UV spectroscopy of extremely metal-poor nearby galaxies: clues for the interpretation of distant-galaxy observations
by
Aida Wofford(AIP)
→
Europe/Stockholm
FC61
FC61
Description
Abstract: The rest-frame UV properties of massive-star populations at the lowest metallicities which are measured in the local universe remain largely uncharted. This is a problem for addressing three questions: how does metallicity determine galaxy properties, can we probe star-formation at high-z with UV lines other than Lyman-alpha (LyA), and can narrow He II 1640 emission be used to trace peculiar massive stars at z>10. We describe our HST efforts to provide empirical templates that will enable to address these questions, and present the first results from an HST campaign, which recently completed FUV+NUV spectroscopic coverage of three of the nearest and most metal-poor star-forming galaxies known. Our work provides detailed views of what may go on in galaxies out to redshifts of z~5, as well as important clues for the interpretation of rest-frame UV data to be collected by the future James Webb Space Telescope and extremely large ground-based telescopes.
