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3. NEW CATALOGUE OF WR GALAXIES

In this Section we present an updated list of all "WR galaxies" outside the Local Group. As pointed out earlier we remind the reader that the working definition for WR galaxies refers only to the detection of a broad WR feature in an integrated spectrum, irrespectively of the included area. This fact must be taken into account in subsequent interpretations. By this working definition we also include some nearby objects (e.g. NGC 300) which, although already known to harbour WR stars, were not included in the catalogue of Conti (1991). An inventory of the Galactic WR stars is found in the 7th catalogue of van der Hucht et al. (1998; cf. van der Hucht 1996). For individual WR stars and WR populations in the Local Group see e.g. the review of Massey (1996).

3.1. Selection criteria and procedure

During the last three years the literature was followed for any publication relating to possible or confirmed signatures from WR stars in extragalactic objects. At the end of july 1998 we also made a systematic search in the Astrophysics Data System (ADS) for the occurrence of "WR", "W-R", "Wolf-Rayet", or "Wolf Rayet" in all the included literature starting with 1970. The search yielded 1780 references to refereed papers, and 1061 other references, all of which were carefully inspected. In addition all publications from the IAU Symposia 67, 80, 83, 88, 99, 105, 116, 122, 143, 149, 163 were scanned. Although a complete inspection is not possible the present procedure should guarantee a fairly high degree of completeness.

For the inclusion in our list of "WR galaxies" the criteria are 1) the presence of broad emission at 4686 Å due to HeII, or 2) a broad "WR bump" at ~ 4660 Å, or 3) other broad emission lines attributed to WR stars. The second criterion accounts for the difficulty of resolving HeII lambda4686 from other emission lines in medium resolution spectra (see e.g. Kunth & Joubert 1985), but may in some cases introduce objects where nebular emission lines dominate the WR bump. Implicitly both criteria 1) and 2) were adopted in the earlier compilation of Conti (1991). The third criterion allows for objects where broad carbon lines (e.g. CIII lambda5696, CIV lambda5808) presumably from WR stars are detected. In practice only one case (NGC 1365 for which no blue spectrum was available) falls in this category.

The presence/absence of features and their qualification (broad and/or nebular) is generally not fully objective (see Sect. 2 for more details). Furthermore in many cases the spectra are not available for inspection. We therefore follow the procedure or judgement of the authors of the original publication.

All objects resulting from this selection are listed in Table 1. Obviously most of the objects appear in various catalogues. We have chose the following labeling priority: first the Messier number, then the NGC, the Markarian, the Zwicky lists, or finally other labels (UM, Tol, SBS, etc). Often several regions in the same object show WR features. In this case only the main object name is listed (column 1); information about the different regions are given in Sect. 4.

