Ultraviolet interstellar absorption toward stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud. II - Sk 159

On the basis of a study of high-dispersion spectra of stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) obtained with the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) satellite, Savage and de Boer (1979, 1981) have detected the Milky Way halo gas. The existence of gaseous coronae around both the LMC and SMC was also suggested. The evidence for this included the presence of strong interstellar absorption lines from high-ionization stages (e.g., C IV, Si IV, and Al III). Fitzpatrick and Savage (1983) concluded that the strongest C IV and Si IV features in the spectrum of the SMC star HD 5980 are probably nebular in origin, produced by stellar photoionization in NGC 346. However, other evidence indicated that at least one additional region of high-ionization stage gas is present in the HD 5980 line of sight. The present investigation is concerned with a reobservation of the star SK 159. It is found that the Milky Way disk and halo absorption features toward Sk 159, except for Al III are very similar to those seen toward HD 5980, also in the SMC.