Quantitative Characterization of the Filamentation of Paschen Alpha Emission in the Galactic Center

Details Quantitative Characterization of the Filamentation of Paschen Alpha Emission in the Galactic Center Quantitative Characterization of the Filamentation of Paschen Alpha Emission in the Galactic Center

May 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21442001m&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #420.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.690

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present an analysis of filamentary structure in prominent HII regions toward the Galactic center using data from an HST-NICMOS Paschen alpha survey of the inner 75 x 25 parsecs of the Milky Way. We have developed a code to quantitatively characterize the striking filamentation in the survey images, including orientation, contrast and characteristic spacing. We use the Radon transform, which is optimized for identifying linear structures and determining their orientation. Our measurements of filament spacing and orientation allow us to compile a quantitative description of filamentary structure in the Paschen alpha images. The properties of the filaments are also compared to models for dynamical and magnetic interface instabilities in HII regions in order to better constrain the physical processes that give rise to the observed filamentary structure in our data. The approach we have developed for detecting filaments in the Paschen alpha data should also prove generally applicable for characterizing widely observed filamentary structure in the ISM in a more quantitative manner.

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