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Published October 2001 | Published + Accepted Version
Journal Article Open

Multiwavelength Observations of the Low-Metallicity Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy SBS 0335−052

Abstract

New infrared and millimeter observations from Keck, Palomar, ISO, and OVRO and archival data from the NRAO^(**) VLA and IRAS are presented for the low-metallicity blue compact dwarf galaxy SBS 0335-052. Mid-infrared imaging shows this young star-forming system is compact (0farcs31; 80 pc) at 12.5 μm. The large Brγ equivalent width (235 Å) measured from integral field spectroscopy is indicative of a ~5 Myr starburst. The central source appears to be optically thin in emission, containing both a warm (~80 K) and a hot (~210 K) dust component, and the overall interstellar radiation field is quite intense, about 10,000 times the intensity in the solar neighborhood. CO emission is not detected, though the galaxy shows an extremely high global H I gas-to-dust mass ratio, high even for blue compact dwarfs. Finally, the galaxy's ratio of mid-infrared-to-optical and mid-to-near-infrared luminosities are quite high, whereas its far-infrared-to-radio and far-infrared-to-optical flux ratios are surprisingly similar to what is seen in normal star-forming galaxies. The relatively high bolometric infrared-to-radio ratio is more easily understood in the context of such a young system with negligible nonthermal radio continuum emission. These new lines of evidence may outline features common to primordial galaxies found at high redshift.

Additional Information

© 2001 American Astronomical Society. Received 2001 June 3. Accepted 2001 July 9. We are happy to acknowledge M. Sauvage for the generous donation of unpublished ISO results. We are also grateful T. Murphy helped with the LWS observations and the PIFS data reduction, and for the assistance E. Egami provided with the PIFS observing run. The comments from an anonymous referee helped to improve the text. The W. M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership between the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. It was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. ISO is an ESA project with instruments funded by ESA member states (especially the PI countries: France, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom) and with the participation of ISAS and NASA. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database, which is operated by JPL/Caltech, under contract with NASA. B. T. S. is supported by grants from the NSF and NASA. D. T. F. acknowledges support from NSF grant AST 96-13717 made to the Owens Valley Millimeter Array.

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Published - Dale_2001_AJ_122_1736.pdf

Accepted Version - 0107108.pdf

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