151 research outputs found
An extragalactic supernebula confined by gravity
Little is known about the origins of the giant star clusters known as
globular clusters. How can hundreds of thousands of stars form simultaneously
in a volume only a few light years across the distance of the sun to its
nearest neighbor? Radiation pressure and winds from luminous young stars should
disperse the star-forming gas and disrupt the formation of the cluster.
Globular clusters in our Galaxy cannot provide answers; they are billions of
years old. Here we report the measurement of infrared hydrogen recombination
lines from a young, forming super star cluster in the dwarf galaxy, NGC 5253.
The lines arise in gas heated by a cluster of an estimated million stars, so
young that it is still enshrouded in gas and dust, hidden from optical view. We
verify that the cluster contains 4000-6000 massive, hot "O" stars. Our
discovery that the gases within the cluster are bound by gravity may explain
why these windy and luminous O stars have not yet blown away the gases to allow
the cluster to emerge from its birth cocoon. Young clusters in "starbursting"
galaxies in the local and distant universe may be similarly gravitationally
confined and cloaked from view.Comment: Letter to Natur
The Fragmenting Superbubble Associated with the HII Region W4
New observations at high latitudes above the HII region W4 show that the
structure formerly identified as a chimney candidate, an opening to the
Galactic halo, is instead a superbubble in the process of fragmenting and
possibly evolving into a chimney. Data at high Galactic latitudes (b > 5
degrees) above the W3/W4 star forming region at 1420 and 408 MHz Stokes I
(total power) and 1420 MHz Stokes Q and U (linear polarization) reveal an
egg-shaped structure with morphological correlations between our data and the
H-alpha data of Dennison, Topasna, & Simonetti. Polarized intensity images show
depolarization extending from W4 up the walls of the superbubble, providing
strong evidence that the radio continuum is generated by thermal emission
coincident with the H-alpha emission regions. We conclude that the parts of the
HII region hitherto known as W4 and the newly revealed thermal emission are all
ionized by the open cluster OCl 352. Assuming a distance of 2.35 kpc, the ovoid
structure is 164 pc wide and extends 246 pc above the mid-plane of the Galaxy.
The shell's emission decreases in total-intensity and polarized intensity in
various locations, appearing to have a break at its top and another on one
side. Using a geometric analysis of the depolarization in the shell's walls, we
estimate that a magnetic field line-of-sight component of 3 to 5 uG exists in
the shell. We explore the connection between W4 and the Galactic halo,
considering whether sufficient radiation can escape from the fragmenting
superbubble to ionize the kpc-scale H-alpha loop discovered by Reynolds,
Sterling & Haffner.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figures; Accepted for publication in Ap
eROSITA Science Book: Mapping the Structure of the Energetic Universe
eROSITA is the primary instrument on the Russian SRG mission. In the first
four years of scientific operation after its launch, foreseen for 2014, it will
perform a deep survey of the entire X-ray sky. In the soft X-ray band (0.5-2
keV), this will be about 20 times more sensitive than the ROSAT all sky survey,
while in the hard band (2-10 keV) it will provide the first ever true imaging
survey of the sky at those energies. Such a sensitive all-sky survey will
revolutionize our view of the high-energy sky, and calls for major efforts in
synergic, multi-wavelength wide area surveys in order to fully exploit the
scientific potential of the X-ray data. The design-driving science of eROSITA
is the detection of very large samples (~10^5 objects) of galaxy clusters out
to redshifts z>1, in order to study the large scale structure in the Universe,
test and characterize cosmological models including Dark Energy. eROSITA is
also expected to yield a sample of around 3 millions Active Galactic Nuclei,
including both obscured and un-obscured objects, providing a unique view of the
evolution of supermassive black holes within the emerging cosmic structure. The
survey will also provide new insights into a wide range of astrophysical
phenomena, including accreting binaries, active stars and diffuse emission
within the Galaxy, as well as solar system bodies that emit X-rays via the
charge exchange process. Finally, such a deep imaging survey at high spectral
resolution, with its scanning strategy sensitive to a range of variability
timescales from tens of seconds to years, will undoubtedly open up a vast
discovery space for the study of rare, unpredicted, or unpredictable
high-energy astrophysical phenomena. In this living document we present a
comprehensive description of the main scientific goals of the mission, with
strong emphasis on the early survey phases.Comment: 84 Pages, 52 Figures. Published online as MPE document. Edited by S.
Allen. G. Hasinger and K. Nandra. Few minor corrections (typos) and updated
reference
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