scales between ~20 pc and 2.5 kpc. The young stellar radial distribution sets the extent of the star-forming ring at radial distances between 1 and 2.5 kpc. About 60% of the young stars belong to the detected stellar structures, while the remaining stars are distributed among the complexes, still inside the ring of the galaxy. The analysis of the time-dependent clustering of young populations shows a significant change from a more clustered to a more distributed behavior in a time-scale of ~60 Myr. The observed hierarchy in stellar clustering is consistent with star formation being regulated by turbulence across the ring. The rotational velocity difference between the edges of the ring suggests shear as the driving mechanism for this process. Our findings reveal the interesting case of an inner ring forming stars in a hierarchical fashion.
We map the neutral atomic gas content of M33 using high resolution VLA and GBT observations and fit a tilted ring model to determine the orientation of the extended gaseous disk and its rotation curve. The disk of M33 warps from 8 kpc outwards withou
t substantial change of its inclination with respect to the line of sight. Rotational velocities rise steeply with radius in the inner disk, reaching 100 km/s in 4 kpc, then the rotation curve becomes more perturbed and flatter with velocities as high as 120-130 km/s out to 23 kpc. We derive the stellar mass surface density map of M33s optical disk, via pixel -SED fitting methods based on population synthesis models, which highlights variations in the mass-to-light ratio. The stellar mass surface further out is estimated from deep images of outer disk fields. Stellar and gas maps are then used in the dynamical analysis of the rotation curve to constrain the dark matter distribution which is relevant at all radii. A dark matter halo with a Navarro-Frenk-White density profile in a LCDM cosmology, provides the best fit to the rotation curve for a dark halo concentration C=10 and a total halo mass of 4.3 10^{11}Msun. This imples a baryonic fraction of order 0.02 and the evolutionary history of this galaxy should account for loss of a large fraction of its original baryonic content.
The Galaxy Evolution Exporer (GALEX) has performed unprecedented imaging surveys of the Magellanic Clouds (MC) and their surrounding areas including the Magellanic Bridge (MB) in near-UV (NUV, 1771-2831AA) and far-UV (FUV, 1344-1786AA) bands at 5 res
olution. Substantially more area was covered in the NUV than FUV, particularly in the bright central regions, because of the GALEX FUV detector failure. The 5$sigma$ depth of the NUV imaging varies between 20.8 and 22.7 (ABmag). Such imaging provides the first sensitive view of the entire content of hot stars in the Magellanic System, revealing the presence of young populations even in sites with extremely low star-formation rate surface density like the MB, owing to high sensitivity of the UV data to hot stars and the dark sky at these wavelengths. The density of UV sources is quite high in many areas of the LMC and SMC. Crowding limits the quality of source detection and photometry from the standard mission pipeline processing. We performed custom-photometry of the GALEX data in the MC survey region ($<15^{circ}$ from the LMC, $<10^{circ}$ from the SMC). After merging multiple detections of sources in overlapping images, the resulting catalog we have produced for the LMC contains nearly 6 million unique NUV point sources within 15$^{circ}$ and is briefly presented herein. This paper provides a first look at the GALEX MC survey and highlights some of the science investigations that the entire catalog and imaging dataset will make possible.
We present results of the first unbiased search for extended UV (XUV)-disk galaxies undertaken to determine the space density of such galaxies. Our sample contains 561 local (0.001 < z < 0.05) galaxies that lie in the intersection of available GALEX
deep imaging (exposure time > 1.5 x 10^4 s) and SDSS DR7 footprints. We explore modifications to the standard classification scheme for our sample that includes both disk- and bulge-dominated galaxies. Visual classification of each galaxy in the sample reveals an XUV-disk frequency of up to 20% for the most nearby portion of our sample. On average over the entire sample (out to z=0.05) the frequency ranges from a hard limit of 4% to 14%. The GALEX imaging allows us to detect XUV-disks beyond 100 Mpc. The XUV regions around XUV-disk galaxies are consistently bluer than the main bodies. We find a surprisingly high frequency of XUV emission around luminous red (NUV-r > 5) and green valley (3 < NUV-r < 5) galaxies. The XUV-disk space density in the local universe is > 1.5-4.2 x 10^-3 Mpc^-3. Using the XUV emission as an indicator of recent gas accretion, we estimate that the cold gas accretion rate onto these galaxies is > 1.7-4.6 x 10^-3 Msun Mpc^-3 yr^-1. The number of XUV-disks in the green valley and the estimated accretion rate onto such galaxies points to the intriguing possibility that 7%-18% of galaxies in this population are transitioning away from the red sequence.
