The ISM Interactions of a Runaway LBV Nebula in the LMC

New observations of the Magellanic Cloud Luminous Blue Variable candidate S119 (HD269687) show the relationship of the star to its environs. Echelle spectroscopy and high-resolution HST imagery reveal an expanding bubble centered on the star. This bubble appears in both Halpha and [NII] and is noticeably brighter on the near (blue-shifted) side. The systemic velocity of both the expanding bubble and the star itself (as seen by the very broad Halpha emission feature in the stellar spectrum) is V_hel=160 km/s whereas the velocity of the superposed LMC ISM is 250-300 km/s. ISM absorption features seen in FUSE spectra reveal components at both stellar and LMC velocities. Thus we conclude that S119 is located within the LMC ISM and that the bubble is interacting strongly with the ISM in a bow shock.Comment: 5 pages in EmulateApJ format, 3 figures Accepted by ApJL See http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/~danforth/s119

Star Formation in the LMC: Gravitational Instability and Dynamical Triggering

Evidence for triggered star formation is difficult to establish because energy feedback from massive stars tend to erase the interstellar conditions that led to the star formation. Young stellar objects (YSOs) mark sites of {\it current} star formation whose ambient conditions have not been significantly altered. Spitzer observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) effectively reveal massive YSOs. The inventory of massive YSOs, in conjunction with surveys of interstellar medium, allows us to examine the conditions for star formation: spontaneous or triggered. We examine the relationship between star formation and gravitational instability on a global scale, and we present evidence of triggered star formation on local scales in the LMC.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, IAU Symposium 237, Triggered Star Formation in a Turbulent Medium, eds. Elmegreen and Palou