The Lyman alpha reference sample: VI. Lyman alpha escape from the edge-on disk galaxy Mrk 1486

Recent numerical simulations suggest that the strength of the Lyman alpha (Lya) line of star-forming disk galaxies strongly depends on the inclination at which they are observed: from edge-on to face-on, we expect to see a change from a strongly attenuated Lya line to a strong Lya emission line. We...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2016-03, Vol.587, p.A77
Main Authors: Duval, Florent, Ostlin, Goran, Hayes, Matthew, Zackrisson, Erik, Verhamme, Anne, Orlitova, Ivana, Adamo, Angela, Guaita, Lucia, Melinder, Jens, Cannon, John M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
astronomi
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Computer simulation
Disk galaxies
Emission
Galactic winds
galaxies: ISM
galaxies: starburst
Imaging
line: profiles
Mathematical models
Photons
radiative transfer
Sciences of the Universe
Star formation
submillimeter: galaxies
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Recent numerical simulations suggest that the strength of the Lyman alpha (Lya) line of star-forming disk galaxies strongly depends on the inclination at which they are observed: from edge-on to face-on, we expect to see a change from a strongly attenuated Lya line to a strong Lya emission line. We aim to understand how a strong Lya emission line is able to escape from the low-redshift highly inclined (edge-on) disk galaxy Mrk1486 (z ~ 0.0338). To our knowledge, this work is the first observational study of Lya transport inside an edge-on disk galaxy. Using a large set of HST imaging and spectroscopic data, we investigated the interstellar medium (ISM) structure and the dominant source of Lya radiation inside Mrk1486. Extended bipolar galactic winds are frequently observed from star-forming disk galaxies. Given the advantage Lya photons take of such outflowing HI materials to easily escape from Mrk1486, this mechanism may explain the origin of strong Lya emission lines frequently observed from highly inclined galaxies at high-redshift.
ISSN:0004-6361
1432-0746
1432-0746
1432-0756
DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201526876