Eulalia Gallego Cano

PhD Student at the IAA-CSIC Galactic Centre Research Group.
E-mail:  lgc (at) iaa.es

I am interested in the study of Galactic Nuclei because it can teach us about galaxy evolution, star formation in the most extreme environments, and the relation between stellar nuclei, MBHs, and host galaxies.

The biggest obstacle for studying Galactic Nuclei is their great distance, which limits us to the study of the integrated light, averaged over scales of several parsecs to tens of parsecs and dominated by the brightest stars.

For this reason, I study the centre of the Milky Way, because it is close to Earth (located at only 8 kpc from us). Because of its proximity, it is the only galaxy nucleus in which we can actually resolve the stellar population observationally and examine its properties and dynamics on scales of milli-parsecs. Moreover, we can explore the radius of the influence of the central black hole in detail. It is thus a crucial laboratory for studying galactic nuclei and NSCs.

I use high angular resolution near-infrared imaging data from the WFC3 camera at the Hubble Space Telescope and from the NACO instrument at the VLT. Now, I am working on the following:
 L-band image of the Galactic Center central parsec obtained with NACO instrument at the VLT-ESO telescopes. Credit: Schödel, R.

  • Stellar cusp: Theoretical stellar dynamics predicts the existence of a stellar cusp around the central black hole of the Milky Way. However, current observations indicate the absence of such a cusp. This contradiction may pose a severe problem to our understanding of stellar dynamics. My work aims at pushing the analysis of the structure of the NSC to fainter stars than what was examined before. Can we confirm the absence of a stellar cusp?

     

  • Star formation and formation history of the NSC: Nuclear star clusters can be found in the majority of galaxies, both late and early types. Ks-band image of the Galactic Center (Gallego-Cano et al, 2017). The Ks-band image was obtained on 11th May 2011 with NACO instrument at the VLT and covers the central 1.5’ x 1.5’ of the GC.NSCs show typically sigs of complex stellar populations, with quasi-continuous star formation. Frequently, they show signs of star formation episoades having occurred less than 100 Myr ago. Although some models for the star formation history of the Milky Way’s NSC exist, they are based on spectroscopic data of a few hundred stars within about 1 pc of the black hole. I would like to provide new, different constraints from analysing near-infrared multi-wavelength imaging and fitting stellar population models to the resulting colour-magnitude diagrams and luminosity functions. In particular, I wonder how important is the population of intermediate age stars, that formed between a few 10 Myr and a few 100 Myr ago?

     

     

     

  • Collaboration with Galactic Center Group at UCLA: I am working on NIRC/Keck Speckle data obtained between 1995 and 2005. The data have been key to determining the orbits of stars around the Super Massive Black Hole, SgA*. Thanks to holographic data reduction, the data were succeeded used. Now we want to improve the exploitation of these old data again. We are concerned with optimising image quality, minimising edge effects, reducing systematic errors, and optimising error estimation.

Simulation of gas cloud after close approach to the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way:  This view shows a simulation of how a gas cloud that has been observed approaching the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy may break apart over the next few years. This is the first time ever that the approach of such a doomed cloud to a supermassive black hole has been observed and it is expected to break up completely during 2013. The remains of the gas cloud are shown in red and yellow, with the cloud's orbit marked in red. The stars orbiting the black hole are also shown along with blue lines marking their orbits. This view simulates the expected positions of the stars and gas cloud in the year 2021.Credit: ESO/MPE/Marc Schartmann

  1. Gallego-Cano, E., Schödel, R., Dong, H., Nogueras-Lara, F., Gallego-Calvente, A. T., Amaro-Seoane, P., & Baumgardt, H. 2017, ArXiv e-prints
    The distribution of old stars around the Milky Way's central black hole I: Star counts
  2. Schödel, R., Gallego-Cano, E., Dong, H., Nogueras-Lara, F., Gallego-Calvente, A. T., Amaro-Seoane, P., & Baumgardt, H. 2017, ArXiv e-prints
    The distribution of stars around the Milky Way's central black hole II: Diffuse light from sub-giants and dwarfs
  3. Schödel, R., Amaro-Seoane, P., & Gallego-Cano, E. 2017, ArXiv e-prints
    The stellar cusp around the Milky Way's central black hole
  4. Yusef-Zadeh, F., Bushouse, H., Schodel, R., Wardle, M., Cotton, W., Roberts, D. A., Nogueras-Lara, F., & Gallego-Cano, E. 2016, VizieR Online Data Catalog
    VizieR Online Data Catalog: Compact radio sources within 30" of Sgr A* (Yusef-Zadeh+, 2015)
  5. Yusef-Zadeh, F., Bushouse, H., Schödel, R., Wardle, M., Cotton, W., Roberts, D. A., Nogueras-Lara, F., & Gallego-Cano, E. 2015, The Astrophysical Journal
    Compact Radio Sources within 30' of Sgr A*: Proper Motions,Stellar Winds, and the Accretion Rate onto Sgr A*

