Stars and galaxies: Italy

1
Stars and galaxies Italy
Stars and galaxies the scenary from Italy
Matteo Monelli, INAF - Osservatorio astronomico
di Roma, Universita di Roma Tor Vergata
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Victoria,
December 10, 2003
2
Summary

• Astronomy in Italy
• The Astronomical Observatory of Rome
• The stellar group at the OAR

3
Locations of Astronomy in Italy
Astronomy in Italy

• 12 professional
• observatories, now coordinated by the newly-born
  National Institute
• of Astrophysics

4
Two biggest optical telescopes
The two biggest optical telescopes

• Asiago Obs (Padua)
• 1.82m on Cima Ekar,
• (1350 mt)
• operating since 1973
• Used both for imaging
• and spectroscopy
• minor bodies of the
• Solar System
• www.pd.astro.it

5
1.52m in Loiano

• 1.52m in Loiano,
• property of the Bologna
• Obs
• variable stars
• minor bodies
• www.bo.astro.it

6
Light pollution in Europe
Light pollution..
7
Italian National Telescope Canary Islands
The Telescopio Nazionale Galileo - TNG
Roque des los muchachos, La Palma, Canary Islands
8
TNG photos
The Telescopio Nazionale Galileo - TNG
3.58m telescope Optical and IR imaging and
spectroscopy stars, distant galaxies, planet
hunting.
9
Monte Porzio Catone (OAR)
Rome
Monte Porzio Catone
10
Aerial photo of OAR campus
Roman villae
OAR
AstroLab
mpt
11
Aerial photo of OAR building
12
Research groups

• Research groups
• Solar System
• Sun
• Stars
• High Energy Astrophysics
• Galaxies Cosmology
• Infra Red astrophysics
• Instrument development

www.mporzio.astro.it
13
A new dome for solar observations
A new small dome!
14
Image of Sun
The Sun
15
Precision Solar Photometric Telescope (PSPT)

• The Sun in Rome
• Precision Solar Photometric Telescope (PSPT)
• Refractor, aperture of 15cm
• Full-disk images of the Sun, taken
• at three wavelength (blue and red
• continua and near UV filter)
• CCD 2048x2048
• 40 millisecond exps
• effective scale of 2/px (1500 km/px)

Used to study the solar variability along the
solar cycle
www.mporzio.astro.it/solare/index.html
16
The transit of Mercury
The transit of Mercury on the Sun, May 7, 2003
Visit the web page! www.mporzio.astro.it and
follow the link The Sun of the day
17
Other telescopes
Other telescopes
Located in Campo Imperatore, 200 km east of Rome,
in the Maiella National Park, 2150 m above the
sea (cold!)
Born soon after World War II, saw the first light
in 1958
http//sirio.rm.astro.it/cimperatore/
18
Movie
Other telescopes

• The Schmidt telescope
• 91 cm primary mirror
• 6ºx6º fov
• photografic plates
• CCD built at the OAR
• works with standard
• Johnson filters
• asteroids

19
Supernova image
AZT24 telescope

• 1.1 m
• optimized for IR
• Pulkovo Obs
• Supernovae

20
The Astrolab
The Astrolab

• Unique structure in Italy devoted to divulgation
  of astronomy,
• thought for children from primary to high
  school
• visitors are invited to play with astronomy
• (it is forbidden NOT to
  touch)
• http//diva.mporzio.astro.it/webdiva/

21
Stellar group at OAR
Science.

• Stellar group at the OAR
• theoretical and observational work
• models for stellar evolution, high and low mass
• stars, pop III, nucleosynthesis, pulsational
  models
• of variables (RRLyrae, Cepheids)
• long-standing tradition in photometry of stellar
  
• fields (Romafot)
• stellar populations (globular clusters and
  galaxies
• of the Local Group)

22
Science. Why stars?
Science. Why stars?

• laboratories to test physics (nuclear reactions,
  neutrinos,
• quantum mechanics)
• galaxies are made of stars how did they form?
  How did/do
• they evolve?
• how old are the oldest stars?
• useful for estimating ages and distances

Stars are beautiful!!!!
23
H-R Diagram
Science. Stars how?
The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
99.99 of information stars send us is LIGHT the
HRD shows how light is related to physical
structure of the stars.
from Hipparcos Web page http//astro.estec.esa.nl/
Hipparcos/
24
A few basic ideas
A few basic ideas

• Lum,Temp ? theoretical quantities from the
  models
• Mag, Col ? observed quantities
• Magnitude is a measure of the brightness of the
  source
• AS WE SEE it apparent magnitude
• If you want to know the absolute magnitude,
  which is
• related to the intrinsic emission you have to
• know the distance BUT the distance is vey
  difficult to
• measure!!! (parallax)

25
Measuring distances using star clusters

• If you cannot measure the distance a priori
• Star clusters!
• Because
• simple objects (one single population of stars)
• coeval
• (usually) no differential reddening
• the same distance

• The differences in apparent magnitude
• are real!

