AAS 201st Meeting, January, 2003
Session 116. Galaxies - Activating
Poster, Thursday, January 9, 2003, 9:20am-4:00pm, Exhibit Hall AB

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[116.15U] A Far-Infrared Spectroscopic Study of LINER Galaxies

M. Sanei, S. Satyapal (George Mason University)

We present a far-infrared spectroscopic survey of all LINER galaxies observed by the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) Long Wavelength Spectrometer. We find that the [C II] 158 micron line flux from the observed LINERs relative to the far-infrared continuum is significantly weaker than that found in previously published far-infrared surveys of normal, starburst, and active galaxies. In some cases, the [CII]/FIR ratio is lower than that seen in ultraluminous galaxies, recently found to display some of the weakest [CII] emission yet discovered. Furthermore, the absence of higher excitation fine structure lines in many of the observed LINERs suggests a low excitation far-infrared spectrum. We present a comparative study of the far-infrared properties of LINER, normal, starburst, active, and ultraluminous galaxies and, using stellar evolutionary synthesis models combined with photoionization and photodissociation region models, address some of the possible origins of the of the observed far-IR spectral differences. This work was supported by NASA grant NAG5-11432.


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© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.