421 research outputs found
New HI-detected Galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance
We present the first results of a blind HI survey for galaxies in the
southern Zone of Avoidance with a multibeam receiver on the Parkes telescope.
This survey is eventually expected to catalog several thousand galaxies within
Galactic latitude |b|<5 degrees, mostly unrecognised before due to Galactic
extinction and confusion. We present here results of the first three detections
to have been imaged with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The
galaxies all lie near Galactic longitude 325 degrees and were selected because
of their large angular sizes, up to 1.3 degrees. Linear sizes range from 53 to
108 kpc. The first galaxy is a massive 5.7x10^11 solar mass disk galaxy with a
faint optical counterpart, SGC 1511.1--5249. The second is probably an
interacting group of galaxies straddling the Galactic equator. No optical
identification is possible. The third object appears to be an interacting pair
of low column density galaxies, possibly belonging to an extended Circinus or
Centaurus A galaxy group. No optical counterpart has been seen despite the
predicted extinction (A(B) = 2.7 - 4.4 mag) not being excessive. We discuss the
implications of the results, in particular the low HI column densities (~10^19
atoms/sq.cm) found for two of the three galaxies.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures (Fig.1 in three parts, Fig.5 in two parts). To
appear in Astronomical Journal (Dec 1998). See
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/research/multibea
The Pulsar Wind Nebula Around PSR B1853+01 in the Supernova Remnant W44
We present radio observations of a region in the vicinity of the young pulsar
PSR B1853+01 in the supernova remnant W44. The pulsar is located at the apex of
an extended feature with cometary morphology. We argue on the basis of its
morphology and its spectral index and polarization properties that this is a
synchrotron nebula produced by the spin down energy of the pulsar. The geometry
and physical parameters of this pulsar-powered nebula and W44 are used to
derive three different measures of the pulsar's transverse velocity. A range of
estimates between 315 and 470 km/s are derived, resulting in a typical value of
375 km/s. The observed synchrotron spectrum from radio to X-ray wavelengths is
used to put constraints on the energetics of the nebula and to derive the
parameters of the pulsar wind.Comment: ApJ Let (in press
VLBA Imaging of the OH Maser in IIIZw35
We present a parsec-scale image of the OH maser in the nucleus of the active
galaxy IIIZw35, made using the Very Long Baseline Array at a wavelength of 18
cm. We detected two distinct components, with a projected separation of 50 pc
(for D=110 Mpc) and a separation in Doppler velocity of 70 km/s, which contain
50% of the total maser flux. Velocity gradients within these components could
indicate rotation of clouds with binding mass densities of ~7000 solar masses
per cubic parsec, or total masses of more than 500,000 solar masses. Emission
in the 1665-MHz OH line is roughly coincident in position with that in the
1667-MHz line, although the lines peak at different Doppler velocities. We
detected no 18 cm continuum emission; our upper limit implies a peak apparent
optical depth greater than 3.4, assuming the maser is an unsaturated amplifier
of continuum radiation.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
The Galactic Distribution of Large HI Shells
We report the discovery of nineteen new HI shells in the Southern Galactic
Plane Survey (SGPS). These shells, which range in radius from 40 pc to 1 kpc,
were found in the low resolution Parkes portion of the SGPS dataset, covering
Galactic longitudes l=253 deg to l=358 deg. Here we give the properties of
individual shells, including positions, physical dimensions, energetics,
masses, and possible associations. We also examine the distribution of these
shells in the Milky Way and find that several of the shells are located between
the spiral arms of the Galaxy. We offer possible explanations for this effect,
in particular that the density gradient away from spiral arms, combined with
the many generations of sequential star formation required to create large
shells, could lead to a preferential placement of shells on the trailing edges
of spiral arms. Spiral density wave theory is used in order to derive the
magnitude of the density gradient behind spiral arms. We find that the density
gradient away from spiral arms is comparable to that out of the Galactic plane
and therefore suggest that this may lead to exaggerated shell expansion away
from spiral arms and into interarm regions.Comment: 25 pages, 20 embedded EPS figures, uses emulateapj.sty, to appear in
the Astrophysical Journa