26
Theoretical observed quantities
L,T ? theoretical quantities from the
models V,B-V ? observed quantities
From Cassisi 2001
27
Luminosity
bright stars INCREASES
HB
RGB
BS
MS
Luminosity
WD
DECREASES faint stars
Harris,2003
BLUE ? ? RED HOT
stars are COOL
from Harris,
28
Luminosity
bright stars INCREASES
age distance chemistry
Luminosity
DECREASES faint stars
Harris,2003
BLUE ? ? RED HOT
stars are COOL
29
Our work in one slide
Our work in one slide

• decide interesting objects
• acquire data (observations, archives)
• reduce data (photometry)
• produce CMD and light curves of variables
• interpretation ?? models
• write the papers.

30
Our favorite targets
Our favourite targets

• Star clusters (globular, (open))
• simple objects (one single population of stars)
• the same distance
• relative distances are negligible
• coeval
• (usually) no differential reddening
• Useful to understand the formation and the
  structure
• of the Galaxy
• www.mporzio.astro.it/marco database of GC

31
Diagram
Our favourite targets

• Nearby galaxies the Local Group
• closest group of galaxies
• real zoo of objects (except for giant elliptical)
• how did it form and how does it evolve?
• now we can resolve stars

Grebel 1998
32
Paranal VLT
The instruments we use

• The European Southern Observatory (ESO)
• Headquarters in Garching (Munich), and two
  (third in
• progress) observational sites
• La Silla

Paranal
33
2.2m telescope
2.2m telescope

• Wide Field Imager CCD camera (33x33)

34
3.6m NTT
2.2m telescope

• Wide Field Imager CCD camera (33x33)

NTT

• 3.6m with excellent optical (SUSI2) and IR
  (SOFI) CCDs

35
VLT
2.2m telescope

• Wide Field Imager CCD camera (33x33)

NTT

• 3.6m with excellent optical (SUSI2) and IR
  (SOFI) CCDs

VLT

• 4 x 8m telescopes for imaging and spectra

www.eso.org/outreach
36
H-R diagrams from 3.6m
Examples!
Reticulum (LMC) UBVIJK from NTT, 3.6m ESO
telescope SUSI2 optical CCD
37
M68 diagrams NTT
M68
NTT SOFI Infrared CCd
38
M31 image TNG
M31
TNG DOLORES optical CCD
39
Carina diagram 4m CTIO

• Carina
• dwarf spheroidal
• 4m CTIO telescope
• mosaic camera
• 36x36

See www.noao.edu/image_gallery
40
Large Binocular Telescope LBT
Telescope(s) of the future LBT, the Large
Binocular Telescope
41
LBT facts
LBT

• 2 x 8.4 m telescopes, distant 14m equivalent to
  a
• 22m primary mirror!
• work separately or together
• one UV-blue eye, one red-IR eye
• galaxy formation, high redshift morphology,
  regions of
• star formation, planets.
• unprecedented spatial resolution from ground
  (Adaptive
• Optics tecnique)
• http//medusa.as.arizona.edu/lbtwww/lbt.html

42
LBT its real!
LBT its real !!
First light jun-nov 2004
43
Amateur Astronomers in Italy
Amateur Astronomers in Italy

• many amateur astronomers!!!!!!
• 127 public independent observatories
• www.uai.it

44
Matteos amateur images
My (unfortunately) little experience
August 11, 1999, Solar Eclipse from Balatonfured,
Hungary
45
Websites

• (essential) Bibliography
• the background image in the first slide is from
  The astronomy
• Picture of the Day web page
• http//antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030519.html
• Cassisi 2001, lessons for the National school
  of astrophsics,
• see http//www.te.astro.it/scuola2001/
• Harris, 2003, dhst symp,78
• Grebel, see babbage.sissa.it, astro-ph/9806191
• ..and many pictures and videos from the web
  pages
• www.mporzio.astro.it
• www.eso.org
• www.tng.iac.es
• www.uai.it
• www.ctio.noao.edu
• www.stsci.edu
• www.mporzio.astro.it/marco