Participants:

Dr.J.A Acosta-Pulido, Dr. U. Klaas & Dr. R. Laureijs
ISOPHOT IDT
VILSPA - Apdto. Correos 50727
28080 - Madrid
Spain

Project:

Mid IR imaging of the starburst galaxy NGC 6090

PI :

Dr. J.A. Acosta-Pulido
ISOPHOT IDT
VILSPA - Apdto. Correos 50727
28080 - Madrid
Spain

Abstract :
As part of the ISOPHOT performance verification program (AOT commisioning) a complete integral Spectral Energy Distribution from 2.5 to 200 um has been obtained for the interacting galaxy pair NGC 6090 (Acosta-Pulido et al, 1996, A&A 315, L121). It shows that the dominant source for the infrared emission is the starburst activity. The ISOPHOT observations revealed a previously unknown strong PAH emission and a rising continuum in the MIR, which shows a bump around 16 um. In the FIR a large mass of cold dust was detected. While we have assessed the global properties of the object with ISOPHOT, our new proposal intends to achieve spatial resolution of the NIR and MIR components. As the object is an interacting system undergoing a very strong collision, different excitation conditions are expected in the various parts of the galaxies. Therefore the individual emission components may well have different sites of origin. For this work the best combination of spatial and spectral resolution is provided by the ISOCAM using a pixel field of view (PFOV) of 3", yielding a total FOV of 87"x87". We propose to do multi filter imaging of NGC 6090 using a combination of LW filters plus two CVF setups, which will allow us to determine the spatial distribution of emission features and the continuum.

Allocated time and instruments/detectors Summary :

ISOPHOT observations with all subinstruments done during Commissioning 10000 secs with CAM: still to be performed

Significant Results :

Spectral Energy distribution of a starburst galaxy obtained with unprecedent detail (see attached Figure ).

Publications :

-- Acosta-Pulido et al. (1996) A&A 315, L121 "The starburst galaxy NGC 6090: from 2.5 to 200 microns"

Updated: Jan 14, 1997.