The Effect of Massive Stars on the Interstellar Medium of Starburst Galaxies: New HST Observations

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

Radiation and kinetic energy supplied by hot massive stars and their evolutionary byproducts dominate the energetics of the interstellar medium in normal star-forming galaxies. In starburst galaxies this 'feedback' from massive stars can lead to the large- scale outflow of the interstellar medium in the form of a galactic wind. Recent HST far-ultraviolet spectra of starburst galaxies provide us with a new probe of the impact of massive stars on the interstellar medium: interstellar absorption-lines from ionic species spanning a wide range in ionization state from CI to NV. These lines are strong (several Angstroms equivalent width), broad (500 to 900 km/s), and blueshifted by a one-to-several-hundred km/s with respect to the systemic velocity. The strong lines lie on the saturated part of the curve-of-growth, implying typical ionic columns of at least 10(14) cm(-2) and minimum total hydrogen column densities of 10(20) cm(-2) . We are evidently observing a substantial quantity of gas that has been 'stirred up' and photoionized and/or collisionally ionized by the population of massive stars in the starburst. These new HST data will be placed in the context of IUE, X-ray, and optical data concerning the warm and hot phases of the interstellar medium in starbursts.

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