The PHANGS-HST Survey: Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope

The PHANGS program is building the first data set to enable the multiphase, multiscale study of star formation across the nearby spiral galaxy population. This effort is enabled by large survey programs with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), MUSE on the Very Large Telescope, and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), with which we have obtained CO(2–1) imaging, optical spectroscopic mapping, and high-resolution UV–optical imaging, respectively. Here, we present PHANGS-HST, which has obtained NUV–U–B–V–I imaging of the disks of 38 spiral galaxies at distances of 4–23 Mpc, and parallel V- and I-band imaging of their halos, to provide a census of tens of thousands of compact star clusters and multiscale stellar associations. The combination of HST, ALMA, and VLT/MUSE observations will yield an unprecedented joint catalog of the observed and physical properties of ∼100,000 star clusters, associations, H ii regions, and molecular clouds. With these basic units of star formation, PHANGS will systematically chart the evolutionary cycling between gas and stars across a diversity of galactic environments found in nearby galaxies. We discuss the design of the PHANGS-HST survey and provide an overview of the HST data processing pipeline and first results. We highlight new methods for selecting star cluster candidates, morphological classification of candidates with convolutional neural networks, and identification of stellar associations over a range of physical scales with a watershed algorithm. We describe the cross-observatory imaging, catalogs, and software products to be released. The PHANGS high-level science products will seed a broad range of investigations, in particular, the study of embedded stellar populations and dust with the James Webb Space Telescope, for which a PHANGS Cycle 1 Treasury program to obtain eight-band 2–21 μm imaging has been approved.

Let the Great World Spin: Revealing the Stormy, Turbulent Nature of Young Giant Exoplanet Analogs with the Spitzer Space Telescope

We present a survey for photometric variability in young, low-mass brown dwarfs with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The 23 objects in our sample show robust signatures of youth and share properties with directly imaged exoplanets. We present three new young objects: 2MASS J03492367+0635078, 2MASS J09512690−8023553, and 2MASS J07180871−6415310. We detect variability in 13 young objects, and find that young brown dwarfs are highly likely to display variability across the L2–T4 spectral type range. In contrast, the field dwarf variability occurrence rate drops for spectral types >L9. We examine the variability amplitudes of young objects and find an enhancement in maximum amplitudes compared to field dwarfs. We speculate that the observed range of amplitudes within a spectral type may be influenced by secondary effects such as viewing inclination and/or rotation period. We combine our new rotation periods with the literature to investigate the effects of mass on angular momentum evolution. While high-mass brown dwarfs (>30M Jup) spin up over time, the same trend is not apparent for lower-mass objects (<30M Jup), likely due to the small number of measured periods for old, low-mass objects. The rotation periods of companion brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects are consistent with those of isolated objects with similar ages and masses, suggesting similar angular momentum histories. Within the AB Doradus group, we find a high-variability occurrence rate and evidence for common angular momentum evolution. The results are encouraging for future variability searches in directly imaged exoplanets with facilities such as the James Webb Space Telescope and 30 m telescopes.

First Results on RR Lyrae Stars with the TESS Space Telescope: Untangling the Connections between Mode Content, Colors, and Distances

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) space telescope is collecting continuous, high-precision optical photometry of stars throughout the sky, including thousands of RR Lyrae stars. In this paper, we present results for an initial sample of 118 nearby RR Lyrae stars observed in TESS Sectors 1 and 2. We use differential image photometry to generate light curves and analyze their mode content and modulation properties. We combine accurate light-curve parameters from TESS with parallax and color information from the Gaia mission to create a comprehensive classification scheme. We build a clean sample, preserving RR Lyrae stars with unusual light-curve shapes, while separating other types of pulsating stars. We find that a large fraction of RR Lyrae stars exhibit various low-amplitude modes, but the distribution of those modes is markedly different from those of the bulge stars. This suggests that differences in physical parameters have an observable effect on the excitation of extra modes, potentially offering a way to uncover the origins of these signals. However, mode identification is hindered by uncertainties when identifying the true pulsation frequencies of the extra modes. We compare mode amplitude ratios in classical double-mode stars to stars with extra modes at low amplitudes and find that they separate into two distinct groups. Finally, we find a high percentage of modulated stars among the fundamental mode pulsators, but also find that at least 28% of them do not exhibit modulation, confirming that a significant fraction of stars lack the Blazhko effect.

