127 research outputs found
Physical Conditions in Barnard's Loop, Components of the Orion-Eridanus Bubble, and Implications for the WIM Component of the ISM
We have supplemented existing spectra of Barnard's Loop with high accuracy
spectrophotometry of one new position. Cloudy photoionization models were
calculated for a variety of ionization parameters and stellar temperatures and
compared with the observations. After testing the procedure with recent
observations of M43, we establish that Barnard's Loop is photoionized by four
candidate ionizing stars, but agreement between the models and observations is
only possible if Barnard's Loop is enhanced in heavy elements by about a factor
of 1.4. Barnard's Loop is very similar in properties to the brightest
components of the Orion-Eridanus Bubble and the Warm Ionized Medium (WIM). We
are able to establish models that bound the range populated in low-ionization
color-color diagrams (I([SII])/I(H{\alpha}) versus I([NII])/I(H{\alpha})) using
only a limited range of ionization parameters and stellar temperatures.
Previously established variations in the relative abundance of heavy elements
render uncertain the most common method of determining electron temperatures
for components of the Orion-Eridanus Bubble and the WIM based on only the
I([NII])/I(H{\alpha}) ratio, although we confirm that the lowest surface
brightness components of the WIM are on average of higher electron temperature.
The electron temperatures for a few high surface brightness WIM components
determined by direct methods are comparable to those of classical bright H II
regions. In contrast, the low surface brightness HII regions studied by the
Wisconsin H{\alpha} Mapper are of lower temperatures than the classical bright
HII regions
The stellar content, metallicity and ionization structure of HII regions
Observations of infrared fine-structure lines provide direct information on
the metallicity and ionization structure of HII regions and indirectly on the
hardness of the radiation field ionizing these nebulae. We have analyzed a
sample of Galactic and Magellanic Cloud HII regions observed by the Infrared
Space Observatory (ISO) to examine the interplay between stellar content,
metallicity and the ionization structure of HII regions. The observed
[SIV]10.5/[SIII]18.7 mum and [NeIII]15.5/[NeII]12.8 mum line ratios are shown
to be highly correlated over more than two orders of magnitude. We have
compared the observed line ratios to the results of photoionization models
using different stellar energy distributions. The derived characteristics of
the ionizing star depend critically on the adopted stellar model as well as the
(stellar) metallicity. We have compared the stellar effective temperatures
derived from these model studies for a few well-studied HII regions with
published direct spectroscopic determinations of the spectral type of the
ionizing stars. This comparison supports our interpretation that stellar and
nebular metallicity influences the observed infrared ionic line ratios. We can
explain the observed increase in degree of ionization, as traced by the
[SIV]\[SIII] and [NeIII]\[NeII] line ratios, by the hardening of the radiation
field due to the decrease of metallicity. The implications of our results for
the determination of the ages of starbursts in starburst galaxies are assessed.Comment: 9 pages; accepted for publication in A&A; figure 3 modifie
A search for hypercompact HII regions in the Galactic Plane
22 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables, accepted by MNRASWe have carried out the largest and most unbiased search for hypercompact (HC) H II regions. Our method combines four interferometric radio continuum surveys (THOR, CORNISH, MAGPIS, and White2005) with far-infrared and sub-mm Galactic Plane surveys to identify embedded H II regions with positive spectral indices; 120 positive spectrum H II regions have been identified from a total sample of 534 positive spectral index radio sources. None of these H II regions, including the known HC H II regions recovered in our search, fulfills the canonical definition of an HC H II region at 5 GHz. We suggest that the current canonical definition of HC H II regions is not accurate and should be revised to include a hierarchical structure of ionized gas that results in an extended morphology at 5 GHz. Correlating our search with known ultracompact (UC) H II region surveys, we find that roughly half of detected UC H II regions have positive spectral indices, instead of more commonly assumed flat and optically thin spectra. This implies a mix of optically thin and thick emission and has important implications for previous analyses which have so far assumed optically thin emission for these objects. Positive spectrum H II regions are statistically more luminous and possess higher Lyman continuum fluxes than H II regions with flat or negative indices. Positive spectrum H II regions are thus more likely to be associated with more luminous and massive stars. No differences are found in clump mass, linear diameter, or luminosity-to-mass ratio between positive spectrum and non-positive spectrum H II regions.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio
