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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, YFurukawa 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 PhysicsVolume
709Pagination
975-982ISSN
0004-637XDepartment/School
School of Natural SciencesPublisher
Univ Chicago PressPlace of publication
1427 E 60Th St, Chicago, USA, Il, 60637-2954Rights statement
Copyright 2010 The American Astronomical Society.Repository Status
- Restricted