The Impact of Near-Infrared Sky Surveys on Galactic and Extragalactic Astronomy

This book reproduces the proceedings of the last of a series of EUROCONFERENCE dedicated to the on-going near-infrared sky surveys DENIS and 2MASS. It presents the current status of both projects and some of the most outstanding results they have recently achieved in various areas of galactic and extragalactic astronomy. A first analysis of the relevant results of the space mission MSX is also presented.
The book contains substantial articles by researchers directly involved in the survey data processing and interpretation that thoroughly describe the astrophysical context in which deep and homogeneous near-infrared surveys will eventually bring about significant breakthrough. They deal with the determination of basic parameters of the galactic structure, the stellar content of the bulge, the construction of unbiased and statistically significant samples of isolated very low mass stars and brown dwarfs, the improvement of the low-end of the stellar luminosity and mass functions, the complete census of young stellar objects in nearby giant molecular clouds, the accurate determination of the luminosity function of late-type giants in the Magellanic Clouds and the structure of the local universe. The analysis of a very small subsample of the full expected set of data promises an extraordinary harvest of discoveries in the next few years especially when these data are merged with the results of major related space missions such as Hipparcos and ISO.
Audience: This book is of general interest for graduate students in astronomy and professional astronomers involved in most areas of observational astronomy.

Inhalt

I: Infrared Survey Status. The Deep Near Infrared Survey of the Southern Sky: Progress Report and Scientific Results Overview; N. Epchtein. The Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS): Status Report November 1997; M. Skrutskie. Midcourse Space Experiment Surveys; S. Price, et al. II: Galactic Structure. The Impact of IR Surveys on Galactic Structure; O. Bienayme. Resolved DENIS and UKIRT Infrared Stellar Observations Towards the Galactic Center; M. Unavane, G. Gilmore. Mass-Lossing AGB Stars and Young Stars in the ISOGAL Survey; A. Omont, et al. Galactic Bulge from TMGS Star Counts; M. Lopez-Corredoira, et al. IR Star Counts in the Inner Disc; P.L. Hammersley, et al. Spatial Distribution of Evolved Giant Stars in the Galactic Disc Using DENIS Data; S. Ruphy. III: Stars. Infrared Emission of Carbon Stars; M.A.T. Groenewegen. AGB Stars in the Galactic Bulge Observed by DENIS; M. Schultheis, et al. Analysis of DENIS Data in ISOGAL Fields; C. Alard. In Quest of Very Low Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs with Near-IR Surveys; T. Forveille, et al. Searching for Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs with 2MASS; J.D. Kirkpatrick, et al. DENIS Survey of AGB and Tip-RGB Stars in the LMC Bar West and the Optical Center Fields; C. Loup, et al. DENIS and HIPPARCOS: Luminosity and Kinematic Calibrations; R. Alvarez, M.-O. Mennessier. Maximum Likelihood Estimation of the Scale Height of Mira Variables; Z. Berend, L.J. Balazs. IV: Star Forming Regions and Interstellar Medium. 2MASS Observations of Molecular Clouds; J.M. Carpenter. Star Forming Regions and Near-Infrared Surveys; T. Montmerle. A Study of Extinction and Star Formation in the Chameleon I Cloud with DENIS; L. Cambresy. DENIS and ISOCAM Observations of ChamI Cloud; P. Persi, et al. Planetary Nebulae with DENIS; S. Kimeswenger. V: Extragalactic. Galaxies with DENIS; G.A. Mamon, et al. Extragalactic Astronomy with 2MASS; S.E. Schneider, et al. Large-Scale Structure Behind the Milky Way from Near-IR Surveys; R.C. Kraan-Korteweg, et al. Rapid Extraction of Galaxies from DENIS; G. Paturel, et al. Wide-Angle Near-Infrared Surveys of Local Galaxies; B. Mobasher. Detection of Low Surface Brightness Galaxies in 2MASS; T. Jarrett. 2MASS and the Tully-Fisher Relation; J.L. Rosenberg. QSOs in the 2-Micron All-Sky Survey; R. Cutri, et al. The First-VLA Survey: The First 5000 Square Degrees; R. Becker. FIRST-VLA Radiosources in ELAIS Areas; E.A. Gonzalez-Solares, et al. VI: Miscellaneous. The SOM-Fitting Method; E. Bertin. Near-Infrared Observations of Asteroids; A. Baudrand, et al. Index of Authors.