we propose to use iso for the study of wolf-rayet galaxies, which are the most extreme known examples of the starburst galaxy phenomenon. many of these galaxies harbor starbursts which have spawned thousands of o stars in times no greater than one million years. the short time scale is inferred from the broad heii 4686a line, indicative of short-lived wolf-rayet stars, which is seen in the integrated spectra of these galaxies. we propose to use iso to determine the luminosity of the starbursts, the nature of the interstellar environments in which they occur, and the dust content of their parent galaxies. these observations will be done using 60 and 100um photometry from isophot, lws spectroscopy of oi(63um) and cii(158um) emission lines, and 160um imaging photometry from isophot, respectively. use of the identical aperture for spectroscopy and photometry will permit direct measurement of the line to continuum flux ratio and comparison with model calculations and the properties of nearby galaxies. many of these galaxies were absent or only weakly detected in the iras survey, and the predicted strengths of the oi and cii lines of even the brightest lie far below the currently achievable limits. the high sensitivity achievable with iso - a cooled telescope in space - is essential for these observations. starburst galaxies will be very extensively studied with iso, and our results on an extreme subset of starburst galaxies will thus represent an important contribution to one of iso.s most substantial investigations.
Instrument
LWS02 , PHT22
Temporal Coverage
1996-07-02T12:03:09Z/1998-03-22T18:59:07Z
Version
1.0
Mission Description
The Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was the worlds first true orbiting infrared observatory. Equipped with four highly-sophisticated and versatile scientific instruments, it was launched by Ariane in November 1995 and provided astronomers world-wide with a facility of unprecedented sensitivity and capabilities for a detailed exploration of the Universe at infrared wavelengths.
