[33.10] The Detection of O VI Emission in the Halos of Spiral Galaxies

AAS 200th meeting, Albuquerque, NM, June 2002
Session 33. Gaseous Galaxy Halos and Edges of Disk Galaxies
Topical Session Oral, Tuesday, June 4, 2002, 8:30-10:00am, 10:45am-12:30pm, 2:00-3:30pm, 3:45-5:30pm, Ballroom A

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[33.10] The Detection of O VI Emission in the Halos of Spiral Galaxies

E. M. Murphy (Univ. of Virginia)

Observations with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer have revealed emission from O VI ions in the hot halo of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4631 and from a number of sight lines through the diffuse interstellar medium of the Milky Way. In this talk, I will summarize the FUSE observations and discuss possible origins for the emission. In the case of NGC 4631, the O VI 1032,1038 A emission most likely arises in cooling galactic fountain gas as it passes through a temperature of 300,000 K. The detection of O VI in emission, combined with ROSAT and Chandra data, allows us to estimate the total mass flux and luminosity of the cooling gas. The calculated luminosity can be compared to the estimated mechanical power input by supernovae.

This work is supported by NASA contract NAS5-32985 to the Johns Hopkins University and by NASA grant NAG5-10250.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: emm8x@virginia.edu

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