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Mrk477

Mrk 477 is in interaction with a companion located 50 arcsec (37 kpc) to the North-East (De Robertis 1987). It is the most luminous Seyfert nucleus in the Whittle compilation in terms of [OIII], and it is known from optical spectropolarimetry that it harbors an obscured Seyfert 1 (Tran 1995). Our results (Heckman et al 1997) from the analysis of the UV, and optical wavelength region, indicates that a compact (the effective radius is 0.2 kpc) dusty starburst dominates the light from the UV to the near infrared. Evolutionary population synthesis models applied to the UV SiIV1#11400 absorption feature and to the spectral energy distribution indicate that the star formation has occurred in Mrk 477 in a very short period of time 6 Myr ago. This burst age is compatible with the possible presence of 14#14 WR stars and the detection of a strong CaII triplet feature produced by red supergiants. The bolometric luminosity of this nuclear starburst is 15#15 L16#16, making a significant contribution to the total bolometric luminosity of Mrk 477.



Rosa Gonzalez
1998-06-20