No Arabic abstract
We present a multi-wavelength investigation of a large-scale physical system containing the W33 complex. The extended system (~50 pc x 37 pc) is selected based on the distribution of molecular gas at [29.6, 60.2] km/s and of 88 ATLASGAL 870 micron dust clumps at d ~2.6 kpc. The extended system/molecular cloud traced in the maps of 13CO and C18O emission contains several HII regions excited by OB stars (age ~0.3-1.0 Myr) and a thermally supercritical filament (fs1, length ~17 pc). The filament, devoid of the ionized gas, shows dust temperature (T_d) of ~19 K, while the HII regions are depicted with T_d of ~21-29 K. It suggests the existence of two distinct environments in the cloud. The distribution of Class I young stellar objects (mean age ~0.44 Myr) traces the early stage of star formation (SF) toward the cloud. At least three velocity components (around 35, 45, and 53 km/s) are investigated toward the system. The analysis of 13CO and C18O reveals the spatial and velocity connections of cloud components around 35 and 53 km/s. The observed positions of previously known sources, W33 Main, W33 A and O4-7I stars, are found toward a complementary distribution of these two cloud components. The filament fs1 and a previously known object W33 B are seen toward the overlapping areas of the clouds, where ongoing SF activity is evident. A scenario concerning the converging/colliding flows from two different velocity components appears to explain well the observed signposts of SF activities in the system.
Rich in HII regions, giant molecular clouds are natural laboratories to study massive stars and sequential star formation. The Galactic star forming complex W33 is located at l=~12.8deg and at a distance of 2.4 kpc, has a size of ~10 pc and a total mass of (~0.8 - ~8.0) X 10^5 Msun. The integrated radio and IR luminosity of W33 - when combined with the direct detection of methanol masers, the protostellar object W33A, and protocluster embedded within the radio source W33 main - mark the region out as a site of vigorous ongoing star formation. In order to assess the long term star formation history, we performed an infrared spectroscopic search for massive stars, detecting for the first time fourteen early-type stars, including one WN6 star and four O4-7 stars. The distribution of spectral types suggests that this population formed during the last ~2-4 Myr, while the absence of red supergiants precludes extensive star formation at ages 6-30 Myr. This activity appears distributed throughout the region and does not appear to have yielded the dense stellar clusters that characterize other star forming complexes such as Carina and G305. Instead, we anticipate that W33 will eventually evolve into a loose stellar aggregate, with Cyg OB2 serving as a useful, albeit richer and more massive, comparator. Given recent distance estimates, and despite a remarkably similar stellar population, the rich cluster Cl 1813-178 located on the north-west edge of W33 does not appear to be physically associated with W33.
Young massive (M >10^4 Msun) stellar clusters are a good laboratory to study the evolution of massive stars. Only a dozen of such clusters are known in the Galaxy. Here we report about a new young massive stellar cluster in the Milky Way. Near-infrared medium-resolution spectroscopy with UIST on the UKIRT telescope and NIRSPEC on the Keck telescope, and X-ray observations with the Chandra and XMM satellites, of the Cl 1813-178 cluster confirm a large number of massive stars. We detected 1 red supergiant, 2 Wolf-Rayet stars, 1 candidate luminous blue variable, 2 OIf, and 19 OB stars. Among the latter, twelve are likely supergiants, four giants, and the faintest three dwarf stars. We detected post-main sequence stars with masses between 25 and 100 Msun. A population with age of 4-4.5 Myr and a mass of ~10000 Msun can reproduce such a mixture of massive evolved stars. This massive stellar cluster is the first detection of a cluster in the W33 complex. Six supernova remnants and several other candidate clusters are found in the direction of the same complex.
