Bibcode
DOI
Luridiana, V.; Peimbert, M.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 553, Issue 2, pp. 633-644.
Advertised on:
6
2001
Revista
Número de citas
29
Número de citas referidas
20
Descripción
We compute photoionization models for the giant extragalactic H II
region NGC 5461 and compare their predictions to several observational
constraints. Since we aim to reproduce not only the global properties of
the region but also its local structure, the models are constrained to
reproduce the observed density profile, and our analysis takes into
consideration the bias introduced by the shapes and sizes of the slits
used by different observers. We find that an asymmetric nebula with a
Gaussian density distribution, powered by a young burst of 3.1 Myr,
satisfactorily reproduces most of the constraints, and that the star
formation efficiency inferred from the model agrees with current
estimates. Our results strongly depend on the assumed density law, since
constant-density models overestimate the hardness of the ionizing field,
affecting the deduced properties of the central stellar cluster. We
illustrate the features of our best model, and discuss the possible
sources of errors and uncertainties affecting the outcome of this type
of studies.