1,012 research outputs found
Starbursts and Star Clusters in the Ultraviolet
Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet (UV) images of nine starburst galaxies
reveal them to be highly irregular, even after excluding compact sources
(clusters and resolved stars). Most (7/9) are found to have a similar intrinsic
effective surface brightnesses, suggesting that a negative feedback mechanism
is setting an upper limit to the star formation rate per unit area. All
starbursts in our sample contain UV bright star clusters indicating that
cluster formation is an important mode of star formation in starbursts. On
average about 20% of the UV luminosity comes from these clusters. The brightest
clusters, or super star clusters (SSC), are preferentially found at the very
heart of starbursts. The size of the nearest SSCs are consistent with those of
Galactic globular clusters. The luminosity function of SSCs is well represented
by a power law with a slope alpha ~ -2. There is a strong correlation between
the far infrared excess and the UV spectral slope. The correlation is well
modeled by a geometry where much of their dust is in a foreground screen near
to the starburst, but not by a geometry of well mixed stars and dust.Comment: 47 pages, text only, LaTeX with aaspp.sty (version 3.0), compressed
postscript figures available at
ftp://eta.pha.jhu.edu/RecentPublications/meurer
FUSE Observations of Outflowing OVI in the Dwarf Starburst Galaxy NGC1705
We report FUSE far-UV spectroscopy of the prototypical dwarf starburst galaxy
NGC 1705. These data allow us for the first time to probe the coronal-phase gas
(T = 10E5 to 10E6 K) that may dominate the radiative cooling of the
supernova-heated ISM and thereby determine the dynamical evolution of
starburst-driven outflows. We detect a broad (100 km/s) and blueshifted (by 80
km/s) OVI absorption-line arising in the previously-known galactic outflow. The
properties of the OVI absorption are inconsistent with the standard superbubble
model in which this gas arises in a conductive interface inside the outer
shell. We show that the superbubble in NGC 1705 is blowing out of the galaxy
ISM. During blow-out, coronal-phase gas can be created by hydrodynamical mixing
as hot gas rushes out through fissures in the fragmenting shell of cool gas. As
the coronal gas cools radiatively, it can naturally produce the observed OVI
column density and outflow speed. The OVI data show that the cooling rate in
the coronal-phase gas is less than about 10% of the supernova heating rate.
Since the X-ray luminosity from hotter gas is even smaller, we conclude that
radiative losses are insignificant. The outflow should be able to vent its
metals and kinetic energy out of the galaxy. This process has potentially
important implications for the evolution of dwarf galaxies and the IGM.Comment: ApJ (in press
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