The Circumstellar Disk of the Butterfly Star in Taurus

We present a model of the circumstellar environment of the so-called ``Butterfly Star'' in Taurus (IRAS 04302+2247). The appearance of this young stellar object is dominated by a large circumstellar disk seen edge-on and the light scattering lobes above the disk. The model is based on multi-wavelength continuum observations: Millimeter maps and high-resolution near-infrared images obtained with HST/NICMOS. It was found that the disk and envelope parameters are comparable with those of the circumstellar environment of other young stellar objects. A main result is that the dust properties must be different in the circumstellar disk and in the envelope: While a grain size distribution with grain radii up to 100 micron is required to reproduce the millimeter observations of the disk, the envelope is dominated by smaller grains similar to those of the interstellar medium. Preprint with high figure quality available at: http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/swolf/homepage/public/preprints/i04302.psComment: 32 pages, 9 figure

The Star Formation History of the Disk of the Starburst galaxy M82

Spectroscopic, photometric and dynamical data of the inner 3 kpc part of the starburst galaxy M82 are analyzed in order to investigate the star formation history of the stellar disk. The long-slit spectra along the major axis are dominated by Balmer absorption lines in the region outside the nuclear starburst all the way up to ~3.5 scalelengths (mu_B=22 mag/arcsec**2). Single Stellar Population (SSP) spectra of age 0.4-1.0 Gyr match well the observed spectra in the 1-3 kpc zone, with a mean age of the stellar population marginally higher in the outer parts. The mass in these populations, along with that in the gas component, make up for the inferred dynamical mass in the same annular zone for a Kroupa initial mass function, with a low mass cut-off m_l=0.4 Msun. The observed ratio of the abundances of alpha elements with respect to Fe, is also consistent with the idea that almost all the stars in M82 disk formed in a burst of short duration (0.3 Gyr) around 0.8 Gyr ago. We find that the optical/near infrared colors and their gradients in the disk are determined by the reddening with visual extinction exceeding 1 mag even in the outer parts of the disk, where there is apparently no current star formation. The disk-wide starburst activity was most likely triggered by the interaction of M82 with its massive neighbor M81 around 1~Gyr ago. The properties of the disk of M82 very much resemble the properties of the disks of luminous compact blue galaxies seen at 0.2-1.0 redshift.Comment: 7 pages, Accepted for publication in Ap

Narrow and variable lines in the ultraviolet spectrum of the Seyfert galaxy NGC4151

The Seyfert galaxy NGC4151 observed when the nucleus is at a minimum has two emission lines of full width at half maximum less than 7 and 16 A, respectively, and varying in intensity by a factor of three in 10 days. These lines are too narrow to be emitted by the whole broad-line region and must arise instead from two localized regions which have a special excitation mechanism, possibly a two-sided jet

A DETAILED STUDY OF THE C-IV-LAMBDA-1550 LINE-PROFILE AND ADJACENT SPECTRAL FEATURES IN NGC-4151 FROM 1978 TO 1983

The 1450 - 1720 Å spectral region of NGC 4151 is analyzed by means of Gaussian decomposition for 69 different epochs, from early 1978 to the end of 1983. The C IV λ1550 emission profile is well represented by a core, whose full width at half-maximum varies between 2600 and 5500 km s-1, and an ultrabroad component (14,600 km s-1). The variations of the ultrabroad feature suggest that it originates in a region whose "radius" is ≡5 lt-day. The analysis of lines from He II, C III], N IV] and O III] indicates the presence of two additional discrete broad line subregions. A study of the velocity dispersions indicates that the motion of the gas is Keplerian and yields a value of (3.7±0.5)×107M_sun; for the central mass. A correlation is found between the wavelength of the ultrabroad C IV λ1550 component and its intensity. It strongly suggests the existence of a decelerated outflow whose velocity is 4000 km s-1 at 5 lt-day from the nucleus

A Detailed Study of the CIV 1550 Line Profile and Adjacent Spectral Features in NGC 4151 from 1978 UP to 1983

Fitting technics are applied to study the variations of the 1550 line profile and adjacent features in the IUE spectrum of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4151, from 1978 up to 1983. New important results are found concerning the kinematics and physics of the emission line gas at a few light-days from the continuum source