ALFALFA

ALFALFA Undergraduate Project

Proposal Title: Rich groups in the ALFALFA survey: Zw1400.4+0949
Student Name: Brian Walsh
Adviser: Tom Balonek (Colgate) & Martha Haynes (Cornell)
Other Collaborators (if any): Sabrina Stierwalt, Amélie Saintonge, Brian Kent
Context: Senior research project
Institution: Colgate University
Time frame: Sept 2005 - May 2006
Publication expected? possibly

Description: (up to ~ 500 words)

The project will include an investigation of at least one rich group contained in the spring 2005 ALFALFA dataset. In doing so, knowledge will be gained about groups in general, their multiwavelength properties and how their membership is defined. The catalog of ALFALFA detections of group members will be compared to total group population as available from optical studies.

Because of its complete coverage as of 06Jan12, the final target for this work was modified to be the rich group around NGC 5416 also known as Zw1400.4+0949, cz~6000 km/s. A 2 x 2 degree box will be analyzed both in 2-D and 3-D, and a complete catalog of the sources in each region will be created. The catalogs will then be compared to other data bases such as 2MASS and the SDSS.

Brian and Tom have participated in remote observing sessions at Cornell and at Union and on-site at Arecibo during January 2006 where they helped Sabrina Stierwalt observe and benefited from her experience in data analysis.



ALFALFA region: See below.
ALFALFA data to be used:
  1. Several raw datasets obtained during the A2010 run 15-19 Jan 2006 when Brian and Tom are at AO observing will be reduced to level I.
  2. The Level I drift data crossing the region of the Zw1400.4+0949 will be examined; the drifts are the ones which are accessed by grid_prep to make the cube discussed below. The 2-D signal extractor will be run on all the drifts.
  3. A 2 degree by 2 degree cube covering from 14h00 to 14h08, 08d40 to 10h40 and starting at 4000 km/s, going up for 800 channels will be baselined and flat fielded. The 3-D signal extractor will be run on the final cube.
Other data sets to be used: Publicly archived optical/IR/UV data from NED, SDSS and NVO
Products to be delivered:
  1. HI catalog of region of Zw1400.4+0949
  2. optical identification of all ALFALFA sources in region



This page created and maintained by members of the Cornell ExtraGalactic Group

Last modified: Sat Jan 21 12:30:33 EST 2006 EDT 2005 by martha