The dark side of star formation in the Antennae galaxies

Details The dark side of star formation in the Antennae galaxies The dark side of star formation in the Antennae galaxies

1998-02-13

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9802176v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters. 3 pages + 1 colour figure

Scientific paper

We compare mid-infrared images of the Antennae galaxies (NGC 4038/39) from the Infrared Space Observatory, with optical images from the Hubble Space Telescope. The mid-infrared observations show that the most intense starburst in this colliding system of galaxies takes place in an off-nucleus reg ion that is inconspicuous at optical wavelengths. The analyses of the mid-infrar ed spectra indicate that the most massive stars are being formed in an optically obscured knot of 50 pc radius, which produces about 15% of the total luminosity from the Antennae galaxies between 12.5 microns and 18 microns. The mid-infrared observations reported here demonstrate that the interpretation of star formation properties in colliding/merging systems based on visible wavelengths alone can be profoundly biased due to dust obscuration. The multiwavelength view of this nearby prototype merging system suggests caution in deriving scenarios of early evolution of high redshift galaxies using only observations in the narrow rest-frame ultraviolet wavelength range.

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