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Daily image

The LoTSS sky from the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) to NGC 315 and NGC 383

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Today is the third data release from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS; see https://lofar-surveys.org/dr3.html and https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202557749). This release covers all data products for 88% of the northern sky, including catalogues containing nearly 14 million sources, individual-field Stokes I, Q, U, and V images, mosaicked Stokes I images, and uv data with associated direction-dependent calibration solutions. These ~700TB of products will be available through https://doi.org/10.25606/SURF.lotss-dr3, which is kindly supported by the LOFAR-ERIC and ASTRON. The release contains almost all of the data (13,000hrs) that we have observed over the last 11 years. It represents a major milestone for LoTSS, as well as one of the original motivations of LOFAR. Hopefully it isn’t quite the end though, as we aim to survey the remaining 12% of the sky with LOFAR2.0 in the coming few years.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support and involvement in LOFAR, LoTSS or the LOFAR surveys collaboration. Without everyone’s contributions over a very long period, this project would not have been possible.

The majority of sources detected in LoTSS have never been seen at radio wavelengths before and the attached 45 square degree cutout image shows the richness of the images. This includes the large radio galaxies NGC 315 and NGC 383 with spectacular, twisted jets powered by central supermassive black holes, as well as the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), showing emission from its supermassive black hole and a large ring of star formation. In the background are ~30,000 more distant radio galaxies that are mostly seen as point sources.

Colloquia

May 1, 2022

The Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS)

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) has released its first call for proposal and will be open to the international community next year. Based on a novel technique of high-cadence CAL injection, we have realized the world's first calibrated commensal survey mode, simultaneously taking data for pulsar search, HI galaxies, HI imaging, and FRBs. I introduce here one of the major survey plans, namely, the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS, Li et al. 2018), which has discovered more than 100 new pulsars, including a few dozen MSPs, 5 new FRBs, including one new repeater. I will also briefly describe recent FAST results from CRAFTS and other dedicated programs, including new insights into the characteristic energy of FRBs, the formation process of neutron stars, the evolution of interstellar medium, etc.
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May 14, 2022

Extreme UV Emission: Bridging Galaxy Evolution Across Cosmic Time

In the last few years, our first glimpse of the spectral properties of z∼5−7 galaxies has emerged. Deep UV spectra have revealed prominent high-ionization nebular emission lines (i.e., C IV, He II, C III]) indicating that extreme radiation fields may be characteristic of reionization-era systems. While such strong high-ionization emission lines are atypical of the well-studied z∼0−3 galaxy samples, our recent UV spectral campaigns have revealed several galaxies with analogous emission-line features to reionization-era systems. I will discuss the recent detection of extremely strong UV emission in nearby galaxies and the potential sources of their very hard ionizing radiation fields. Such strong detections of high-ionization emission lines have been linked to the leakage of Lyman continuum (LyC) photons (necessary for reionization) both theoretically and observationally. These extreme UV emission-line dwarf galaxies provide a template for the extreme conditions that are important for reionization, however their features are still poorly understood. In preparation for the coming UV window onto the early universe with the advent of ELTs and JWST, I will introduce the COS Legacy Archival Spectroscopic SurveY - an upcoming large HST program designed to disentangle the stellar and nebular spectral signatures of 45 star-forming galaxies. This program will calibrate new UV diagnostics that will allow us to trace galaxy evolution to the distant universe, unveiling the properties of reionization-era galaxies.
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