Five WC9 stars discovered in the AAO/UKST Hα survey

We report the discovery of five massive Wolf–Rayet (WR) stars resulting from a programme of follow-up spectroscopy of candidate emission-line stars in the Anglo-Australian Observatory United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope (AAO/UKST) Southern Galactic Plane Hα survey. The 6195–6775 Å spectra of the stars are presented and discussed. A WC9 class is assigned to all five stars through comparison of their spectra with those of known late-type WC stars, bringing the known total number of Galactic WC9 stars to 44. Whilst three of the five WC9 stars exhibit near-infrared (NIR) excesses characteristic of hot dust emission (as seen in the great majority of known WC9 stars), we find that two of the stars show no discernible evidence of such excesses. This increases the number of known WC9 stars without NIR excesses to seven. Reddenings and distances for all five stars are estimated.     

Photoionized Hβ emission in NGC 5548: it breathes!

Emission-line regions in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) and other photoionized nebulae should become larger in size when the ionizing luminosity increases. This 'breathing' effect is observed for the Hβ emission in NGC 5548 by using Hβ and optical continuum light curves from the 13-yr (1989–2001) AGN Watch monitoring campaign. To model the breathing, we use two methods to fit the observed light curves in detail: (i) parametrized models and, (ii) the memecho reverberation-mapping code. Our models assume that optical continuum variations track the ionizing radiation, and that the Hβ variations respond with time-delays τ due to light travel-time. By fitting the data using a delay-map  Ψ(τ, F _c)  that is allowed to change with continuum flux F _c, we find that the strength of the Hβ response decreases and the time-delay increases with ionizing luminosity. The parametrized breathing models allow the time-delay and the Hβ flux to depend on the continuum flux so that,  τ∝ F ^β_c  and   F _Hβ∝ F ^α_c  . Our fits give  0.1 < β < 0.46  and  0.57 < α < 0.66. α  is consistent with previous work by Gilbert and Peterson, and Goad, Korista and Knigge. Although we find β to be flatter than previously determined by Peterson et al. using cross-correlation methods, it is closer to the predicted values from recent theoretical work by Korista and Goad.     

A high-resolution radio study of neutral gas in the starburst galaxy NGC 520

We present subarcsec angular resolution observations of the neutral gas in the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 520. The central kpc region of NGC 520 contains an area of significantly enhanced star formation. The radio continuum structure of this region resolves into ∼10 continuum components. By comparing the flux densities of the brightest of these components at 1.4 GHz with published 15-GHz data we infer that these components detected at 1.4 and 1.6 GHz are related to the starburst and are most likely to be collections of several supernova remnants within the beam. None of these components is consistent with emission from an active galactic nuclei. Both neutral hydrogen (H  i ) and hydroxyl (OH) absorption lines are observed against the continuum emission, along with a weak OH maser feature probably related to the star formation activity in this galaxy. Strong H  i absorption  ( N _H∼ 10²² atoms cm⁻²)  traces a velocity gradient of 0.5 km s⁻¹ pc⁻¹ across the central kpc of NGC 520. The H  i absorption velocity structure is consistent with the velocity gradients observed in both the OH absorption and in CO emission observations. The neutral gas velocity structure observed within the central kpc of NGC 520 is attributed to a kpc-scale ring or disc. It is also noted that the velocity gradients observed for these neutral gas components appear to differ with the velocity gradients observed from optical ionized emission lines. This apparent disagreement is discussed and attributed to the extinction of the optical emission from the actual centre of this source hence implying that optical ionized emission lines are only detected from regions with significantly different radii to those sampled by the observations presented here.     

Narrow-band CCD photometry of giant H ii regions

We have obtained accurate CCD narrow-band Hβ and Hα photometry of giant H  ii regions (GEHRs) in M33, NGC 6822 and M101. Comparison with previous determinations of emission-line fluxes shows large discrepancies; their probable origins are discussed. Combining our new photometric data with global velocity dispersion ( σ ) derived from emission linewidths, we review the     relation. A re-analysis of the properties of the GEHRs included in our sample shows that age spread and the superposition of components in multiple regions introduce a considerable spread in the regression. Combining the information available in the literature regarding ages of the associated clusters, evolutionary footprints on the interstellar medium, and kinematical properties of the knots that build up the multiple GEHRs, we find that a subsample – which we refer to as young and single GEHRs – do follow a tight relation in the     plane.     

The circumnuclear X-ray reflectors in NGC 1068 and the Circinus galaxy

The ASCA and BeppoSAX spectra of the Circinus galaxy and NGC 1068 are analysed and compared with photoionization models based on cloudy . In the case of Circinus, a single, mildly ionized reflector can account for the line spectrum, while in NGC 1068 at least three different reflectors (with different ionization states) are needed. We suggest that the reflector in Circinus and the low ionized one in NGC 1068 are the inner and visible part of the material responsible for the X-ray absorption. With this assumption, we estimate for the inner radius of the absorber a value of 0.2 pc for Circinus and of a few parsecs for NGC 1068.     

Dynamical modelling of the elliptical galaxy NGC 2974

In this paper we analyse the relations between a previously described oblate Jaffe model for an ellipsoidal galaxy and the observed quantities for NGC 2974, and obtain the length and velocity scales for a relevant elliptical galaxy model. We then derive the finite total mass of the model from these scales, and finally find a good fit of an isotropic oblate Jaffe model by using the Gauss-Hermite fit parameters and the observed ellipticity of the galaxy NGC 2974. The model is also used to predict the total luminous mass of NGC 2974, assuming that the influence of dark matter in this galaxy on the image, ellipticity and Gauss-Hermite fit parameters of this galaxy is negligible within the central region, of radius 0.5R _e.