THE PRESENT-DAY STAR FORMATION RATE OF THE MILKY WAY DETERMINED FROM SPITZER-DETECTED YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS

By Thomas Robitaille, B. Whitney. 2010

236 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present initial results from a population synthesis model aimed at determining the star formation rate (SFR) of the Milky Way. We find that a total SFR of 0.68–1.45 M☉ yr−1 is able to reproduce the observed number of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Spitzer/IRAC GLIMPSE survey of the Galactic plane, assuming simple prescriptions for the three-dimensional Galactic distributions of YSOs and interstellar dust, and using model spectral energy distributions to predict the brightness and color of the synthetic YSOs at different wavelengths. This is the first Galaxy-wide measurement derived from pre-main-sequence objects themselves, rather than global observables such as the total radio continuum, Hα, or FIR flux. The value obtained is slightly lower than, but generally consistent with previously determined values. We will extend this method in the future to fit the brightness, color, and angular distribution of YSOs, and simultaneously make use of multiple surveys, to place constraints on the input assumptions, and reduce uncertainties in the SFR estimate. Ultimately, this will be one of the most accurate methods for determining the Galactic SFR, as it makes use of stars of all masses (limited only by sensitivity) rather than solely massive stars or indirect tracers of massive stars.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d726400b923863fb6462ff7aa2eb9ad0bf0134be

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. R. Somerville
4. R. Dav'e
5. A. Dekel
6. Volker Springel
7. C. Conroy
8. P. V. van Dokkum

In Instrumentation

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. P. V. van Dokkum
4. A. Dekel
5. R. Somerville
6. C. Conroy
7. R. Dav'e
8. M. Franx

