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High Mass Star Formation along the Hubble Sequence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

N.A. Devereux  and
J.S. Young
N.A. Devereux
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 USA
J.S. Young
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003 USA

Abstract

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The relationship between the far infrared and Hα luminosity has been investigated for a sample of 124 spiral galaxies. We find that the observed far infrared luminosities are comparable to the luminosities expected from the high mass O and B stars which are required to ionize the hydrogen gas. Consequently the far infrared luminosity appears to be a measure of the high mass star formation rate in spiral galaxies. In addition, the all sky IRAS survey has been used to quantify the birthrate of high mass stars for a complete volume limited sample of ∼ 1000 spiral galaxies selected from the Nearby Galaxies Catalog. Our analysis indicates that the median high mass star formation rate is independent of morphology for spirals of types Sa - Scd inclusive. As such, our results challenge the growing perception that the median high mass star formation rate increases along the Hubble sequence Sa - Scd.

Type
VII- Infrared Emission
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 146: Dynamics of Galaxies and their Molecular Cloud Distributions , 1991 , pp. 230 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1991 

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