Understanding high-mass star formation is one of the top-priority issues in astrophysics. Recent observational studies have revealed that cloud-cloud collisions may play a role in high-mass star ...formation in several places in the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud. The Trifid Nebula M20 is a well-known Galactic H ii region ionized by a single O7.5 star. In 2011, based on the CO observations with NANTEN2, we reported that the O star was formed by the collision between two molecular clouds ∼0.3 Myr ago. Those observations identified two molecular clouds toward M20, traveling at a relative velocity of . This velocity separation implies that the clouds cannot be gravitationally bound to M20, but since the clouds show signs of heating by the stars there they must be spatially coincident with it. A collision is therefore highly possible. In this paper we present the new CO J = 1-0 and J = 3-2 observations of the colliding clouds in M20 performed with the Mopra and ASTE telescopes. The high-resolution observations revealed that the two molecular clouds have peculiar spatial and velocity structures, i.e., a spatially complementary distribution between the two clouds and a bridge feature that connects the two clouds in velocity space. Based on a new comparison with numerical models, we find that this complementary distribution is an expected outcome of cloud-cloud collisions, and that the bridge feature can be interpreted as the turbulent gas excited at the interface of the collision. Our results reinforce the cloud-cloud collision scenario in M20.
Context.
Dense molecular filaments are ubiquituous in the interstellar medium, yet their internal physical conditions and the role of gravity, turbulence, the magnetic field, radiation, and the ...ambient cloud during their evolution remain debated.
Aims.
We study the kinematics and physical conditions in the Musca filament, the ambient cloud, and the Chamaeleon-Musca complex to constrain the physics of filament formation.
Methods.
We produced CO(2–1) isotopologue maps with the APEX telescope that cut through the Musca filament. We further study a NANTEN2
12
CO(1–0) map of the full Musca cloud, H
I
emission of the Chamaeleon-Musca complex, a
Planck
polarisation map, line radiative transfer models,
Gaia
data, and synthetic observations from filament formation simulations.
Results.
The Musca cloud, with a size of ~3–6 pc, contains multiple velocity components. Radiative transfer modelling of the CO emission indicates that the Musca filament consists of a cold (~10 K), dense (
n
H
2
∼ 10
4
cm
−3
) crest, which is best described with a cylindrical geometry. Connected to the crest, a separate gas component at
T
~ 15 K and
n
H
2
∼ 10
3
cm
−3
is found, the so-called strands. The velocity-coherent filament crest has an organised transverse velocity gradient that is linked to the kinematics of the nearby ambient cloud. This velocity gradient has an angle ≥30° with respect to the local magnetic field orientation derived from
Planck
, and the magnitude of the velocity gradient is similar to the transonic linewidth of the filament crest. Studying the large scale kinematics, we find coherence of the asymmetric kinematics from the 50 pc H
I
cloud down to the Musca filament. We also report a strong C
18
O/
13
CO abundance drop by an order of magnitude from the filament crest to the strands over a distance <0.2 pc in a weak ambient far-ultraviolet (FUV) field.
Conclusions.
The dense Musca filament crest is a long-lived (several crossing times), dynamic structure that can form stars in the near future because of continuous mass accretion replenishing the filament. This mass accretion on the filament appears to be triggered by a H
I
cloud–cloud collision, which bends the magnetic field around dense filaments. This bending of the magnetic field is then responsible for the observed asymmetric accretion scenario of the Musca filament, which is, for instance, seen as a V-shape in the position–velocity (PV) diagram.
Abstract
We carried out new CO(
J
= 2–1) observations toward the mixed-morphology supernova remnant (SNR) W49B with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We found that CO clouds at ∼10 km ...s
−1
show a good spatial correspondence to the synchrotron radio continuum as well as to an X-ray deformed shell. The bulk mass of molecular clouds accounts for the western part of the shell, not the eastern shell, where near-infrared H
2
emission is detected. The molecular clouds at ∼10 km s
−1
show higher kinetic temperatures of ∼20–60 K, suggesting that modest shock heating occurred. The expanding motion of the clouds with Δ
V
∼ 6 km s
−1
was formed by strong winds from the progenitor system. We argue that the barrel-like structure of Fe-rich ejecta was possibly formed not only by an asymmetric explosion, but also by interactions with dense molecular clouds. We also found a negative correlation between the CO intensity and the electron temperature of recombining plasma, implying that the origin of the high-temperature recombining plasma in W49B can be understood to be the thermal conduction model. The total energy of accelerated cosmic-ray protons
W
p
is estimated to be ∼2 × 10
49
erg by adopting an averaged gas density of ∼650 ± 200 cm
−3
. The SNR age–
W
p
diagram indicates that W49B shows one of the highest in situ values of
W
p
among gamma-ray-bright SNRs.
