Description: | In edge-on spiral galaxies, the properties of the out-of-plane emission can be used to gain unique insight into galactic evolution. A new survey has been ongoing for some time now, and uses the Jansky VLA (also known as the EVLA) to map the radio continuum halos of a sample of 35 edge-on spiral galaxies at 1.5 GHz and 6 GHz in all polarization products. The survey is called CHANG-ES (Continuum HAlos in Nearby Galaxies - an EVLA Survey). The team is led by Judith Irwin (from Queen's University in Canada) and includes two ASTRON astronomers (George Heald and Tom Oosterloo). The scientific goals of CHANG-ES include investigating the physical conditions and origin of halos, characterizing cosmic-ray transport and wind speed, measuring Faraday rotation and mapping the magnetic field, probing the in-disk and extraplanar far-infrared-radio continuum relation, and reconciling non-thermal radio emission with high-energy gamma-ray models.
The first two papers have recently been accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal (AJ). They describe the survey, and highlight the first results (studying the well-known NGC 4631). We recently learned that the issue of AJ that includes these papers is adorned with the very nice CHANG-ES logo, designed by Jayanne English. Stay tuned for more CHANG-ES results! |