Digging into NGC 6334I(N): Multiwavelength Imaging of a Massive Protostellar Cluster
We present a high-resolution, multi-wavelength study of the massive
protostellar cluster NGC 6334I(N) that combines new spectral line data from the
Submillimeter Array (SMA) and VLA with a reanalysis of archival VLA continuum
data, 2MASS and Spitzer images. As shown previously, the brightest 1.3 mm
source SMA1 contains substructure at subarcsecond resolution, and we report the
first detection of SMA1b at 3.6 cm along with a new spatial component at 7 mm
(SMA1d). We find SMA1 (aggregate of sources a, b, c, and d) and SMA4 to be
comprised of free-free and dust components, while SMA6 shows only dust
emission. Our 1.5" resolution 1.3 mm molecular line images reveal substantial
hot-core line emission toward SMA1 and to a lesser degree SMA2. We find CH3OH
rotation temperatures of 165\pm 9 K and 145\pm 12 K for SMA1 and SMA2,
respectively. We estimate a diameter of 1400 AU for the SMA1 hot core emission,
encompassing both SMA1b and SMA1d, and speculate that these sources comprise a
>800 AU separation binary that may explain the previously-suggested precession
of the outflow emanating from the SMA1 region. The LSR velocities of SMA1,
SMA2, and SMA4 all differ by 1-2 km/s. Outflow activity from SMA1, SMA2, SMA4,
and SMA6 is observed in several molecules including SiO(5--4) and IRAC 4.5
micron emission; 24 micron emission from SMA4 is also detected. Eleven water
maser groups are detected, eight of which coincide with SMA1, SMA2, SMA4, and
SMA6. We also detect a total of 83 Class I CH3OH 44GHz maser spots which likely
result from the combined activity of many outflows. Our observations paint the
portrait of multiple young hot cores in a protocluster prior to the stage where
its members become visible in the near-infrared.Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 24 pages, a full high resolution version is
available at http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~cbrogan/ms.long.pd
Elemental Abundances in the Possible Type Ia Supernova Remnant G344.7-0.1
Recent studies on the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) G344.7-0.1 have
commonly claimed its origin to be a core-collapse supernova (SN) explosion,
based on its highly asymmetric morphology and/or proximity to a star forming
region. In this paper, however, we present an X-ray spectroscopic study of this
SNR using Suzaku, which is supportive of a Type Ia origin. Strong K-shell
emission from lowly ionized Fe has clearly been detected, and its origin is
determined, for the first time, to be the Fe-rich SN ejecta. The abundance
pattern is highly consistent with that expected for a somewhat-evolved Type Ia
SNR. It is suggested, therefore, that the X-ray point-like source CXOU
J170357.8-414302 located at the SNR's geometrical center is not associated with
the SNR but is likely to be a foreground object. Our result further indicates
that G344.7-0.1 is the first possible Type Ia SNR categorized as a member of
the so-called "mixed-morphology" class. In addition, we have detected emission
from He-like Al at ~1.6 keV, the first clear detection of this element in the
spectrum of an extended X-ray source. The possible enhancement of the Al/Mg
abundance ratio from the solar value suggests that the ambient interstellar
medium has a relatively high metallicity (not less than 10% of the solar
value), if this SNR has indeed a Type Ia origin. We also report marginal
detection of Cr and Mn, although the measured fluxes have large statistical and
systematic uncertainties.Comment: ApJ in pres
Re-analysis of the radio luminosity function of Galactic HII regions
We have re-analyzed continuum and recombination lines radio data available in
the literature in order to derive the luminosity function (LF) of Galactic HII
regions. The study is performed by considering the first and fourth Galactic
quadrants independently. We estimate the completeness level of the sample in
the fourth quadrant at 5 Jy, and the one in the first quadrant at 2 Jy. We show
that the two samples (fourth or first quadrant) include, as well as giant and
super-giant HII regions, a significant number of sub-giant sources. The LF is
obtained, in each Galactic quadrant, with a generalized Schmidt's estimator
using an effective volume derived from the observed spatial distribution of the
considered HII regions. The re-analysis also takes advantage of recently
published ancillary absorption data allowing to solve the distance ambiguity
for several objects. A single power-law fit to the LFs retrieves a slope equal
to -2.23+/-0.07 (fourth quadrant) and to -1.85+/-0.11 (first quadrant). We also
find marginal evidence of a luminosity break at L_knee = 10^23.45 erg s^(-1)
Hz^(-1) for the LF in the fourth quadrant. We convert radio luminosities into
equivalent H_alpha and Lyman continuum luminosities to facilitate comparisons
