STScI Preprint #1369
Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555.
Blue-violet spectrograms of individual components in four compact OB groups of the Large Magellanic Cloud, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Faint Object Spectrograph, are presented and discussed. Two of the massive multiple systems are in the 30 Doradus periphery, while the other two represent the core and the peripheral, triggered associations in the giant shell H II region Henize N11. Uncontaminated spectrograms of three WR and two very early Of components have been obtained for the first time; they can be observed only as composites with their close companions from the ground. Many of the companions have also been observed separately with HST/FOS, and several are of special interest in their own right. These observations provide information on the initial masses and ages of the peculiar objects, and on the evolutionary relationships among different spectral categories within the presumably coeval systems.
1) Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
2) Département de Physique, Université Laval, Ste-Foy, Québec G1K 7P4, Canada
3) Southwest Research Institute, 1050 Walnut Street, Suite 426, Boulder, CO 80302
4) Kitt Peak National Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatories 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85726