Quantifying the energetics of starburst-driven superwinds

Indirect evidence strongly suggests that starburstdriven outflows (superwinds)are responsible for much of the enrichment and heating of the IGM. Xrayobservations of local superwinds are vital for studying this, as they providethe most direct probe of the violent, high energy, processes that occur in theseoutflows. Our aim is to double the number of edgeon starburst galaxies, fromthe traditional sample of 8 galaxies to 16, with Xray data of equal quality tothat being obtained by XMMNewton and Chandra on the traditional sample.Combining the Xray data with existing multiwavelength data on these galaxies,this sample will be large enough to allow robust conclusions to be drawn aboutthe physical properties of starburstdriven superwinds. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]