Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995apj...439..155b&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 439, no. 1, p. 155-162
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
59
Galactic Winds, Gas Jets, Star Formation, Starburst Galaxies, X Ray Astronomy, X Ray Imagery, Brightness Distribution, High Resolution, Image Analysis, Rosat Mission, Velocity Distribution, X Ray Telescopes
Scientific paper
Starburst galaxies are predicted to drive hot flows of gas from their central star-forming regions, and to test this expectation, a deep X-ray image was obtained of the nearby starburst galaxy M82 with the High-Resolution Imager (HRI) on the X-ray telescope ROSAT. Aside from three nuclear point sources, the flux is dominated by diffuse emission that we decompose into components along the disk and along the minor axis. The X-ray surface brightness of the disk component decreases exponentially with a scale length of 0.27 kpc, as does the optical line emission from warm ionized gas. This is not due to steady outflow of gas along the plane, but may indicate a rapid decrease in the star formation and energy input rate beyond the nuclear region. The X-ray emission along the minor axis is consistent with the outflow of gas in a jet that is partially confined within 1.6 kpc of the nucleus and expands freely at larger radii; this emission is detected to a distance of 6 kpc. In the center of M82, the hot gas density is 0.2-0.5/cu cm and the central gas pressure is P/k approximately = 0.3-3 x 107 K/cu cm, which is similar to estimates of the pressure in the optical emission-line material and molecular gas.
Bregman Joel N.
Schulman Eric
Tomisaka Kohji
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