Double starbursts triggered by mergers in hierarchical clustering scenarios

We use cosmological smooth particle hydrodynamical (SPH) simulations to study the effects of mergers in the star formation history of galactic objects in hierarchical clustering scenarios. We find that during some merger events, gaseous discs can experience two starbursts: the first one during the orbital decay phase, owing to gas inflows driven as the satellite approaches, and the second one when the two baryonic clumps collide. A trend for these first induced starbursts to be more efficient at transforming the gas into stars is also found. We detect that systems that do not experience early gas inflows have well-formed stellar bulges and more concentrated potential wells, which seem to be responsible for preventing further gas inward transport triggered by tidal forces. The potential wells concentrate owing to the accumulation of baryons in the central regions and of dark matter as the result of the pulling in by baryons. The coupled evolution of the dark matter and baryons would lead to an evolutionary sequence during which systems with shallower total potential wells suffer early gas inflows during the orbital decay phase that help to feed their central mass concentration, pulling in dark matter and contributing to build up more stable systems. Within this scenario, starbursts triggered by early gas inflows are more likely to occur at early stages of evolution of the systems and to be an important contributor to the formation of stellar bulges. Our results constitute the first proof that bulges can form as the product of collapse, collisions and secular evolution in a cosmological framework, and they are consistent with a rejuvenation of the stellar population in bulges at intermediate z with, at least, 50 per cent of the stars (in SCDM) being formed at high z .     

ISO Observations of Isolated Herbig AE/BE Stars

We report on SWS and LWS observations of the circumstellar disks of young stars of a few solar masses. The ISO spectra of these objects present a diversity of emission features of carbon-rich and oxygen-rich grains. The similarity of the forsterite spectra observed for Comet Hale-Bopp and the Haebe star HD100546 is particularly striking and provides a new argument that huge comet swarms are formed in the disks surrounding young stars. While the data suggest that the formation of crystalline silicates in the dust disks essentially occurs when a Haebe star has already reached the main sequence, no clear correlation with stellar age only is apparent. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

PHOTOGRAMMETRIC DATA CAPTURE: AN INEXPENSIVE ALTERNATIVE

A case is made for the development of an inexpensive and portable data capturing unit which could be used with existing mirror stereoscopes and which could provide an accuracy sufficient for most digital map databases. The results of simulation experiments to test the accuracy of the system are presented.     

CCD Polarimetric Imaging Of Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1)

Polarimetric observations of the light scattered by dust have been carried out at Pic-du-Midi Observatory with the 2 m telescope in June and September–October 1996, and at Haute-Provence Observatory with the 0.80 m telescope in April 1997. They cover a total number of 11 nights and a large (6.9°–47.7°) phase angle range. The spatial resolution allows to underline structures in the coma, as well in the brightness images as in the polarization maps, with a correlation between the regions of bright structures and the regions of higher polarization. A clear difference appears between the sunward and antisunward side, with higher polarization on the antisunward side. The phase angle coverage allows us to obtain a polarimetric phase curve for the whole coma and to compare it with other cometary phase curves. The degree of polarization is higher for Hale-Bopp than for the comets previously observed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.