ACADEMIC DEGREES

Degree in Physics. University of Granada. 2004
Masters in Renewable Energy. Institute for Ecological Research of Malaga. 2006

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

  • PhD student / Predoctoral contract. CSIC. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía.
    July 2014 - present
    Work description: SOLAUT contract for the project “The Fingerprint of a Galactic Nucleus: A Multi-Wavelength, High-Angular Resolution, Near-Infrared Study of the Centre of the Milky Way".
  • Monitor of astronomy. Parque de las Ciencias (Granada).
    February 2014 - June 2014
    Duties: Monitor of Planetarium, workshops teach physics and astronomy.
  • Project Manager. Asociación cívica ambientalista SUSTENTA.
    February 2013 - September 2013
    Duties: Manager of “Renewable by the Sahara” Project: design and installation of wind turbines for irrigation of gardens adapted to the conditions of the refugee camps in the Sahara.
  • Researcher / Department of research, development and innovation. Assyce Fotovoltaica S.L.
    September 2007 - June 2012
    Duties:
    • - PV systems modelling: management and development of modelling PV arrays project. Assembling field test. Collaboration with the University of Jaén.
    • - Real analysis of photovoltaic projects to study their viability: 3D simulations trackers and fixed installations.
    • - Control of PV systems: production analysis. Analysis of large amount of data. Audit installations. Integration and analysis of data from different sources. Search defects. Reduce costs, optimise resources.
    • - Maintenance department: field measurements with PVPM, pyrometers, temperature sensors. Reports PV plant performance, programme design for engineers using department.
    • - Teaching courses for company formation: PVsyst course, “Estimation Energy” course, “Photovoltaic grid connection projects” course.
  • Project Engineer / Technical office. Andaluza de sistemas y control energético S.L.
    October 2006 - September 2007
    Duties:
    • - Processing of Photovoltaic Projects in roof and floor: REPE, Points of Connection, Building Permits.
    • - Offers of isolated Photovoltaic Plants and connected to grid nationally and internationally. Studies profitability.
    • - Design of Photovoltaic Projects in roof and floor: design, wiring, production, shadow studies.
    • - Visitor guide to photovoltaic installations of the company.
  • Teacher. Academia Universitaria Platón en Granada.
    October 2004-February 2005
    Duties: Teaching University Courses: Electromagnetic Fields, Fundamentals of Physical for Engineering, Physical Foundations of Computing.
  • Teacher. Academia Fórmula en Llerena (Badajoz).
    Summer 2003, 2004 and 2005.
    Duties: Courses in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics.
  • Monitor of astronomy. ONG AMUS (Badajoz).
    June 2000 to September 2004.
    Duties: Management and development of the course "Night Out": contemplation and interpretation of the sky, watching the moon and planets, mythological history, origin of names of stars and constellations.

RESEARCH PROJECTS

CSIC. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía.
Title of the project: “The Fingerprint of a Galactic Nucleus: A Multi-Wavelength, High- Angular Resolution, Near-Infrared Study of the Centre of the Milky Way”

Department of research, development and innovation. ASSYCE FV S.L.
Title of the project: “Modelling PV arrays project for detection of defective modules by monitoring system”.
Title of the project: “Modelling of photovoltaic arrays project based on neural networks” en colaboración con la Universidad de Jaén. “Convenio Marco” of collaboration.

ADDITIONAL EDUCATION

ESAC Data Analysis and Statistics Workshop. ESAC, Madrid. October 2016
ICCUB School Machine Learning and Data Mining in Physics. Institute of Cosmos Sciences, Barcelona. October 2016
Astrostatistics & Data Mining School. CSIC. April 2016
Creation of websites with Drupal 7. Initial level. CSIC. April 2016
Asterics VO School. Centro de Astrobiología (Madrid). December 2015
Associated Infrastructure Power Photovoltaic Installations. Technological Institute of Energy (ITE). September 2010
Lightning and excess voltage protection for photovoltaic systems. Dehn (Sevilla). May  2010
Central Inverters Photovoltaic Projects. Belectric. Kolitzheim (Alemania). November 2009
Overhead and underground lines for the transmission and distribution of electricity in high voltage. Foundation for the Promotion of Industrial Innovation (Granada). May 2009
Galactic Astrophysics. International University of Andalusia. Baeza (Jaén). September 2002
Music studios Plan 66. School of music in Montijo (Badajoz). Music theory, piano, harmony, and coral

English courses:

English presentations (intermediate and advanced). Euroformac. October 2016
Writing on line (intermediate and advanced). Euroformac. April / May 2016
Scientific workshop competence in English-Advanced. Euroformac. May / June 2015
English University. Languages Institute (Sevilla University).1999 / 2000.
Summer Educational Courses. Ireland. Summer 1998. Grant from the Ministry of Education.