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Temperature and density distribution in the molecular gas toward westerlund 2: Further evidence for physical association

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 09:43 authored by Ohama, A, Joanne Dawson, Furukawa, N, Kawamura, A, Moribe, N, Yamamoto, H, Okuda, T, Mizuno, N, Onishi, T, Maezawa, H, Minamidani, T, Mizuno, A, Fukui, Y
Furukawa et al. reported the existence of a large mass of molecular gas associated with the super star cluster Westerlund 2 and the surrounding H II region RCW49, based on a strong morphological correspondence between NANTEN2 12CO(J = 2-1) emission and Spitzer IRAC images of the H II region. We here present temperature and density distributions in the associated molecular gas at ~3.5 pc resolution, as derived from a large velocity gradient analysis of the 12CO(J = 2-1), 12CO(J = 1-0), and 13CO(J = 2-1) transitions. The kinetic temperature is as high as ~60-150 K within a projected distance of ~5-10 pc from Westerlund 2 and decreases to as low as ~10 K away from the cluster. The high temperature provides robust verification that the molecular gas is indeed physically associated with the H II region, supporting Furukawa et al.'s conclusion. The derived temperature is also roughly consistent with theoretical calculations of photodissociation regions (PDRs), while the low spatial resolution of the present study does not warrant a more detailed comparison with PDR models. We suggest that the molecular clouds presented here will serve as an ideal laboratory to test theories on PDRs in future higher resolution studies.

History

Publication title

The Astrophysical Journal: An International Review of Astronomy and Astronomical Physics

Volume

709

Pagination

975-982

ISSN

0004-637X

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

Univ Chicago Press

Place of publication

1427 E 60Th St, Chicago, USA, Il, 60637-2954

Rights statement

Copyright 2010 The American Astronomical Society.

Repository Status

  • Restricted

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Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences

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