Apr 09, 2012

John Everett, UW-Madison

"The Local Starburst Galaxy M82: An Intro, Observational Constraints, & Discussion "

The local starburst galaxy M82 is one of the closest and most widely studied starburst galaxies. So, what have we learned from it? For instance, we might ask "What's known about the triggering mechanism for the starburst, and its time history?", "What is the pressure in the host galaxy's ISM, and what are the densities and filling fractions of the various components of its ISM?", "What is the structure of the magnetic field?", "How quickly is mass leaving M82, and what is its metallicity?" These are all questions that many different reseachers (including Jay and colleagues) have looked into. I will address the above questions as part of a literature review of observations and theory, and also review some material on NGC 253, another local starburst galaxy. I also very much welcome everyone else's input, and hope that we can discuss a variety of questions and insights about these galaxies.