Table 1. List of WR galaxies (all WR populations outside Local Group). (C91) stands for objects included in Conti (1991) catalogue.
  R.A. Decl. Morphology mb Vrad Broad HeII lambda4686 Nebular CIV lambda5808
Name [1950] [1950]   [mag] [km s-1] reference HeII lambda4686 reference
NGC 53 00 12 16.1 -60 36 19 (R')SB(r)ab 13.3 4568 MMO91    
NGC 55 00 12 38.0 -39 29 54 SB(s)m: sp 8.4 129 RD86   RD86
UM 228 00 18 27.2 +00 36 09   17.0 29490 MMO91,P98    
UM 48 00 33 35.8 +04 21 37 S 15.5 4907 MMO91    
Mrk 960 00 46 04.8 -12 59 21 (R)SB0 pec? 13.5 6407 KC98 -  
NGC 300 00 52 31.7 -37 57 15 SA(s)d 8.7 144 DRW83   DRW83
IRAS 01003-2238 01 00 23.6 -22 38 03   18.9 35310 AHM88,(C91)    
UM 311 01 13 00.5 -01 07 22     1798 MMO91 ! IT 98
Tol 0121-376 01 21 55.8 -37 37 55     10500 MMO91,P98    
Mink 01 23 14.2 -01 37 54 Irr 17.0 5638 B85,(C91) UL  
Mrk 996 01 25 04.5 -06 35 08   15.5 1622 TIL96 - TIL96
Mrk 589 02 11 08.7 +03 52 08 S? 14.5 3436 GIT98 - GIT98
UM 420 02 18 20.4 +00 19 42 Compact 16.5 17652 IT98 ! GIT98
Mrk 1039 02 25 07.2 -10 23 19 Sc? sp; HII 15.5 2089 H98 Q H98
Tol 0226-390 02 26 10.0 -39 02 39   15.3 14340 MMO91,P98    
Tol 0242-387 02 42 39.2 -38 47 31 HII 17.8 37807 MMO91,P98    
Mrk 598 02 43 52.2 +07 11 34   17.0 5396 P98    
NGC 1140 02 52 08.0 -10 13 49 IBm pec 12.8 1501 GIT98 - GIT98
NGC 1156 02 56 46.8 +25 02 21 IB(s)m 12.3 375 HFW95    
NGC 1313 03 17 39.0 -66 40 42 SB(s)d 9.2 475 WR97   WR97
NGC 1365 03 31 41.8 -36 18 27 (R')SBb(s)b 10.3 1636     PC92
SBS 0335-052 03 35 15.1 -05 12 26   17.0 4043 I98 !  
NGC 1510 04 01 53.9 -43 32 14 SA0 pec? 13.5 913 EN84,(C91)    
NGC 1569 04 26 04.6 +64 44 23 IBm 11.9 -104 DR94    
NGC 1614 04 31 35.5 -08 40 56 SB(s)c pec 13.6 4778 P98,(C91)    
VII Zw 19 04 35 41.3 +67 38 19   16.0 4830 KJ85,(C91)    
NGC 1741 (B) 04 59 06.5 -04 20 08 SB(s)m pec 15.2 4171 KS86,(C91) ?  
H31A 04 59 09.9 -04 19 52 Sdm 15.6 4042 R90,(C91)    
Mrk 1094 05 08 17.4 -02 44 33 I0 pec? 14.1 2831 KJ85    
II Zw 40 05 53 04.9 +03 23 07 BCD;Irr 15.5 789 KS81,(C91) ! GIT98
Tol 0633-415 06 33 35.0 -41 31 12   16.5 5096 MMO91    
Mrk 5 06 35 24.4 +75 40 22 I? 15.6 792 IT98    
IRAS 07164+5301 07 16 28.6 +53 01 06       H96    
Mrk 1199 07 20 28.3 +33 32 21 Sc 13.7 4107 IT98 Q IT98
NGC 2363 07 23 23.7 +69 17 33 Sm; HII 11.6 107 G94 Q G94
Mrk 8 07 23 36.8 +72 13 58 S? 13.8 3496 KJ85,(C91)    
NGC 2403 07 32 05.5 +65 42 40 SAB(s)cd 8.93 131 DR96   DR96
VII Zw 187 07 49 27.4 +72 24 57   17.4   KJ85    
SBS 0749+582 07 49 48.0 +58 16 00   19.0 9548 ITL97 -  
Mrk 1210 08 01 27.0 +05 15 22 S? 14.3 4046 SCS98 !  
IRAS 08208+2816 08 20 52.2 +28 15 57 Irr 15.5 14034 H98   H98
He 2-10 08 34 07.0 -26 14 06 I0? pec 12.4 873 AWG76,(C91)   VC92
Mrk 702 08 42 45.1 +16 16 44 Compact 15.7 15840 MMO91 - GIT98
SBS 0907+543 09 07 31.8 +54 23 08   17.0 8124 ITL97 Q  
SBS 0926+606 09 26 20.0 +60 40 02 BCG 17.5 4122 ITL97 Q  
I Zw 18 09 30 30.2 +55 27 49 Compact 15.6 742 I97 Q I97,L97
ESO 566-7 09 42 38.0 -19 29 42 SBb pec? 15.3 9890 MMO91    
NGC 3003 09 45 38.5 +33 39 19 Sbc? 12.3 1478 HFW95    
Mrk 22 09 46 03.3 +55 48 48   15.7 1499 ITL94 Q GIT98
Mrk 1236 09 47 19.9 +00 51 01 SABcd 13.5 1829 KS86,(C91) ! GIT98
SBS 0948+532 09 48 10.2 +53 13 41   18.0 13890 ITL94 Q GIT98