with extra-galactic studies. We obtain an average total HII regions Lyman
continuum luminosity of 0.89 +/- 0.23 * 10^(53) sec^(-1), corresponding to 30%
of the total ionizing luminosity of the Galaxy.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap
SPLASH: the Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl â first science from the pilot region
The Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl (SPLASH) is a sensitive, unbiased, and fully sampled survey of the southern Galactic plane and Galactic Centre in all four ground-state transitions of the hydroxyl (OH) radical. The survey provides a deep census of 1612-, 1665-, 1667-, and 1720-MHz OH absorption and emission from the Galactic interstellar medium, and is also an unbiased search for maser sources in these transitions. We present here first results from the SPLASH pilot region, which covers Galactic longitudes 334° to 344° and latitudes ±2?. Diffuse OH is widely detected in all four transitions, with optical depths that are always small (averaged over the Parkes beam), and with departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium common even in the 1665- and 1667-MHz main lines. To a 3Ï sensitivity of ~30 mK, we find no evidence of OH envelopes extending beyond the CO-bright regions of molecular cloud complexes, and conclude that the similarity of the OH excitation temperature and the level of the continuum background is at least partly responsible for this. We detect masers and maser candidates in all four transitions, approximately 50 per cent of which are new detections. This implies that SPLASH will produce a substantial increase in the known population of ground-state OH masers in the southern Galactic plane
The Southern Galactic Plane Survey: The Test Region
The Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS) is a project to image the HI line
emission and 1.4 GHz continuum in the fourth quadrant of the Milky Way at high
resolution using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and the Parkes
Radio Telescope. In this paper we describe the survey details and goals,
present lambda 21-cm continuum data, and discuss HI absorption and emission
characteristics of the SGPS Test Region (325.5 deg < l < 333.5 deg; -0.5 deg <
b < +3.5 deg). We explore the effects of massive stars on the interstellar
medium (ISM) through a study of HI shells and the HI environments of HII
regions and supernova remnants. We find an HI shell surrounding the HII region
RCW 94 which indicates that the region is embedded in a molecular cloud. We
give lower limits for the kinematic distances to SNRs G327.4+0.4 and G330.2+1.0
of 4.3 kpc and 4.9 kpc, respectively. We find evidence of interaction with the
surrounding HI for both of these remnants. We also present images of a possible
new SNR G328.6-0.0. Additionally, we have discovered two small HI shells with
no counterparts in continuum emission.Comment: 17 pages, 7 embedded EPS figures, 10 low-res jpeg figures, uses
emulateapj5.sty. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
Version with all full resolution figures embedded is available at
http://www.astro.umn.edu/~naomi/sgps/papers/SGPS.ps.g
Variations in the Galactic star formation rate and density thresholds for star formation
The conversion of gas into stars is a fundamental process in astrophysics and
cosmology. Stars are known to form from the gravitational collapse of dense
clumps in interstellar molecular clouds, and it has been proposed that the
resulting star formation rate is proportional to either the amount of mass
above a threshold gas surface density, or the gas volume density. These
star-formation prescriptions appear to hold in nearby molecular clouds in our
Milky Way Galaxy's disk as well as in distant galaxies where the star formation
rates are often much larger. The inner 500 pc of our Galaxy, the Central
Molecular Zone (CMZ), contains the largest concentration of dense, high-surface
density molecular gas in the Milky Way, providing an environment where the
validity of star-formation prescriptions can be tested. Here we show that by
several measures, the current star formation rate in the CMZ is an
order-of-magnitude lower than the rates predicted by the currently accepted
prescriptions. In particular, the region 1 deg < l < 3.5 deg, |b| < 0.5 deg
contains ~10^7 Msun of dense molecular gas -- enough to form 1000 Orion-like
clusters -- but the present-day star formation rate within this gas is only
equivalent to that in Orion. In addition to density, another property of
molecular clouds, such as the amplitude of turbulent motions, must be included
in the star-formation prescription to predict the star formation rate in a
given mass of molecular gas.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, submitted MNRA
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