The Physical Properties of HII Regions in SIGNALS
Image Credit: SIGNALSAbstract
Some of the most beautiful objects in the sky are HII regions, so-named because they are gas clouds that contain mostly ionized hydrogen. These gas clouds are being ionized by newly formed stars, and thus have great importance to the study of galaxy evolution, chemical enrichment, and star formation. Two key properties govern their emission line spectra: ionization parameter and chemical abundance. An interesting question to ask is are these properties correlated? The answer is not straightforward and differs greatly between samples! I will show ongoing work into understanding this correlation using resolved HII regions in the nearby galaxy NGC 628 detected with the SIGNALS project.
Ray Garner
TAMU Astronomy Postdoctoral Researcher
I’m a scientist, Star Wars fan, and amateur photographer raised in Georgia. My research interests include galaxy evolution, star formation, satellite galaxies, and nebular diagnostics.