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Register a new userCOBRaS: The e-MERLIN 21 cm Legacy survey of Cygnus OB2
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The role of massive stars is central to an understanding of galactic ecology. It is important to establish the details of how massive stars provide radiative, chemical, and mechanical feedback in galaxies. Central to these issues is an understanding of the evolution of massive stars, and the critical role of mass loss via strongly structured winds and stellar binarity. Ultimately, massive stellar clusters shape the structure and energetics of galaxies. We aim to conduct high-resolution, deep field mapping at 21cm of the core of the massive Cygnus OB2 association and to characterise the properties of the massive stars and colliding winds at this waveband. We used seven stations of the e-MERLIN radio facility, with its upgraded bandwidth and enhanced sensitivity to conduct a 21cm census of Cygnus OB2. Based on 42 hours of observations, seven overlapping pointings were employed over multiple epochs during 2014 resulting in 1 sigma sensitivities down to ~21microJy and a resolution of ~180mas. A total of 61 sources are detected at 21cm over a ~0.48deg x 0.48deg region centred on the heart of the Cyg OB2 association. Of these 61 sources, 33 are detected for the first time. We detect a number of previously identified sources including four massive stellar binary systems, two YSOs, and several known X-ray and radio sources. We also detect the LBV candidate (possible binary system) and blue hypergiant (BHG) star of Cyg OB2 #12. The 21cm observations secured in the COBRaS Legacy project provide data to constrain conditions in the outer wind regions of massive stars; determine the non-thermal properties of massive interacting binaries; examine evidence for transient sources, including those associated with young stellar objects; and provide unidentified sources that merit follow-up observations. The 21cm data are of lasting value and will serve in combination with other key surveys of Cyg OB2.
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The kinematic structure of the Cygnus OB2 association is investigated. No evidence of expansion or contraction is found at any scale within the region. Stars that are within $sim$ 0.5 parsecs of one another are found to have more similar velocities than would be expected by random chance, and so it is concluded that velocity substructure exists on these scales. At larger scales velocity substructure is not found. We suggest that bound substructures exist on scales of $sim$ 0.5 parsecs, despite the region as a whole being unbound. We further suggest that any velocity substructure that existed on scales > 0.5 parsecs has been erased. The results of this study are then compared to those of other kinematic studies of Cygnus OB2.
The HI line at 21 cm is a tracer of circumstellar matter around AGB stars, and especially of the matter located at large distances (0.1-1 pc) from the central stars. It can give unique information on the kinematics and on the physical conditions in the outer parts of circumstellar shells and in the regions where stellar matter is injected into the interstellar medium. However this tracer has not been much used up to now, due to the difficulty of separating the genuine circumstellar emission from the interstellar one. With the Nancay Radiotelescope we are carrying out a survey of the HI emission in a large sample of evolved stars. We report on recent progresses of this long term programme, with emphasis on S-type stars.
Convection, pulsation and magnetic fields have all been suggested as mechanisms for the transport of mass and energy from the optical photosphere of red supergiants, out to the region where the stellar wind is launched. We imaged the red supergiant Betelgeuse at 0.06-0.18 arcsec resolution, using e-MERLIN at 5.5--6.0 GHz, with a sensitivity of ~0.01 mJy/beam. Most of the radio emission comes from within an ellipse (0.235x0.218) arcsec^2 (~5x the optical radius), with a flux density of 1.62 mJy, giving an average brightness temperature ~1250 K. This radio photosphere contains two hotspots of 0.53 and 0.79 mJy/beam, separated by 90 milli-arcsec, with brightness temperatures 5400+/-600 K and 3800+/-500 K. Similar hotspots, at more than double the distance from the photosphere of those seen in any other regime, were detected by the less-sensitive `old MERLIN in 1992, 1995 and 1996 and many exceed the photospheric temperature of 3600 K. Such brightness temperatures are high enough to emanate from pockets of chromospheric plasma. Other possibilities include local shock heating, the convective dredge-up of hot material or exceptionally cool, low density regions, transparent down to the hottest layer at ~40 milliarcsec radius. We also detect an arc 0.2--0.3 arcsec to the SW, brightness temperature ~150 K, in a similar direction to extensions seen on both smaller and larger scales in the infra-red and in CO at mm wavelengths. These preliminary results will be followed by further e-MERLIN, VLA and ALMA observations to help resolve the problem of mass elevation from 1 to 10 R* in red supergiants.
We present observations of the Cygnus OB2 region obtained with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at the frequencies of 325 MHz and 610 MHz. In this contribution we focus on the study of proplyd-like objects (also known as free-floating Evaporating Gas Globules or frEGGs) that typically show an extended cometary morphology. We identify eight objects previously studied at other wavelengths and derive their physical properties by obtaining their optical depth at radio-wavelengths. Using their geometry and the photoionization rate needed to produce their radio-continuum emission, we find that these sources are possibly ionized by a contribution of the stars Cyg OB2 #9 and Cyg OB2 #22. Spectral index maps of the eight frEGGs were constructed, showing a flat spectrum in radio frequencies in general. We interpret these as produced by optically-thin ionized gas, although it is possible that a combination of thermal emission, not necessarily optically thin, produced by a diffuse gas component and the instrument response (which detects more diffuse emission at low frequencies) can artificially generate negative spectral indices. In particular, for the case of the Tadpole we suggest that the observed emission is not of non-thermal origin despite the presence of regions with negative spectral indices in our maps.
The Cygnus complex is one of the most powerful star forming regions at a close distance from the Sun (~1.4 kpc). Its richest OB association Cygnus OB2 is known to harbor many tens of O-type stars and hundreds of B-type stars, providing a large homogeneous population of OB stars that can be analyzed. Many studies of its massive population have been developed in the last decades, although the total number of OB stars is still incomplete. Our aim is to increase the sample of O and B members of Cygnus OB2 and its surroundings by spectroscopically classifying 61 candidates as possible OB-type members of Cygnus OB2. We have obtained new blue intermediate-resolution spectra suitable for spectral classification of the 61 candidates in Cygnus OB2 and surroundings. We thus performed a spectral classification of the sample using He I-II and metal lines rates, as well as the Marxist Ghost Buster (MGB) software for O-type stars and the IACOB standards catalog for B-type stars. Out of the 61 candidates, we have classified 42 stars as new massive OB-type stars, earlier than B3, in Cygnus OB2 and surroundings, including 11 O-type stars. The other candidates are discarded as they display later spectral types inconsistent with membership in the association. However, the magnitude cutoff and dust extinction introduce an incompleteness. Many O and early B stars at B > 16 mag are still undiscovered in the region. Finally, we have studied the age and extinction distribution of our sample within the region, placing them in the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram using different stellar models in order to assess age uncertainties. Massive star formation in Cygnus OB2 seems to have proceeded from lower to higher Galactic longitudes, regardless of the details of the models used. The correlation between age and Galactic longitude previously found in the region is now confirmed.
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