Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Temperature Variations From Hubble Space Telescope Spectroscopy Of The Orion Nebula, R. H. Rubin, P. G. Martin, R. J. Dufour, Gary J. Ferland, K. P. M. Blagrave, X.-W. Liu, J. F. Nguyen, J. A. Baldwin

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

We present Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/STIS long-slit spectroscopy of NGC 1976. Our goal is to measure the intrinsic line ratio [O III] 4364/5008 and thereby evaluate the electron temperature (T_e) and the fractional mean-square T_e variation (t²_A)across the nebula. We also measure the intrinsic line ratio [N II] 5756/6585 in order to estimate T_e and t²_A in the N⁺region. The interpretation of the [N II] data is not as clear cut as the [O III] data because of a higher sensitivity to knowledge …