Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T16:32:14.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Large-Scale Radio Continuum Structure of Spiral Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

P.C. van der Kruit*
Affiliation:
Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This review concerns the large-scale structure of radio continuum emission in spiral galaxies (“the smooth background”), by which we mean the distribution of radio surface brightness at scales larger than, say, 1 kpc. Accordingly the nuclear emission and structure due to spiral arms and HII regions will not be a major topic of discussion here. Already the first mappings of the galactic background suggested that there is indeed a distribution of radio continuum emission extending throughout the Galaxy. This conclusion has been reinforced by the earliest observations of M31 by showing that the general emission from this object extended over at least the whole optical image. More recently, van der Kruit (1973a, b, c) separated the radio emission from a sample of spiral galaxies observed at 1415 MHz with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) into a nuclear, spiral arm and “base disk” component, showing that the latter component usually contains most of the flux density. This latter component is largely non-thermal and extends over the whole optical image (see also van der Kruit and Allen, 1976). Clearly it is astrophysically interesting to discuss the large-scale structure of the radio continuum emission.

Type
I: The Smooth Background
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1978 

References

Allen, R.J.: 1975, La Dynamique des Galaxies Spirales (C.N.R.S.), p.157.Google Scholar
Allen, R.J., Baldwin, J.E., Sancisi, R.: 1977, Astron. Astrophys. (in press).Google Scholar
Baker, J.R., Haslam, C.G.T., Jones, B.B., Wielebinski, R.: 1977, preprint.Google Scholar
Baldwin, J.E.: 1976, The Structure and Content of the Galaxy and Galactic Gamma Rays, ed. Fichtel, C.E. and Stecker, F.W. (Goddard), p. 206.Google Scholar
Berkhuijsen, E.M.: 1977, Astron. Astrophys. 57, 9.Google Scholar
Berkhuijsen, E.M., Wielebinski, R.: 1973, Astrophys. Lett. 13, 169.Google Scholar
Berkhuijsen, E.M., Wielebinski, R.: 1974, Astron. Astrophys. 34, 173.Google Scholar
Biermann, P.: 1976, Astron. Astrophys. 53, 295.Google Scholar
Bruyn, A.G. de: 1977a, Astron. Astrophys. 54, 491.Google Scholar
Bruyn, A.G. de: 1977b, Astron. Astrophys. 58, 221.Google Scholar
Dodds, D., Strong, A.W., Wolfendale, A.W.: 1975, M.N.R.A.S. 171, 569.Google Scholar
Ekers, R.D.: 1975, Structure and Evolution of Galaxies, ed. Setti, G. (Reidel), p. 217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekers, R.D., Sancisi, R.: 1977, Astron. Astrophys. 54, 973.Google Scholar
Israel, F.P., Goss, W.M., Allen, R.J.: 1975, Astron. Astrophys. 40, 421.Google Scholar
Israel, F.P., Kruit, P.C. van der: 1974, Astron. Astrophys. 32, 363.Google Scholar
Kap-herr, A. von, Jones, B.B., Wielebinski, R.: 1975, Astron. Astrophys. 41, 115.Google Scholar
Kruit, P.C. van der: 1973a, b, c, Astron. Astrophys. 29, 231, 249, 263.Google Scholar
Kruit, P.C. van der: 1977, Astron. Astrophys. 59, 359.Google Scholar
Kruit, P.C. van der Allen, R.J.: 1976, Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 14, 417.Google Scholar
Kruit, P.C. van der Allen, R.J., Rots, A.H.: 1977, Astron. Astrophys. 55, 421.Google Scholar
Lequeux, J.: 1971, Astron. Astrophys. 15, 42.Google Scholar
Mathewson, D.S., Kruit, P.C. van der, Brouw, W.N.: 1972, Astron. Astrophys. 17, 468.Google Scholar
Pacini, F.: 1975, Origin of Cosmic Rays (Reidel), p. 371.Google Scholar
Parker, E.: 1976, The Structure and Content of the Galaxy and Galactic Gamma Rays, ed. Fichtel, C.E. and Stecker, F.W. (Goddard), p. 320.Google Scholar
Segalovitz, A.: 1976, Astron. Astrophys. 52, 167.Google Scholar
Segalovitz, A.: 1977a, Astron. Astrophys. 54, 703.Google Scholar
Segalovitz, A.: 1977b, Astron. Astrophys. 55, 203.Google Scholar
Segalovitz, A.: 1977c, preprint.Google Scholar
Stecker, F.W.: 1976, The Structure and Content of the Galaxy and Galactic Gamma Rays, ed. Fichtel, C.E. and Stecker, F.W. (Goddard), p. 357.Google Scholar
Tammann, G.A.: 1977, Supernovae, ed. Schramm, D.N. (Reidel), p. 95.Google Scholar
Tinsley, B.M.: 1977, Supernovae, ed. Schramm, D.N. (Reidel), p. 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tully, R.B.: 1974, Astrophys. J. Suppl. 27, 415.Google Scholar
Webster, A.: 1975, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 171, 243.Google Scholar
Webster, A.: 1977, preprint.Google Scholar
Wielebinski, R.: 1976, Astron. Astrophys. 48, 155.Google Scholar