Electron Densities in G333.6-0.2 from Far Infrared Line Pairs of [NII], [OIII], and [SIII]

Details Electron Densities in G333.6-0.2 from Far Infrared Line Pairs of [NII], [OIII], and [SIII] Electron Densities in G333.6-0.2 from Far Infrared Line Pairs of [NII], [OIII], and [SIII]

May 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992aas...180.2416e&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 180th AAS Meeting, #24.16; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 24, p.764

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

1

Scientific paper

The forbidden 205 microns line of [NII] was measured in G333.6-0.2 with the facility cryogenic grating spectrometer on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory flying from Christchurch, New Zealand on April 22, 1991. This is the first detection of this line in a discrete source. Our measured wavelength of 205.2 microns is in good agreement with the COBE value (Wright et al., 1991, ApJ, 381, 200). The COBE data show the line to be bright and extended along the galactic plane. Our flux in a 45'' aperture centered on G333.6-0.2 is 1.3+/-0.4*E(-18) W/cm(2) . We have previously measured lines of [SIII] (19 and 33 microns), [NeIII] (36 microns), [OIII] (52 and 88 microns), [NIII] (57 microns), and [NII] (122 microns) in this source (Rubin et al. 1990, BAAS 21, 1213, Simpson et al. ASPConfSer, 12, 311). G333.6-0.2 is a bright southern HII region, which has sufficiently low excitation that a substantial fraction of the nitrogen is expected to be N(+) (Rubin, Hollenbach, & Erickson, 1983, ApJ, 265, 239 = RHE). Using the previously measured flux of the 122 microns [NII] line, we obtain an electron density (Rubin, 1989, ApJS, 69, 897) in the N(+) zone of log N_e=2.1+/-0.4. This is significantly smaller than the value of log N_e=3.6+/-0.1 for both the O(++) and the S(++) zones obtained from the [OIII] and [SIII] line pairs. A plausible reason for this difference is that the N(+) zone extends to lower density regions, beyond the higher density volume of the doubly ionized species. These [NII] data and the previous [NIII] line flux, with an extension of our earlier model for G333.6-0.2 (RHE), will provide a new estimate for the nebular nitrogen abundance.

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