NGC 4102: HIGH-RESOLUTION INFRARED OBSERVATIONS OF A NUCLEAR STARBURST RING
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv (Israel)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712 (United States)
The composite galaxy NGC 4102 hosts a LINER nucleus and a starburst. We mapped NGC 4102 in the 12.8 {mu}m line of [Ne II], using the echelon spectrometer TEXES on the NASA IRTF, to obtain a data cube with 1.''5 spatial, and 25 km s{sup -1} spectral, resolution. Combining near-infrared, radio, and the [Ne II] data shows that the extinction to the starburst is substantial, more than 2 mag at the K band, and that the neon abundance is less than half solar. We find that the star formation in the nuclear region is confined to a rotating ring or disk of 4.''3 ({approx}300 pc) diameter, inside the inner Lindblad resonance. This region is an intense concentration of mass, with a dynamical mass {approx}3 x 10{sup 9} M{sub sun}, and of star formation. The young stars in the ring produce the [Ne II] flux reported by Spitzer for the entire galaxy. The mysterious blue component of line emission detected in the near-infrared is also seen in [Ne II]; it is not a normal active galactic nucleus outflow.
- OSTI ID:
- 21464643
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 722, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/722/2/1175; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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