A new scaling relation for HII regions in spiral
galaxies:
unveiling the true nature of the mass-metallicity
relation
3D representation of the local surface mass
density ΣLum, gas metallicity
12+log(O/H) and EW(Hα) relation. The size and color
scaling of the data points are linked to the value of
ΣLum, i.e. low-blue to high-red values.
The projection of the data over any pair of axes reduces
to the local M-Z, M-EW(Hα), and Z-EW(Hα)
relations.
Figure adapted from: Rosales-Ortega et al. (2012) ApJL