Dark gas in the interstellar medium (ISM) is believed to not be detectable either in CO or H I radio emission, but it is detectable by other means including gamma rays, dust emission, and extinction ...traced outside the Galactic plane at b > 5degrees. In these analyses, the 21 cm H I emission is usually assumed to be completely optically thin. We have reanalyzed the H I emission from the whole sky at b > 15degrees by considering temperature stratification in the ISM inferred from the Planck/IRAS analysis of the dust properties. The results indicate that the H I emission is saturated with an optical depth ranging from 0.5 to 3 for 85% of the local H I gas. This optically thick H I is characterized by spin temperature in the range 10K-60K, significantly lower than previously postulated in the literature, whereas such low temperature is consistent with emission/absorption measurements of the cool H I toward radio continuum sources. The distribution and the column density of the H I are consistent with those of the dark gas suggested by gamma rays, and it is possible that the dark gas in the Galaxy is dominated by optically thick cold H I gas. This result implies that the average density of H I is 2-2.5 times higher than that derived on the optically thin assumption in the local ISM.
The N159 star-forming region is one of the most massive giant molecular clouds (GMCs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We show the 12CO, 13CO, CS molecular gas lines observed with ALMA in N159 ...west (N159W) and N159 east (N159E). We relate the structure of the gas clumps to the properties of 24 massive young stellar objects (YSOs) that include 10 newly identified YSOs based on our search. We use dendrogram analysis to identify properties of the molecular clumps, such as flux, mass, linewidth, size, and virial parameter. We relate the YSO properties to the molecular gas properties. We find that the CS gas clumps have a steeper size-linewidth relation than the 12CO or 13CO gas clumps. This larger slope could potentially occur if the CS gas is tracing shocks. The virial parameters of the 13CO gas clumps in N159W and N159E are low (<1). The threshold for massive star formation in N159W is 501 M pc−2, and the threshold for massive star formation in N159E is 794 M pc−2. We find that 13CO is more photodissociated in N159E than N159W. The most massive YSO in N159E has cleared out a molecular gas hole in its vicinity. All the massive YSO candidates in N159E have a more evolved spectral energy distribution type in comparison to the YSO candidates in N159W. These differences lead us to conclude that the giant molecular cloud complex in N159E is more evolved than the giant molecular cloud complex in N159W.
ABSTRACT RCW 120 is a Galactic H ii region that has a beautiful ring shape that is bright in the infrared. Our new CO J = 1-0 and J = 3-2 observations performed with the NANTEN2, Mopra, and ASTE ...telescopes have revealed that two molecular clouds with a velocity separation of 20 km s−1 are both physically associated with RCW 120. The cloud at −8 km s−1 apparently traces the infrared ring, while the other cloud at −28 km s−1 is distributed just outside the opening of the infrared ring, interacting with the H ii region as suggested by the high kinetic temperature of the molecular gas and by the complementary distribution with the ionized gas. A spherically expanding shell driven by the H ii region is usually considered to be the origin of the observed ring structure in RCW 120. Our observations, however, indicate no evidence of the expanding motion in the velocity space, which is inconsistent with the expanding shell model. We postulate an alternative that, by applying the model introduced by Habe & Ohta, the exciting O star in RCW 120 was formed by a collision between the present two clouds at a collision velocity of ∼30 km s−1. In the model, the observed infrared ring can be interpreted as the cavity created in the larger cloud by the collision, whose inner surface is illuminated by the strong ultraviolet radiation after the birth of the O star. We discuss that the present cloud-cloud collision scenario explains the observed signatures of RCW 120, i.e., its ring morphology, coexistence of the two clouds and their large velocity separation, and absence of the expanding motion.
