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Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto

The stellar population and featureless continuum in the Seyfert nucleus of NGC 3516

M. Serote Roos, C. Boisson, M. Joly, M. J. Ward

Abstract
Long-slit spectroscopy of the Seyfert type 1 galaxy NGC 3516 is used to determine the stellar population of the nuclear region. We show that the differences in absorption-line equivalent widths for the nucleus and circumnuclear region are consistent with dilution within the nucleus by the presence of a featureless continuum. The dilution is strongest at the short wavelengths. We associate this effect with the onset of an additional featureless continuum component due to the accretion disc. Although strongest in the blue, the dilution still amounts to about 35 per cent of the total nuclear flux at the wavelengths of the red calcium triplet lines. Using the strengths of a large number of absorption lines, we determine the stellar population of the nucleus, which we find contains a significant proportion of super-metal-rich stars (20 per cent).

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume 278, Page 897
February 1996

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Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) is a new but long anticipated research infrastructure with a national dimension. It embodies a bold but feasible vision for the development of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, taking full advantage and fully realizing the potential created by the national membership of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). IA resulted from the merging the two most prominent research units in the field in Portugal: the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) and the Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics of the University of Lisbon (CAAUL). It currently hosts more than two-thirds of all active researchers working in Space Sciences in Portugal, and is responsible for an even greater fraction of the national productivity in international ISI journals in the area of Space Sciences. This is the scientific area with the highest relative impact factor (1.65 times above the international average) and the field with the highest average number of citations per article for Portugal.

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