2004AJ....128..211K

We present Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer spectroscopy and supporting data for star-forming regions in nearby galaxies, to examine their massive-star content and explore the use of abundance and population indicators in this spectral range for high-redshift galaxies. New far-ultraviolet spectra are shown for four bright H II regions in M33 (NGC 588, 592, 595, and 604), the H II region NGC 5461 in M101, and the starburst nucleus of NGC 7714, supplemented by the very low metallicity galaxy I Zw 18. In each case we see strong Milky Way absorption systems from H₂, but intrinsic absorption within each galaxy is weak or undetectable, perhaps because of the ``UV bias'' in which reddened stars that lie behind molecular-rich areas are also heavily reddened. We see striking changes in the stellar wind lines from these populations with metallicity, suggesting that C II, C III, C IV, N II, N III, and P V lines are potential tracers of stellar metallicity in star-forming galaxies. Three of these relations–involving N IV, C III, and P V–are nearly linear over the range from O/H=0.05-0.8 solar. The major difference in continuum shapes among these systems is that the giant H II complex NGC 604 has a stronger continuum shortward of 950 Å than any other object in this sample. Small number statistics would likely go in the other direction; we favor this as the result of a discrete star-forming event ~3 Myr ago, as suggested by previous studies of its stellar population.