Bibcode
Rozas, M.; Zurita, A.; Beckman, J. E.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.354, p.823-835 (2000)
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2
2000
Journal
Citations
37
Refereed citations
30
Description
We combine Hα imaging and broad-band optical and NIR imaging over
the face of the barred galaxy NGC 3359, obtained within the BARS program
on the Canary Island telescopes. From the Hα image we have
determined the positions, fluxes, and diameters of a total of 547 Hii
regions, and computed their luminosity function, whose slope is within
the range of those of morphologically similar galaxies found in the
literature. We have gone on to quantify other statistical properties,
such as the diameter distribution and the number density of the Hii
regions, deduced the global Hα surface density distribution and
disc scale length and to derive some physical parameters of individual
Hii regions. Measuring the integrated diffuse Hα flux for the
galaxy, we have compared this with the computed ionizing flux escaping
from the population of density-bounded Hii regions, showing that the
latter can give rise to the diffuse component. We present complementary
images in broad-band, and in colours, which give clues to the star
formation and dust distributions, as well as the underlying stellar mass
distribution. The bar, which shows obvious symptoms of youth, exhibits
striking differences in mean position angle as a function of wavelength
in the optical and near IR mass component.