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Paper: Discovering The Nature of LINERs
Volume: 381, The Second Annual Spitzer Science Center Conference: Infrared Diagnostics of Galaxy Evolution
Page: 426
Authors: Martins, L.; Armus, L.; Leitherer, C.; Ptak, A.; Heckman, T.
Abstract: LINERs (Low Ionization Emission Line Regions) are the most common form of activity in the nearby universe, yet the ionization mechanism responsible for the line ratios observed in these objects is still controversial. Many of these galaxies have obscured nuclei, which complicates studies based on optical observations. Previous studies which combined different wavelength regions (Satyapal et al. 2003, Filho et al. 2004) found puzzling results and were not able to construct a consistent picture of what powers the emission lines. We obtained IRS spectroscopy of a representative sample of LINERs in the mid-IR, for which we have high-resolution Chandra X-ray data, as well as highresolution optical data. The mid-IR penetrates dust, and gives a homogeneous set of strategic emission lines. We present here our preliminary results.
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