Abstract
We report here the progress of a survey of galactic nuclei for water-vapour maser emission at 22.235 GHz. We observed 29 late-type galaxies in November 1982, January 1983, and September 1983 using the 40-m radio telescope of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) equipped with a travelling-wave maser receiver1. We have detected maser emission from four nuclei: NGC4258 (M106), NGC1068 (M77), NGC3034 (M82), and NGC6946. The masers in NGC4258 and NGC1068 are extremely luminous; NGC1068 has the most luminous water-vapour maser yet reported—350 L⊙ assuming isotropic emission. We suggest that the extremely bright nuclear masers indicate an ongoing burst of star formation, and therefore provide a useful probe of the physical conditions of the starburst phenomenon.
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