Small-spatial scale variations of nebular properties and the abundance discrepancy in three Galactic HII regions
We present results of long-slit spectroscopy in several slit positions that
cover different morphological structures of the central parts of three bright
Galactic HII regions: M8, M17 and NGC7635. We study the spatial distributions
of a large number of nebular parameters such as the extinction coefficient,
line fluxes, physical conditions and ionic abundances at the maximum spatial
resolution attainable with our instrumentation. Particularly, our goal is to
study the behaviour of the abundance discrepancy factor of O^{2+}, ADF(O^{2+}),
defined as the logarithmic difference of the O^{2+} abundances derived from
collisionally excited and recombination lines. We find that the ADF(O^{2+})
remains fairly constant along the slit positions of M8 and M17. In the case of
NGC7635, we only detect the OII recombination lines in the integrated spectrum
along the whole slit, where the ADF(O^{2+}) reaches a remarkably high value of
about 0.59 dex. We compare our results with previous ones obtained for the
Orion Nebula. We find several evidences that suggest the presence of a
candidate to Herbig-Haro object in M8.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Table A1 available only in the online version.
Accepted for publication in MNRAS
Properties of active galactic star-forming regions probed by imaging spectroscopy with the Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) onboard AKARI
We investigate the structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) and identify
the location of possible embedded excitation sources from far-infrared (FIR)
line and mid-infrared continuum emission maps. We carried out imaging
spectroscopic observations of four giant Galactic star-forming regions with the
Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) onboard AKARI. We obtained [OIII] 88
micron and [CII] 158 micron line intensity maps of all the regions:
G3.270-0.101, G333.6-0.2, NGC3603, and M17. For G3.270-0.101, we obtained
high-spatial-resolution [OIII] 88 micron line-emission maps and a FIR continuum
map for the first time, which imply that [OIII] 88 micron emission identifies
the excitation sources more clearly than the radio continuum emission. In
G333.6-0.2, we found a local [OIII] 88 micron emission peak, which is
indicative of an excitation source. This is supported by the 18 micron
continuum emission, which is considered to trace the hot dust distribution. For
all regions, the [CII] 158 micron emission is distributed widely as suggested
by previous observations of star-forming regions. We conclude that [OIII] 88
micron emission traces the excitation sources more accurately than the radio
continuum emission, especially where there is a high density and/or column
density gradient. The FIR spectroscopy provides a promising means of
understanding the nature of star-forming regions.Comment: 14 pages with 15 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Understanding the Spectral Energy Distributions of the Galactic Star Forming Regions IRAS 18314-0720, 18355-0532 & 18316-0602
Embedded Young Stellar Objects (YSO) in dense interstellar clouds is treated
self-consistently to understand their spectral energy distributions (SED).
Radiative transfer calculations in spherical geometry involving the dust as
well as the gas component, have been carried out to explain observations
covering a wide spectral range encompassing near-infrared to radio continuum
wavelengths. Various geometric and physical details of the YSOs are determined
from this modelling scheme. In order to assess the effectiveness of this
self-consistent scheme, three young Galactic star forming regions associated
with IRAS 18314-0720, 18355-0532 and 18316-0602 have been modelled as test
cases. They cover a large range of luminosity ( 40). The modelling of
their SEDs has led to information about various details of these sources, e.g.
embedded energy source, cloud structure & size, density distribution,
composition & abundance of dust grains etc. In all three cases, the best fit
model corresponds to the uniform density distribution.Comment: AAMS style manuscript with 3 tables (in a separate file) and 4
figures. To appear in Journal of Astronophysics & Astronom
A VLT spectroscopic study of the ultracompact HII region G29.96-0.02
A high quality, medium-resolution K-band spectrum has been obtained of the
ultracompact HII region G29.96-0.02 with the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The
slit was positioned along the symmetry axis of the cometary shaped nebula.
