OB stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud.
Abstract
Spectral classification of a sample of fainter OB stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is used to derive a reliable distance estimate for the galaxy. Spectra of 19 stars in the SMC and six galactic stars were obtained with the CTIO 4-m Ritchey-Chretien image-tube spectrograph, and classified by comparison with standard spectra, taking into account the weakness of the metal lines in SMC spectra. Calculations of the distance moduli of each star yield a distance modulus of 19.1 magnitudes for the SMC, with a negligible foreground reddening. Comparison of H-R diagrams indicates the SMC to be 0.5 magnitudes more distant than the LMC. Line intensity tracings for the SMC stars reveal significant decreases in the line strengths of the C III, N III and Si lines of the SMC relative to the LMC and galactic stars, and allows the estimation of rotational velocities for the individual stars.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Pub Date:
- February 1982
- DOI:
- 10.1086/130936
- Bibcode:
- 1982PASP...94...31C
- Keywords:
-
- B Stars;
- Early Stars;
- Magellanic Clouds;
- O Stars;
- Stellar Spectra;
- Stellar Spectrophotometry;
- Abundance;
- Distance;
- Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram;
- Interstellar Extinction;
- Milky Way Galaxy;
- Stellar Luminosity;
- Stellar Rotation;
- Astrophysics