Table 1. List of WR galaxies (cont.)
  R.A. Decl. Morphology mb Vrad Broad HeII lambda4686 Nebular CIV lambda5808
Name [1950] [1950]   [mag] [km s-1] reference HeII lambda4686 reference
NGC 3049 09 52 10.2 +09 30 32 SB(rs)ab 13.0 1494 KS86,(C91) - SCK99
Mrk 712 09 53 59.1 +15 52 34 SB 14.5 4560 CDS95 ?  
Tol 0957-278 09 57 05.0 -27 53 30 Multiple? 14.4 710 KJ85    
NGC 3125 10 04 18.2 -29 41 29 S 13.5 865 KS81,(C91) ? SCK99
Tol 1025-284 10 25 12.0 -28 26 00   16.9 9593 P98    
Mrk 33 10 29 22.7 +54 39 31 Im pec 13.4 1461 KJ85,(C91)    
Mrk 1434 10 30 56.3 +58 19 20 BCG 16.5 2269 ITL97 Q GIT98
Mrk 1259 10 36 03.0 -06 54 37 S0 pec? 13.5 2159 OTT97 - GIT98
Mrk 724 10 38 26.8 +21 37 24 Compact 16.5 1139 KS86,(C91) ! KS86
NGC 3353 10 42 15.8 +56 13 26 BCD/Irr 13.2 944 S96,H98 Q S96,H98
NGC 3367 10 43 55.4 +14 00 58 SB(rs)c 12.1 3037 HFW95    
NGC 3395 10 47 02.7 +33 14 44 SAB(rs)cd 12.4 1625 W98 - W98
NGC 3396 10 47 08.9 +33 15 18 IBm pec 12.6 1625 W98 ! W98
Mrk 1271 10 53 33.3 +06 26 24 Compact 14.8 1049 IT98 Q ?GIT98
SBS 1054+365 10 54 59.8 +36 31 30   16.0 603 ITL97 - -
Mrk 36 11 02 15.6 +29 24 34 BCD 15.5 646 IT98 Q  
NGC 3690 11 25 42.4 +58 50 17 IBm pec 12.0 3121 HFW95    
Mrk 178 11 30 45.9 +49 30 52 pair   249 GRZ88,(C91) ! GIT98
NGC 3738 11 33 04.2 +54 48 04 Im 12.1 229 M97    
UM 439 11 34 03.0 +01 05 36   15.1 1169 MMO91    
Mrk 182 11 34 17.7 +20 12 12 Compact 17.0 6328 GIT98 ? -
Mrk 1450 11 35 51.3 +58 09 04 Compact 15.5 946 ITL94 Q ITL94
Mrk 1304 11 39 38.6 +00 36 42 Sb pec 14.7 5488 MMO91 ! GIT98
Mrk 1305 11 40 24.6 -08 03 18   15.5 2997 GIT98 - GIT98
Mrk 750 11 47 28.0 +15 18 04 BCD 15.8 754 KJ85,(C91) Q GIT98
Pox 4 11 48 39.0 -20 19 17   16.2 3589 KJ85 ?  
UM 461 11 48 59.4 -02 05 41 BCD/Irr 16.9 899 C91    
Mrk 1307 11 50 03.8 -02 11 28 Pec;BCD 14.5 1012 IT98 Q  
Mrk 193 11 52 52.1 +57 56 26 Compact 16.5 5282 GIT98 !  
ISZ 59 11 54 54.7 -19 20 44 S0 16.8 1781 KJ85,(C91)    
NGC 3995 11 55 10.4 +32 34 24 SAm pec 12.7 3254 W98 ! W98
NGC 4038 11 59 19.0 -18 35 12 SB(s)m pec 10.9 1642 RD86    
SBS 1211+540 12 11 33.9 +54 01 58   17.8 929 GIT98 !  
NGC 4214 12 13 08.3 +36 36 22 IAB(s)m 10.2 291 SF91   SF91, MHK91
NGC 4216 12 13 21.5 +13 25 40 SAB(s)b 11.0 131 RD86    
NGC 4236 12 14 21.8 +69 44 36 SB(s)dm 10.1 0 GP94    
M 106 12 16 29.4 +47 34 53 SAB(s)bc 9.10 448 C98    
SBS 1222+614 12 22 44.5 +61 25 46   17.0 734 ITL97 Q ITL97
NGC 4385 12 23 09.0 +00 50 57 SB(rs)0+ 13.2 2140 CS86,(C91)   CS86
II Zw 62 12 23 38.4 +07 56 37   17.2 3930 KJ85,(C91)    
Mrk 209 12 23 50.5 +48 46 13 Sm pec 15.2 281 ITL97 Q GIT98
NGC 4449 12 25 45.9 +44 22 16 IBm 10.0 207 MK97   MK97
NGC 4532 12 31 46.7 +06 44 39 IBm 12.3 2012 HFW95    
Mrk 1329 12 34 29.8 +07 12 01 SBmIII 14.4 1632 GIT98 - ?GIT98
Tol 1235-350 12 35 46.0 -35 02 42 S0: 17.1 2998 P98    
NGC 4670 12 42 49.8 +27 23 54 SB(s)0/a pec 13.1 1069 MHK91    
Tol 1247-232 12 47 39.0 -23 17 38   15.5 14400 MMO91    
SBS 1249+493 12 49 35.8 +49 19 45 BCG 17.5 7330 GIT98 !  
NGC 4861 12 56 39.7 +35 07 50 SB(s)m 12.9 847 DS86,(C91) Q DS86
Tol 30 13 03 03.0 -28 09 12 SB 15.5   C96 ?  
Pox 120 13 04 04.7 -11 48 20   15.7 6220 KJ85,(C91)    