Abstract
To understand the formation process of massive stars, we present a multiscale and multiwavelength study of the W31 complex hosting two extended H
ii
regions (i.e., G10.30-0.15 (hereafter, ...W31-N) and G10.15-0.34 (hereafter, W31-S)) powered by a cluster of O-type stars. Several Class
i
protostars and a total of 49 ATLASGAL 870
μ
m dust clumps (at
d
= 3.55 kpc) are found toward the H
ii
regions where some of the clumps are associated with the molecular outflow activity. These results confirm the existence of a single physical system hosting the early phases of star formation. The Herschel 250
μ
m continuum map shows the presence of a hub-filament system (HFS) toward both W31-N and W31-S. The central hubs harbor H
ii
regions and they are depicted with extended structures (with
T
d
∼ 25–32 K) in the Herschel temperature map. In the direction of W31-S, an analysis of the NANTEN2
12
CO(
J
= 1−0) and SEDIGISM
13
CO(
J
= 2−1) line data supports the presence of two cloud components around 8 and 16 km s
−1
, and their connection in velocity space. A spatial complementary distribution between the two cloud components is also investigated toward W31-S, where the signposts of star formation, including massive O-type stars, are concentrated. These findings favor the applicability of cloud–cloud collision (CCC) around ∼2 Myr ago in W31-S. Overall, our observational findings support the theoretical scenario of CCC in W31, which explains the formation of massive stars and the existence of HFSs.
N132D is the brightest gamma-ray supernova remnant (SNR) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). We carried out 12CO(J = 1-0, 3-2) observations toward the SNR using the Atacama Large ...Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment. We find diffuse CO emission not only at the southern edge of the SNR as previously known, but also inside the X-ray shell. We spatially resolved nine molecular clouds using ALMA with an angular resolution of 5″, corresponding to a spatial resolution of ∼1 pc at the distance of the LMC. Typical cloud sizes and masses are ∼2.0 pc and ∼100 M , respectively. High intensity ratios of CO J = 3-2/1-0 > 1.5 are seen toward the molecular clouds, indicating that shock heating has occurred. Spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy reveals that thermal X-rays in the center of N132D are produced not only behind a molecular cloud but also in front of it. Considering the absence of a thermal component associated with the forward shock toward one molecular cloud located along the line of sight to the center of the remnant, this suggests that this particular cloud is engulfed by shock waves and is positioned on the near side of the remnant. If the hadronic process is the dominant contributor to the gamma-ray emission, the shock-engulfed clouds play a role as targets for cosmic rays. We estimate the total energy of cosmic-ray protons accelerated in N132D to be ∼0.5-3.8 × 1049 erg as a conservative lower limit, which is similar to that observed in Galactic gamma-ray SNRs.
Abstract
We have carried out a study of the interstellar medium (ISM) toward the shell-like supernova remnant (SNR) Puppis A using NANTEN CO and ATCA H
i
data. We synthesized a comprehensive picture ...of the SNR radiation by combining the ISM data with the gamma-ray and X-ray distributions. The ISM, both atomic and molecular gas, is dense and highly clumpy, and is distributed all around the SNR, but mainly in the northeast. The CO distribution revealed an enhanced line intensity ratio of CO(
J
= 2–1)/(
J
= 1–0) transitions as well as CO line broadening, which indicate shock heating/acceleration. The results support the assertion that Puppis A is located at 1.4 kpc, in the Local Arm. The ISM interacting with the SNR has a large mass of ∼10
4
M
⊙
, which is dominated by H
i
, showing good spatial correspondence with the Fermi-LAT gamma-ray image. This favors a hadronic origin of the gamma-rays, while an additional contribution from a leptonic component is not excluded. The distribution of the X-ray ionization timescales within the shell suggests that the shock front ionized various parts of the ISM at epochs ranging over a few to ten thousand years. We therefore suggest that the age of the SNR is around 10
4
yr as given by the largest ionization timescale. We estimate the total cosmic-ray energy
W
p
to be 10
47
erg, which is well placed in the cosmic-ray escaping phase of an age–
W
p
plot including more than ten SNRs.
ABSTRACT We present distributions of two molecular clouds having velocities of 2 and 14 km s−1 toward RCW 38, the youngest super star cluster in the Milky Way, in the 12CO J = 1-0 and 3-2 and 13CO J ...= 1-0 transitions. The two clouds are likely physically associated with the cluster as verified by the high intensity ratio of the J = 3-2 emission to the J = 1-0 emission, the bridging feature connecting the two clouds in velocity, and their morphological correspondence with the infrared dust emission. The velocity difference is too large for the clouds to be gravitationally bound. We frame a hypothesis that the two clouds are colliding with each other by chance to trigger formation of the ∼20 O stars that are localized within ∼0.5 pc of the cluster center in the 2 km s−1 cloud. We suggest that the collision is currently continuing toward part of the 2 km s−1 cloud where the bridging feature is localized. This is the third super star cluster alongside Westerlund 2 and NGC 3603 where cloud-cloud collision has triggered the cluster formation. RCW 38 is the youngest super star cluster in the Milky Way, holding a possible sign of on-going O star formation, and is a promising site where we may be able to witness the moment of O star formation.
PDF
