Spectral Energy Distributions of starburst galaxies in the 900–1200 range

¹ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, BP 8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France e-mail: denis.burgarella@astrsp-mrs.fr,jean-michel.d eharveng@astrsp-mrs.fr
² Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Bd Arago, Paris, France e-mail: kunth@iap.fr

Corresponding author: V. Buat, veronique.buat@astrsp-mrs.fr

Received: 21 May 2002
Accepted: 6 June 2002

Abstract

We present the 970–1175  spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 12 starburst galaxies observed with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer FUSE. We benefit from the high spectral resolution of FUSE to estimate a continuum as much as possible unaffected by the interstellar lines. The continuum is rather flat with, in a few cases, a decrease at , the amplitude of which is correlated with various indicators of dust extinction. The far-UV SEDs are compared with synthetic population models. The galaxies with almost no extinction have an SED consistent with on-going star formation over some Myrs. We derive a mean dust attenuation law in the wavelength range 965–1140  by comparing the SED of obscured galaxies to an empirical dust-free SED. The extinction is nearly constant longward of 1040  but rises at shorter wavelengths. We compare our results with other studies of extinction for galaxies and stars in this wavelength range.