Optical and UV Morphology of the Starburst Knots of Wolf-Rayet Galaxies

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Session 31 -- Star-Forming Galaxies
Display presentation, Tuesday, 9:30-6:30, Heller Lounge Room

[31.05] Optical and UV Morphology of the Starburst Knots of Wolf-Rayet Galaxies

P.S.Conti (JILA), A.V.Filippenko, W.D.Vacca (UCB), C.Leitherer, C.Robert (STScI), W.L.W.Sargent (CalTech)

Wolf-Rayet galaxies are a subset of starburst galaxies in whose integrated spectrum a broad He II 4686 \AA\ emission feature has been detected. This feature is stellar in origin and has been interpreted as resulting from the presence of hundreds to thousands of Wolf-Rayet stars. W-R galaxies exhibit a number of other properties indicative of a large ``starburst'' population of young hot massive stars, such as a blue continuum and a strong nebular emission line spectrum like that of H II regions. We have obtained optical CCD and Faint Object Camera HST UV images of several Wolf-Rayet galaxie. Some show evidence of recent mergers; others appear to be single. Multiple starburst knots, not apparent in the optical images, become visible in the UV wavelengths in most of these galaxies. These knots are typically several hundred parsec in size and could have formed in a relatively short time, less than one million years. Examples of the variety of spatial morphologies at several wavelengths will be illustrated.

Tuesday program listing