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Long slit CCD observations of active and normal galaxies.

This work presents a comparative study between a sample of Seyfert galaxies and a control sample of galaxies that was done to determine if the presence of an active nucleus would in any way effect its host galaxy. An obvious manifestation of such an effect would be changes in the star formation properties of the Seyfert galaxies relative to the control sample. Since the star formation rate is directly related to the amount of Hα emission, the Hα luminosity along the major axis of each program galaxy was measured. The result of this work was twofold. First, a highly optimized CCD camera system was developed for use as a facility instrument. This camera system was then used to spectroscopically survey 15 Seyfert and 15 normal galaxies. Hα emission was measured in 12 Seyfert and 12 normal galaxies. It was found that after comparing a number of different quantities all dependent on the star formation process, there was no discernible difference between the sample of Seyfert galaxies and the sample of normal galaxies. In particular, the total Hα emission, line ratios and various properties of the sites of star formation and their spatial distribution were similar between the two samples. This implies that the disk regions of Seyferts are identical to the disks of normal spirals as determined by the properties of their giant HII regions.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/185100
Date January 1990
CreatorsCarone, Timothy Edward.
ContributorsMcIntyre, Laurence C., Jr., Stocke, John T., Parmenter, Robert H., Stoner, John O., Jr.
PublisherThe University of Arizona.
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext, Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic)
RightsCopyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

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