Papers Published

1. Heckman, T.M. and Gonzalez-Delgado, R. and Leitherer, C. and Meurer, G.R. and Krolik, J. and Wilson, A.S. and Koratkar, A. and Kinney, A., A powerful nuclear starburst in the Seyfert galaxy Markarian 477: implications for the starburst-active galactic nucleus connection, Astrophys. J. (USA), vol. 482 no. 1 (1997), pp. 114 - 32 [304139] .
   (last updated on 2007/04/16)

   Abstract:
   There have been many suggestions that starbursts may play an important rôle in Seyfert galaxies. Analyses of the UV, optical, and near-IR “featureless continuum” (FC) in type 2 Seyfert nuclei have provided indirect evidence that-the FC may be produced by a compact starburst. And that this starburst may provide a power source for the pronounced far-IR excess in type 2 Seyfert galaxies. The authors present and discuss Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images and a UV spectrum plus new ground-based near-UV through near-IR spectra of Mrk 477 (=I Zw 92). This object is arguably the most powerful type 2 Seyfert nucleus in the local universe and thus offers a unique opportunity for detailed investigation of the nature of the FC. The data provide direct evidence that the observed UV through near-IR continuum in the nucleus of Mrk 477 is dominated by light from a dusty starburst. An HST image of the space-UV continuum shows that it arises in a compact (few hundred parsec) region, much smaller than the sizes of previously studied circumnuclear starbursts in Seyfert galaxies

   Keywords:
   galactic nuclei;Seyfert galaxies;star formation;