The Milky Way is surrounded by dozens of ultra-faint (< $10^5$ solar luminosities) dwarf satellite galaxies. They are the surviving remnants of the earliest galaxies, as confirmed by their ancient (~13 billion years old) and chemically primitive stars. Simulations suggest that these systems formed within extended dark matter halos and experienced early galaxy mergers and supernova feedback. However, the signatures of these events would lie outside their core regions (>2 half-light radii), which are spectroscopically unstudied due to the sparseness of their distant stars. Here we identify members of the Tucana II ultra-faint dwarf galaxy in its outer region (up to 9 half-light radii), demonstrating the system to be dramatically more spatially extended and chemically primitive than previously found. These distant stars are extremely metal-poor (<[Fe/H]>=-3.02; less than ~1/1000th of the solar iron abundance), affirming Tucana II as the most metal-poor known galaxy. We observationally establish, for the first time, an extended dark matter halo surrounding an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy out to one kiloparsec, with a total mass of >$10^7$ solar masses. This measurement is consistent with the expected ~2x$10^7$ solar masses using a generalized NFW density profile. The extended nature of Tucana II suggests that it may have undergone strong bursty feedback or been the product of an early galactic merger. We demonstrate that spatially extended stellar populations, which other ultra-faint dwarfs hint at hosting as well, are observable in principle and open the possibility for detailed studies of the stellar halos of relic galaxies.
To observationally explore physical processes, we present a multi-wavelength study of a wide-scale environment toward l = 13.7 - 14.9 degrees containing a mid-infrared bubble N14. The analysis of 12CO, 13CO, and C18O gas at [31.6, 46] km/s reveals an extended physical system (extension ~59 pc x 29 pc), which hosts at least five groups of the ATLASGAL 870 micron dust clumps at d ~3.1 kpc. These spatially-distinct groups/sub-regions contain unstable molecular clumps, and are associated with several Class I young stellar objects (mean age ~0.44 Myr). At least three groups of ATLASGAL clumps associated with the expanding HII regions (including the bubble N14) and embedded infrared dark clouds, devoid of the ionized gas, are found in the system. The observed spectral indices derived using the GMRT and THOR radio continuum data suggest the presence of non-thermal emission with the HII regions. High resolution GMRT radio continuum map at 1280 MHz traces several ionized clumps powered by massive B-type stars toward N14, which are considerably young (age ~10^3 - 10^4 years). Locally, early stage of star formation is evident toward all the groups of clumps. The position-velocity maps of 12CO, 13CO, and C18O exhibit an oscillatory-like velocity pattern toward the selected longitude range. Considering the presence of different groups/sub-regions in the system, the oscillatory pattern in velocity is indicative of the fragmentation process. All these observed findings favour the applicability of the global collapse scenario in the extended physical system, which also seems to explain the observed hierarchy.
We present the widest-field resolved stellar map to date of the closest ($Dsim3.8$ Mpc) massive elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A; Cen A), extending out to a projected galactocentric radius of $sim150$ kpc. The dataset is part of our ongoing Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS) utilizing the Magellan/Megacam imager. We resolve a population of old red giant branch stars down to $sim1.5$ mag below the tip of the red giant branch, reaching surface brightness limits as low as $mu_{V,0}sim32$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$. The resulting spatial stellar density map highlights a plethora of previously unknown streams, shells, and satellites, including the first tidally disrupting dwarf around Cen A (CenA-MM-Dw3), which underline its active accretion history. We report 13 previously unknown dwarf satellite candidates, of which 9 are confirmed to be at the distance of Cen A (the remaining 4 are not resolved into stars), with magnitudes in the range $M_V=-7.2$ to $-13.0$, central surface brightness values of $mu_{V,0}=25.4-26.9$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$, and half-light radii of $r_h=0.22-2.92$ kpc. These values are in line with Local Group dwarfs but also lie at the faint/diffuse end of their distribution; interestingly, CenA-MM-Dw3 has similar properties to the recently discovered ultra-diffuse galaxies in Virgo and Coma. Most of the new dwarfs are fainter than the previously known Cen A satellites. The newly discovered dwarfs and halo substructures are discussed in light of their stellar populations, and they are compared to those discovered by the PAndAS survey of M31.