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Astronomy & Astrophysics Supplement Series, 1999, 136, 35-52

New catalogue of Wolf-Rayet galaxies and high-excitation extra-galactic HII regions

Daniel Schaerer¹ - Thierry Contini^2,3 - Maximilien Pindao⁴

Send offprints request: D. Schaerer (schaerer@obs-mip.fr)

¹Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique, 14, Av. E. Belin, F-31400 Toulouse, France
²School of Physics & Astronomy, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
³European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
⁴Observatoire de Genève, 51, Ch. des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland

Received October 27, 1998; accepted November 24, 1998

Abstract:

We present a new compilation of Wolf-Rayet (WR) galaxies and extra-galactic HII regions showing broad HeII $\lambda$ 4686 emission drawn from the literature. Relevant information on the presence of other broad emission lines (NIII $\lambda$ 4640, CIV $\lambda$ 5808 and others) from WR stars of WN and WC subtypes, and other existing broad nebular lines is provided.

In total we include 139 known WR galaxies. Among these, 57 objects show both broad HeII $\lambda$ 4686 and CIV $\lambda$ 5808 features. In addition to the broad (stellar) HeII $\lambda$ 4686 emission, a nebular HeII component is well established (suspected) in 44 (54) objects. We find 19 extra-galatic HII regions without WR detections showing nebular HeII $\lambda$ 4686 emission.

The present sample can be used for a variety of studies on massive stars, interactions of massive stars with the ISM, stellar populations, starburst galaxies etc. The data is accessible electronically and will be updated periodicaly.

Keywords: galaxies: starburst - galaxies: stellar content - HII regions - stars: Wolf-Rayet

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Thierry Contini
2/25/1999