CHEMICAL ABUNDANCE ANALYSIS OF M31 AND M33 BASED ON THE SPECTRUM OF HII REGIONS

HII 영역 분광자료를 통한 M31과 M33의 화학원소 결정

Chemical evolution of galaxies can be understood by studying the spatial distribution of heavy elements. We selected two nearby galaxies, M31 and M33 and investigated spectrum of their HII regions: a) the elec-tron densities have been derived from the [S II] 6717/6731 ratio along with the most recent atomic constants (Hyung & Aller 1996); b) the electron temperatures were determinated from the Pagel's empirical method. Nebula Model (Hyung 1994) has been employed to predict the spectral line intensities which gives the proper chemical abundances. The model would predict the line intensities correctly only when various input parameters such as the effective central star temperatures, gravity log g, model atmosphere as well as the geometry and the nebula physical condition are appropriate. Thus, the determination of chemical abundances of O, S, N of the two nearby galaxies M31 and M33 has been done, which shows a radial dependance of O/H and N/H: decrease with the distance, or increasing electron temperature due to the elemental deficiency. Abundances of M31 appear to be enhanced than those of M33.