Low-mass spiral galaxies with little molecular gas and prodigious star formation

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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Carbon Monoxide, H I Regions, Interstellar Gas, Spiral Galaxies, Star Formation, Virgo Galactic Cluster, Hydrogen, Molecular Gases

Scientific paper

A comparison of CO and H I properties of Virgo cluster galaxies reveals a population of H I -rich, CO -poor, lower mass Sbc-Sm spiral galaxies undergoing prodigious massive star formation. Some of these galaxies have central H I surface densities as high as 5×1021cm-2, which is several times greater than the H I surface densities in more massive, H2-dominated spirals. This implies that the weak CO emission in these systems is due, at least in part, to a lack of H2. Two tracers of massive star formation, the Hα luminosity and the far-infrared luminosity, show excellent correlations with the total gas mass (H I + H2). Thus, within this sample of 31 galaxies, the efficiency of massive star formation does not depend strongly on whether gas is in the molecular or atomic phase.

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