Award Abstract # 0084816
Collaborative Research: Submillimeter Studies of the Cosmological Star Formation and AGN Histories

NSF Org: AST
Division Of Astronomical Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII
Initial Amendment Date: July 17, 2000
Latest Amendment Date: July 17, 2000
Award Number: 0084816
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Nigel Sharp
nsharp@nsf.gov
 (703)292-4905
AST
 Division Of Astronomical Sciences
MPS
 Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Start Date: July 15, 2000
End Date: June 30, 2004 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $37,159.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $37,159.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2000 = $37,159.00
History of Investigator:
  • Lennox Cowie (Principal Investigator)
    cowie@ifa.hawaii.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Hawaii
2425 CAMPUS RD SINCLAIR RM 1
HONOLULU
HI  US  96822-2247
(808)956-7800
Sponsor Congressional District: 01
Primary Place of Performance: University of Hawaii
2425 CAMPUS RD SINCLAIR RM 1
HONOLULU
HI  US  96822-2247
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): NSCKLFSSABF2
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): EXTRAGALACTIC ASTRON & COSMOLO
Primary Program Source: app-0100 
Program Reference Code(s): 0000, 1207, OTHR
Program Element Code(s): 121700
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.049

ABSTRACT

AST-0084816
Cowie, Lennox L.

Submillimeter Studies of the Cosmological Star Formation and AGN Histories

This work has as its goal the analysis of new information about the dust-obscured star formation and AGN activity at high-redshifts which was recently discovered with the Submillimeter Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) on the 15 m James Clark Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii. The project scientists plan to extend their observations to cover galaxy counts for sources in the flux range of 0.5 to 20 mJy at submillimeter wavelengths. They expect these low flux sources to comprise the bulk of the light seen in the far infrared background. They will use deep centimeter radio maps from the VLA and hi-resolution, hard x-ray images from the Chandra satellite to determine the multi-wavelength properties of these distant, heavily dust-obscured sources. This data in turn will be used to identify objects for further study with the Keck, Subaru, and Gemini telescopes.


These studies focus on the properties of galaxies during an interval of cosmic time when most of the stars we see today were being formed. In the early stages of formation, stars are enshrouded in dust and this dust blocks visible light. However, very energetic electromagnetic radiation, such as X-rays, or very low energy radiation, such as submillimeter (far infrared) or radio waves can penetrate the dust and allow us to "see" the stars as they form. The newly developed "SCUBA" detector at the 15 m JCMT in Hawaii can be used to detect very faint submillimeter sources, which may be dust enshrouded stars (starbursts) or may be active galactic nuclei (AGNs), by using intervening clusters of galaxies to "lens", or enhance the brightness, of the faint sources. By combining these observations with ones in the X-ray region (from the Chandra satellite) and other observations in the radio region (using the VLA) Cowie and Barger will be able to sort out the starbursts from the AGNs and determine the relative importance of the two types of activity for galaxies in the early stages of evolution.
Funding for this project was provided by the NSF program for Extragalactic Astronomy & Cosmology (AST/EXC).

***



Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.

Print this page

Back to Top of page