A New Superwind Wolf-Rayet Galaxy Mrk 1259
Abstract
We report the discovery of a starburst-driven wind (superwind) from the starburst nucleus galaxy Mrk 1259. The estimated number ratio of Wolf-Rayet (WR) to O stars amounts to ~0.09. While the nuclear emission-line region is due to usual photoionization by massive stars, the circumnuclear emission-line regions show anomalous line ratios that can be due to cooling shocks. Since the host galaxy seems to be a face-on disk galaxy and the excitation conditions of the circumnuclear emission-line regions show the spatial symmetry, we consider that we are seeing the superwind nearly from a pole-on view. Cooling shock models may explain the observed emission line ratios of the circumnuclear regions although a factor of 2 overabundance of nitrogen is necessary. All these suggest that the high-mass enhanced starburst occurred ~5X10^6 years ago in the nuclear region of Mrk 1259.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9702117,
title = {A New Superwind Wolf-Rayet Galaxy Mrk 1259},
author = {Y. Ohyama and Y. Taniguchi and R. Terlevich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9702117},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
To be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, 15 pages, 4 figures