Citations in the corpus

• CONSTRAINING THE MILKY WAY'S HOT GAS HALO WITH O vii AND O viii EMISSION LINES (2014, background): “The upper limits here also imply accretion of halo gas may be an important contributor to the Milky Way’s current star formation rate (SFR), observed to be between 0.68 and 1.45 M⊙ yr −1 (Robitaille & Whitney 2010).”
• Star formation in semi-analytic galaxy formation models with multiphase gas (2015, background): “The local UV background relative to the MW is assumed to scale in proportion with the global SFR of the galaxy in the previous time step relative to the MW SFR, UMW = SFR SFRMW , where we choose SFRMW = 1.0M⊙ yr −1 (Murray & Rahman 2010; Robitaille & Whitney 2010).”
• THE STAR FORMATION RATE AND GAS SURFACE DENSITY RELATION IN THE MILKY WAY: IMPLICATIONS FOR EXTRAGALACTIC STUDIES (2010, unknown): “Extrapolated to the Galaxy with a star-forming radius of 10 kpc, this would amount to 0.3 M⊙ yr −1, less than the rate estimated for the entire galaxy of 0.68 to 1.45 M⊙ yr −1(Robitaille & Whitney 2010).”
• The luminosity function and the rate of Swift's Gamma Ray Bursts (2009, background): “This should be typical to our galaxy as a recent estimation to the SFR in our galaxy (Robitaille and Whitney 2010) finds ρ̇ = 0.68 − 1.45M /yr, which is equivalent to the SFR in the local universe for a galaxy in a volume of 100Mpc3.”
• Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies (2012, methodology): “An alternative approach, based on counting likely YSOs in the GLIMPSE survey of the Galactic plane (Robitaille & Whitney 2010) is much less biased toward the most massive stars, but is limited by sensitivity, issues of identification of YSOs, and models of extinction.”
• THE STRUCTURE OF THE MILKY WAY'S HOT GAS HALO (2013, result): “Figure 10 also indicates that the accretion rate is broadly consistent with the current observed star formation rate (SFR) in the Milky Way of 0.68–1.45 M yr−1 (Robitaille & Whitney 2010).”
• The 511 keV emission from positron annihilation in the Galaxy (2010, background): “Most empirical estimates of the present-day total Galactic SFR, based on the aforementioned tracers (and as- 15 sumptions on the IMF) produce values within a factor of two of the 〈SFR〉 (e.g. McKee and Williams, 1997; Robitaille and Whitney, 2010, and references therein).”
• THE STELLAR INITIAL MASS FUNCTION OF ULTRA-FAINT DWARF GALAXIES: EVIDENCE FOR IMF VARIATIONS WITH GALACTIC ENVIRONMENT (2013, background): “The Milky Way has a SFR of roughly 1 M⊙ year −1 (Robitaille & Whitney 2010) and the most massive galaxies with the steepest inferred IMFs by Conroy & van Dokkum (2012) have inferred SFRs up to 100 M⊙ year −1.”
• OBSERVING THE NEXT GALACTIC SUPERNOVA (2013, methodology): “This SFR is consistent with direct estimates of the SFR, which range from 1 to 4 M yr−1 (e.g., McKee & Williams 1997; Murray & Rahman 2010; Robitaille & Whitney 2010; Chomiuk & Povich 2011; Davies et al. 2011).”
• IMPROVED ESTIMATES OF THE MILKY WAY’S STELLAR MASS AND STAR FORMATION RATE FROM HIERARCHICAL BAYESIAN META-ANALYSIS (2014, methodology): “Chomiuk & Povich present arguments suggesting that the Robitaille & Whitney (2010) measurement may more accurately be treated as a lower limit rather than a best-fit value for the SFR.”
• Gaseous Galaxy Halos (2012, background): “…ongoing accretion is required for galaxies at a range of redshifts (Erb, 2008; Putman et al., 2009c; Hopkins et al., 2008); the Milky Way is no exception with only ∼ 5× 109 M of fuel in the disk and a current SFR of 1-3 M /yr (Chomiuk & Povich, 2011; Smith et al., 1978; Robitaille & Whitney, 2010).”
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): the star formation rate dependence of the stellar initial mass function (2011, methodology): “The Spitzer/IRAC GLIMPSE survey of the Galactic plane finds a total SFR of 0.68–1.45 M yr−1 (Robitaille & Whitney 2010) and using the data from Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy C© 2011 The Authors, MNRAS 415, 1647–1662 Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society C© 2011 RAS Probe (WMAP) and…”
• A general model for the CO–H2 conversion factor in galaxies with applications to the star formation law (2011, background): “Interferometric observations of present-epoch galaxy mergers by Scoville et al. (1991), Downes, Solomon & Radford (1993), Solomon et al. (1997), Downes & Solomon (2003), Hinz & Rieke (2006), Meier et al. (2010) and Downes & Solomon (1998) showed that using a Milky Way XCO would cause the inferred H2”
• A sub-parsec resolution simulation of the Milky Way: global structure of the interstellar medium and properties of molecular clouds (2013, methodology): “This value is highly sensitive to the data and the method used: SFRs between ∼ 1 M⊙ yr −1 (Robitaille & Whitney 2010) and ∼ 10 M⊙ yr −1 (Guesten & Mezger 1982) have been proposed.”
• BLACK HOLE VARIABILITY AND THE STAR FORMATION–ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS CONNECTION: DO ALL STAR-FORMING GALAXIES HOST AN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS? (2013, unknown): “For the 4 Assuming = 0.1 and SFR/BHAR = 3000, a Milky Way-type galaxy with SFR = 1M yr−1 (e.g., Robitaille & Whitney 2010) will have 〈LAGN〉 ≈ 2×1042 erg s−1.”
• The ATLASGAL survey: a catalog of dust condensations in the Galactic plane (2013, methodology): “Using the YSO population revealed by Spitzer, Robitaille & Whitney (2010) suggest a value between 0.68 to 1.45 M⊙ yr−1, while Diehl et al. (2006) estimate 4 M⊙ yr−1 based on radioactive26Al measurements.”
• THE ASSEMBLY OF MILKY-WAY-LIKE GALAXIES SINCE z ∼ 2.5 (2013, result): “2 implies az= 0 star formation rate of∼ 1M⊙ yr−1, in reasonably good agreement with that of the Milky Way (Robitaille & Whitney 2010).”
• AN EMPIRICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF EXTENDED COOL GAS AROUND GALAXIES USING Mg ii ABSORPTION FEATURES (2010, result): “The inferred gas accretion rate is interestingly close to the star formation rate seen in the Milky Way disk (e.g. Robitaille & Whitney 2010).”
• FORMING REALISTIC LATE-TYPE SPIRALS IN A ΛCDM UNIVERSE: THE ERIS SIMULATION (2011, methodology): “…we derive a scale height of hz = 490 pc (z0 = 860 pc) at a galactocentric distance of 8 kpc. Today, Eris is forming stars at a rate of SFR = 1.1 M yr −1, comparable to the value of SFR = 0.68 − 1.45 M yr −1, recently inferred for the Milky Way by Robitaille & Whitney (2010) using Spitzer data.”
• Evolution of the atomic and molecular gas content of galaxies (2013, methodology): “The local UV background relative to the MW is set by relating the SFR of the galaxy in the previous time step to the MW SFR as UMW = SFR SFRMW , where we choose SFRMW = 1.0M⊙ yr −1 (Murray & Rahman 2010; Robitaille & Whitney 2010).”