Table 1. List of WR galaxies (cont.)
  R.A. Decl. Morphology mb Vrad Broad HeII lambda4686 Nebular CIV lambda5808
Name [1950] [1950]   [mag] [km s-1] reference HeII lambda4686 reference
Pox 139 13 09 20.8 -11 47 54 SB(s)d 15.0 2107 KJ85,(C91)    
NGC 5068 13 16 13.0 -20 46 36 SB(s)d 10.7 673 RD86    
SBS 1319+579 13 19 25.2 +57 57 09   18.5 2060 ITL97 Q GIT98
NGC 5128 13 22 31.6 -42 45 33 S0 pec 7.8 547 M81,RD86   M81
Pox 186 13 23 12.0 -11 22 00   17.0 1170 KJ85,(C91)    
Tol 35 13 24 20.0 -27 41 48 S? 14.4 1814 KJ85,(C91) ?  
M 83 13 34 11.5 -29 36 42 SAB(s)c 8.2 516 RD86    
NGC 5253 13 37 05.1 -31 23 13 IM pec 10.9 404 CTM86,(C91) ? SCK99
Mrk 67 13 39 39.6 +30 46 16 BCD/Irr 16.5 958 C91    
Mrk 1486 13 58 09.4 +57 40 54     10143 ITL97 Q  
Tol 89 13 58 26.0 -32 49 20 SB(rs)dm 16.0 1216 DBB85,(C91) ? SCK99
NGC 5430 13 59 08.5 +59 34 16 SB(s)b 12.7 3028 K82,(C91)    
NGC 5408 14 00 17.5 -41 08 19 IB(s)m 12.2 509 MMO91 !  
NGC 5457 14 01 26.3 +54 35 18 SAB(rs)cd 8.3 241 R82,DRW83    
NGC 5461 14 01 54.9 +54 33 24     298 R82    
NGC 5471 14 02 43.4 +54 38 08   15.0 297 MHK91 ?  
SBS 1408+551A 14 08 14.0 +55 11 00   18.0 23190 I96 Q I96
CGCG 219-066 14 15 03.6 +43 44 04   15.6 649 I98 !  
Mrk 475 14 37 03.6 +37 01 13 BCD 14.5 540 C91 Q ITL94
Mrk 477 14 39 02.5 +53 43 04     11340 H97 !  
Tol 1457-262A 14 57 31.8 -26 14 40 HII   5180 C96 -  
Tol 1457-262B 14 57 32.1 -26 14 49 HII 14.7 5249 P98 ?  
SBS 1533+574B 15 33 04.1 +57 27 00     3390 GIT98 ! GIT98
IC 4662 17 42 12.0 -64 37 18 IBm 11.7 308 RD86   RR91
NGC 6500 17 53 48.1 +18 20 41 SAab 13.1 3003 B97    
Fairall 44 18 09 19.3 -57 44 48 S? pec 14.8 4948 KC98 Q KC98
NGC 6764 19 07 01.2 +50 51 08 SB(s)bc 12.6 2416 OC82,(C91)    
Tol 1924-416 19 24 29.0 -41 40 36 pec HII 13.3 2874 P98 ?  
IC 4870 19 32 48.0 -65 55 30 IBm? pec Sy2 13.9 889 JK99 !  
IC 5154 22 00 41.7 -66 21 25 Irr Sy2 14.9 3118 JK99 ? JK99
ESO 108-IG 017 22 07 00.3 -67 06 59 I0? Sy2 14.4 2191 JK99 ? JK99
Mrk 309 22 50 10.0 +24 27 52 Sa 15.4 12645 OC82,(C91)   OC82
Mrk 315 23 01 35.7 +22 21 16 E1 pec? 14.8 11661 KJ85    
ESO 148-IG 02 23 12 51.0 -59 19 40 Merger 15.2 13380 JB88,(C91)    
III Zw 107 23 27 40.4 +25 15 27 Sb 15.6 6176 KJ85,(C91)    
Mrk 930 23 29 29.2 +28 40 16     5400 IT98 ! GIT98
NGC 7714 23 33 40.6 +01 52 42 SB(s)b pec 13.0 2798 B85,(C91) Q G97

