Daniel Schaerer1 - Thierry Contini2,3 - 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
We present a new compilation of Wolf-Rayet (WR) galaxies
and extra-galactic HII regions showing broad HeII 4686 emission
drawn from the literature.
Relevant information on the presence of other broad emission lines (NIII
4640, CIV
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 4686 and CIV
5808 features. In addition to the broad (stellar)
HeII
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
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