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Article Dans Une Revue Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A Année : 2022

Filamentary structures of ionized gas in Cygnus X

K. L. Emig
  • Fonction : Auteur
G. J. White
  • Fonction : Auteur
P. Salas
  • Fonction : Auteur
R. L. Karim
  • Fonction : Auteur
R. J. van Weeren
  • Fonction : Auteur
P. J. Teuben
  • Fonction : Auteur
P. Chiu
  • Fonction : Auteur
M. Haverkorn
  • Fonction : Auteur
J. B. R. Oonk
  • Fonction : Auteur
E. Orrú
  • Fonction : Auteur
I. M. Polderman
  • Fonction : Auteur
W. Reich
  • Fonction : Auteur
H. J. A. Röttgering
  • Fonction : Auteur
A. G. G. M. Tielens
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

Context. Ionized gas probes the influence of massive stars on their environment. The Cygnus X region (d ~ 1.5 kpc) is one of the most massive star-forming complexes in our Galaxy, within which the Cyg OB2 association (age of 3-5 Myr and stellar mass 2 × 104 M) has a dominant influence.
Aims: We observe the Cygnus X region at 148 MHz using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) and take short-spacing information into account during image deconvolution into account. Together with data from the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey, we investigate the morphology, distribution, and physical conditions of low-density ionized gas in a 4° × 4° (~100 pc × 100 pc) region at a resolution of 2' (0.9 pc).
Methods: The Galactic radio emission in the region analyzed is almost entirely thermal (free-free) at 148 MHz, with emission measures (EM) of 103 < EM [pc cm−6] < 106. As filamentary structure is a prominent feature of the emission, we use DisPerSE and Fil ChaP to identify filamentary ridges and characterize their radial (EM) profiles.
Results: The distribution of radial profiles has a characteristic width of 4.3 pc and a power-law distribution (β = −1.8 ± 0.1) in peak EM down to our completeness limit of 4200 pc cm−6. The electron densities of the filamentary structure range between 10 ≲ ne [cm−3] ≲ 400 with a median value of 35 cm−3, remarkably similar to [N II] surveys of ionized gas.
Conclusions: Cyg OB2 may ionize at most two-thirds of the total ionized gas and the ionized gas in filaments. More than half of the filamentary structures are likely photoevaporating surfaces flowing into a surrounding diffuse (~5 cm−3) medium. However, this is likely not the case for all ionized gas ridges. A characteristic width in the distribution of ionized gas indicates that the stellar winds of Cyg OB2 create a fraction of the ionized filaments through swept-up ionized gas or dissipated turbulence.

The reduced images are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/664/A88

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insu-03780759 , version 1 (20-09-2022)

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K. L. Emig, G. J. White, P. Salas, R. L. Karim, R. J. van Weeren, et al.. Filamentary structures of ionized gas in Cygnus X. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2022, 664, ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/202142596⟩. ⟨insu-03780759⟩
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