KEY TO column 8 (nebular HeII). -- no entry: no information available, ``-'': absent, ``?'': possible/suspected, ``!'': present, but no data available, ``UL'': upper limit available, ``Q'': measurement available
KEY TO REFERENCES. -- AHM88 Armus et al. 1988, AWG76 Allen et al. 1976, B85 Breugel et al. 1985, B97 Barth et al. 1997, C91 Conti 1991, C96 Contini 1996, C98 Castellanos et al. 1998, CDS95 Contini et al. 1995, CS86 Campbell & Smith 1986, CTM86 Campbell et al. 1986, DBB85 Durret et al. 1985, DR94 Drissen & Roy 1994, DR96 Drissen & Roy 1996, DRM93 Drissen et al. 1993, DRW83 D'Odorico et al. 1983, DS86 Dinerstein & Shields 1986, EN84 Eichendorf & Nieto 1984, G97 García-Vargas et al. 1997, GIT98 Guseva et al. 1998, GP94 Gonzalez-Delgado & Perez 1994, GRZ88 Gonzalez-Riestra et al. 1984, H96 Huang et al. 1996, H97 Heckman et al. 1997, H98 Huang et al. 1998, HFW95 Ho et al. 1995, I96 Izotov et al. 1996, I97 Izotov et al. 1997b, I98 Izotov et al. 1998, IT98 Izotov & Thuan 1998, ITL94 Izotov et al. 1994, ITL97 Izotov et al. 1997a, JB88 Johansson & Bergvall 1988, JK99 Joguet & Kunth 1999, K82 Keel 1982, KC98 Kovo & Contini 1998, KJ85 Kunth & Joubert 1985, KS81 Kunth & Sargent 1981, KS86 Kunth & Schild 1986, L97 Legrand et al. 1997, M81 Moellenhoff 1981, M97 Martin 1997, MK97 Martin & Kennicut 1997, MMO91 Masegosa et al. 1991, MHK91 Mas-Hesse & Kunth 1991, OC82 Osterbrock & Cohen 1982, OTT97 Ohyama et al. 1997, P98 Pindao 1998, PC92 Phillips & Conti 1992, R82 Rayo et al. 1982, RR91 Richter & Rosa 1991, R90 Rubin et al. 1990, RD86 Rosa & D'Odorico 1986, S97 Schaerer et al. 1997, S96 Steel et al. 1996, SCK99 Schaerer et al. 1999, SCS98 Storchi-Bergmann et al. 1998, SF91 Sargent & Fillipenko 1991, TIL96 Thuan et al. 1996, V88 Vilchez et al. 1988, V96 Vacca 1996, VC92 Vacca & Conti 1992, W98 Weistrop et al. 1998, WR97 Walsh & Roy 1997

The general properties of objects, equatorial coordinates (equinox 1950, cols. 2 and 3), morphological type (col. 4), apparent blue magnitude (col. 5), and heliocentric radial velocity (col. 6) have been extracted from NED. Column 7 gives the reference of the first publication indicating the presence of broad HeII lambda4686. "(C91)" indicates that this objects was already included in the compilation of Conti (1991). Col. 8 gives information about the existence of nebular HeII lambda4686 (see footnote of the Table for the keys). The source of this information is found under the remarks on each individual object (Sect. 4). Col. 9 gives the reference to the first detection of broad CIV lambda5808 (exceptionally also other broad features, cf. NGC 1365).

Our current compilation (Table 1) includes 139 WR galaxies (cf. 37 WR galaxies in Conti 1991). Among them 57 objects show also broad CIV lambda5808 features. In addition to the broad (stellar) HeII lambda4686 emission, a nebular HeII component is well established (suspected) in 44 (54) objects.

The database will be made available electronically at the CDS and through the Web 1. It is our intention to update the catalogue in the future by this means.


1 Information at http://webast.ast.obs-mip.fr/people/schaerer/ Back.

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