No Arabic abstract
There is considerable controversy surrounding the nature of M1-78, a compact nebula located beyond the Perseus arm. It was first classified as a planetary nebula and is nowadays generally considered to be a compact HII region. To investigate the nature M1-78 further, we present a detailed spectroscopic study of M1-78 in the optical and near-infrared. M1-78 is a high-density nebula with substantial physical differences between its two main morphological zones: a bright arc to the SW and a blob of emission in the NE. Specifically, the blob in the NE has a higher electron temperature and visual extinction than the SW arc. The most important result, however, is the confirmation of a nitrogen enrichment in M1-78. This enrichment is stronger at the location of the NE blob and is correlated with a defficiency in the O abundance and a (dubious) He enrichment. Such an abundance pattern is typical of ejecta nebulae around evolved massive stars such as Wolf-Rayet and Luminous Blue Variable stars. The spatial variations in the physical conditions and chemical abundances and the presence of more than one possible ionizing source indicates, however, that M1-78 is better described as a combination of a compact HII region + ejecta. Finally, we detect H2 emission that extends over a large (~30 arcsec) area around the ionized nebula. Analysis of the near-infrared H2 lines indicates that the excitation mechanism is UV fluorescence.
The Fan Region is one of the dominant features in the polarized radio sky, long thought to be a local (distance < 500 pc) synchrotron feature. We present 1.3-1.8 GHz polarized radio continuum observations of the region from the Global Magneto-Ionic Medium Survey (GMIMS) and compare them to maps of Halpha and polarized radio continuum intensity from 0.408-353 GHz. The high-frequency (> 1 GHz) and low-frequency (< 600 MHz) emission have different morphologies, suggesting a different physical origin. Portions of the 1.5 GHz Fan Region emission are depolarized by about 30% by ionized gas structures in the Perseus Arm, indicating that this fraction of the emission originates >2 kpc away. We argue for the same conclusion based on the high polarization fraction at 1.5 GHz (about 40%). The Fan Region is offset with respect to the Galactic plane, covering -5{deg} < b < +10{deg}; we attribute this offset to the warp in the outer Galaxy. We discuss origins of the polarized emission, including the spiral Galactic magnetic field. This idea is a plausible contributing factor although no model to date readily reproduces all of the observations. We conclude that models of the Galactic magnetic field should account for the > 1 GHz emission from the Fan Region as a Galactic-scale, not purely local, feature.
We have observed the compact HII region complex nearest to the dynamical center of the Galaxy, G-0.02-0.07, using ALMA in the H42a recombination line, CS J=2-1, H13CO+ J=1-0, and SiO v=0, J=2-1 emission lines, and 86 GHz continuum emission. The HII regions HII-A to HII-C in the cluster are clearly resolved into a shell-like feature with a bright-half and a dark-half in the recombination line and continuum emission. The absorption features in the molecular emission lines show that HII-A, B and C are located on the near side of the 50 km/s Molecular Cloud (50MC) but HII-D is located on the far side. The electron temperatures and densities range Te=5150-5920 K and ne=950-2340 cm-3, respectively. The electron temperatures on the bright-half are slightly lower than those on the dark-half, while the electron densities on the bright-half are slightly higher than those on the dark-half. The HII regions are located on the molecular filaments in the 50MC. They have already broken through the filaments and are growing in the surrounding molecular gas. There are some shocked molecular gas components around the HII regions. From line width of the H42a recombination line, the expansion velocities from HII-A to HII-D are estimated to be Vexp=16.7, 11.6, 11.1, and 12.1 km/s, respectively. The expansion timescales from HII-A to HII-D are estimated to be Tage~1.4x0^4, 1.7x10^4, 2.0x10^4, and 0.7x10^4 years, respectively. The spectral types of the central stars from HII-A to HII-D are estimated to be O8V, O9.5V, O9V, and B0V, respectively. The positional relation among the HII regions, the SiO molecule enhancement area, and Class-I maser spots suggest that the shock wave caused by a cloud-cloud collision propagated along the line from HII-C to HII-A in the 50MC. The shock wave would trigger the massive star formation.
We report on the discovery of an isolated, compact HII region in the Virgo cluster. The object is located in the diffuse outer halo of NGC 4388, or could possibly be in intracluster space. Star formation can thus take place far outside the main star forming regions of galaxies. This object is powered by a small starburst with an estimated mass of $sim 400msun$ and age of $sim 3myr$. From a total sample of 17 HII region candidates, the present rate of isolated star formation estimated in our Virgo field is small, $sim 10^{-6} Msun arcmin}^{-2} yr^{-1}$. However, this mode of star formation might have been more important at higher redshifts and be responsible for a fraction of the observed intracluster stars and total cluster metal production. This object is relevant also for distance determinations with the planetary nebula luminosity function from emission line surveys, for high-velocity clouds and the in situ origin of B stars in the Galactic halo, and for local enrichment of the intracluster gas by Type II supernovae.
The expansion of HII regions can trigger the formation of stars. An overdensity of young stellar objects (YSOs) is observed at the edges of HII regions but the mechanisms that give rise to this phenomenon are not clearly identified. Moreover, it is difficult to establish a causal link between HII-region expansion and the star formation observed at the edges of these regions. A clear age gradient observed in the spatial distribution of young sources in the surrounding might be a strong argument in favor of triggering. We have observed the Galactic HII region RCW120 with herschel PACS and SPIRE photometers at 70, 100, 160, 250, 350 and 500$mu$m. We produced temperature and H$_2$ column density maps and use the getsources algorithm to detect compact sources and measure their fluxes at herschel wavelengths. We have complemented these fluxes with existing infrared data. Fitting their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) with a modified blackbody model, we derived their envelope dust temperature and envelope mass. We computed their bolometric luminosities and discuss their evolutionary stages. The herschel data, with their unique sampling of the far infrared domain, have allowed us to characterize the properties of compact sources observed towards RCW120 for the first time. We have also been able to determine the envelope temperature, envelope mass and evolutionary stage of these sources. Using these properties we have shown that the density of the condensations that host star formation is a key parameter of the star-formation history, irrespective of their projected distance to the ionizing stars.
We present a study of the LMC compact HII region N11A using Hubble Space Telescope imaging observations which resolve N11A and reveal its unknown nebular and stellar features. The presence of a sharp ionization front extending over more than 4 (1 pc) and fine structure filaments as well as larger loops indicate an environment typical of massive star formation regions, in agreement with high [OIII]/Hb line ratios. N11A is a young region, as deduced from its morphology, reddening, and especially high local concentration of dust, as indicated by the Balmer decrement map. Our observations also reveal a cluster of stars lying towards the central part of N11A. Five of the stars are packed in an area less than 2 (0.5 pc), with the most luminous one being a mid O type star. N11A appears to be the most evolved compact HII region in the Magellanic Clouds so far studied.