NASA engulfed in JWST renaming row

A member of NASA’s Astrophysics Advisory Committee has resigned over the agency’s handling of an investigation into whether the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) should be renamed.

Head-to-Toe Measurement of El Gordo: Improved Analysis of the Galaxy Cluster ACT-CL J0102–4915 with New Wide-field Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Data

We present an improved weak-lensing (WL) study of the high-z (z = 0.87) merging galaxy cluster ACT-CL J0102–4915 (“El Gordo”) based on new wide-field Hubble Space Telescope imaging data. The new imaging data cover the ∼3.5 × ∼3.5 Mpc region centered on the cluster and enable us to detect WL signals beyond the virial radius, which was not possible in previous studies. We confirm the binary mass structure consisting of the northwestern (NW) and southeastern (SE) subclusters and the ∼2σ dissociation between the SE mass peak and the X-ray cool core. We obtain the mass estimates of the subclusters by simultaneously fitting two Navarro–Frenk–White (NFW) halos without employing mass–concentration relations. The masses are M 200 c NW = 9.9 − 2.2 + 2.1 × 1014 and M 200 c SE = 6.5 − 1.4 + 1.9 × 1014 M ⊙ for the NW and SE subclusters, respectively. The mass ratio is consistent with our previous WL study but significantly different from the previous strong-lensing results. This discrepancy is attributed to the use of extrapolation in strong-lensing studies because the SE component possesses a higher concentration. By superposing the two best-fit NFW halos, we determine the total mass of El Gordo to be M 200 c = 2.13 − 0.23 + 0.25 × 1015 M ⊙, which is ∼23% lower than our previous WL result [M 200c = (2.76 ± 0.51) × 1015 M ⊙]. Our updated mass is a more direct measurement, since we are not extrapolating to R 200c as in all previous studies. The new mass is compatible with the current ΛCDM cosmology.

Detecting Biosignatures in the Atmospheres of Gas Dwarf Planets with the James Webb Space Telescope

Exoplanets with radii between those of Earth and Neptune have stronger surface gravity than Earth, and can retain a sizable hydrogen-dominated atmosphere. In contrast to gas giant planets, we call these planets gas dwarf planets. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will offer unprecedented insight into these planets. Here, we investigate the detectability of ammonia (NH3, a potential biosignature) in the atmospheres of seven temperate gas dwarf planets using various JWST instruments. We use petitRadTRANS and PandExo to model planet atmospheres and simulate JWST observations under different scenarios by varying cloud conditions, mean molecular weights (MMWs), and NH3 mixing ratios. A metric is defined to quantify detection significance and provide a ranked list for JWST observations in search of biosignatures in gas dwarf planets. It is very challenging to search for the 10.3–10.8 μm NH3 feature using eclipse spectroscopy with the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) in the presence of photon and a systemic noise floor of 12.6 ppm for 10 eclipses. NIRISS, NIRSpec, and MIRI are feasible for transmission spectroscopy to detect NH3 features from 1.5–6.1 μm under optimal conditions such as a clear atmosphere and low MMWs for a number of gas dwarf planets. We provide examples of retrieval analyses to further support the detection metric that we use. Our study shows that searching for potential biosignatures such as NH3 is feasible with a reasonable investment of JWST time for gas dwarf planets given optimal atmospheric conditions.

Radio Power from Direct-collapse Black Holes

Direct-collapse black holes (DCBHs) forming at z ∼ 20 are currently the leading candidates for the seeds of the first quasars, over 200 of which have now been found at z > 6. Recent studies suggest that DCBHs could be detected in the near-infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope, Euclid, and the Roman Space Telescope. However, new radio telescopes with unprecedented sensitivities such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the Next-Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) may open another window on the properties of DCBHs in the coming decade. Here we estimate the radio flux from DCBHs at birth at z = 8–20 with several fundamental planes of black hole accretion. We find that they could be detected at z ∼ 8 by the SKA-FIN all-sky survey. Furthermore, SKA and ngVLA could discover 106–107 M ⊙ BHs out to z ∼ 20, probing the formation pathways of the first quasars in the universe.