Pa{alpha} (1.87um) LF of HII regions in 12 galaxies

To date, extensive work (predominantly in H{alpha}) has been done from the ground, which is hindered by dust extinction and the severe blending of adjacent (spatially or in projection) H II regions. Reliably measuring the properties of H II regions requires a linear resolution <40pc, but analyses satisfying this requirement have been done only in a handful of galaxies, so far.

As the first space-based work using a galaxy sample, we have selected 12 galaxies from our HST/NICMOS Pa{alpha} survey and studied the LF and size distribution of H II regions both in individual galaxies and cumulatively, using a virtually extinction-free tracer of the ionizing photon rate. The high angular resolution and low sensitivity to diffuse emission of NICMOS also offer an advantage over ground-based imaging by enabling a higher degree of de-blending of the H II regions.