Besides the spectrum of the embedded ionizing O star, the long-slit observation
revealed the rich emission-line spectrum produced by the ionized nebula with
sub-arcsec spatial resolution. The nebular spectrum includes Br,
several helium emission lines and a molecular hydrogen line. A detailed
analysis is presented of the variation in strength, velocity and width of the
nebular emission lines along the slit. The results are consistent with previous
observations, but the much better spatial resolution allows a critical
evaluation of models explaining the cometary shape of the nebula. Our
observations support neither the wind bow shock model nor the champagne flow
model. The measured line ratios of the nebular hydrogen and helium lines are
compared to predictions from case B recombination-line theory. The results
indicate an electron temperature between 6400 and 7500 K, in good agreement
with other determinations and the Galactocentric distance of 4.6 kpc. The
He/H ratio is practically constant over the slit; we argue that He
is singly ionized throughout the nebula. We review the various observational
constraints on the effective temperature of the ionizing star and show that
these are in agreement with its K-band spectral type of O5-O6V.Comment: 15 pages including 11 figures and 2 tables, LaTex, A&A style.
Accepted for publication in A&
Extragalactic chemical abundances: do HII regions and young stars tell the same story? The case of the spiral galaxy NGC 300
(Abridged) We have obtained new spectrophotometric data for 28 HII regions in
the spiral galaxy NGC 300, a member of the nearby Sculptor Group. The detection
of auroral lines, including [OIII]4363, [SIII]6312 and [NII]5755, has allowed
us to measure electron temperatures and direct chemical abundances for the
whole sample. We determine for the first time in this galaxy a radial gas-phase
oxygen abundance gradient based solely on auroral lines, and obtain the
following least-square solution: 12+log(O/H)=8.57-0.41 R/R25, where the
galactocentric distance is expressed in terms of the isophotal radius R25. The
gradient corresponds to -0.077 dex/kpc, and agrees very well with the
galactocentric trend in metallicity obtained for 29 B and A supergiants in the
same galaxy. The intercept of the regression for the nebular data virtually
coincides with the intercept obtained from the stellar data. This allows little
room for depletion of nebular oxygen onto dust grains, although in this kind of
comparison we are somewhat limited by systematic uncertainties, such as those
related to the atomic parameters used to derive the chemical compositions.
We discuss the implications of our result with regard to strong-line
abundance indicators commonly used to estimate the chemical compositions of
star-forming galaxies, such as R23. By applying a few popular calibrations of
these indices based on grids of photoionization models on the NGC 300 HII
region fluxes we find metallicities that are higher by 0.3 dex (a factor of
two) or more relative to our nebular (Te-based) and stellar ones.
We confirm a metallicity dependence of the `softness' parameter
eta=(O+/O++)/(S+/S++), in the sense that softer stellar continua are found at
high metallicity.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa
Distant Voices: Learners' Stories About the Affective Side of Learning a Language at a Distance
Learning a language at a distance has its own special challenges. The remoteness of the learning context can mean isolation for the learner, communication difficulties for the teacher and problems of access for the researcher. Yet distance language learners are likely to be no more skilled in self-regulation than classroom learners, and to require high levels of support. Research tools are needed, therefore, which allow them to talk freely about their learning in order to help distance educators target support appropriately. This paper draws on data from two pilot ethnographic studies of distance language learners using think-aloud protocols to access their thought processes as they tackled two designated language tasks. They were carried out as part of a wider study in each case to investigate aspects of affect including beliefs, motivation and anxiety. The audio-taped voices provided rich insights into the advantages and disadvantages, pleasures and frustrations, comforts and anxieties of learning a language at a distance, and the strategies learners use to manage in a distance environment. The studies underlined the importance of listening to students and using their voices as a basis for discussion on improving aspects of the design and delivery of distance language courses
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