Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jun 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004iaus..217..498w&link_type=abstract
International Astronomical Union Symposium no. 217, held 14-17 July, 2003 in Sydney, Australia. Edited by P.-A. Duc, J. Braine
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
1
Scientific paper
We report the discovery of extended star formation in the prominent tidal arms near NGC 3077 (member of the M 81 triplet). 36 faint compact star forming regions were identified, covering an area of 4×6 kpc2. HII regions are only found near the southern rim of the tidal HI arm where the HI column density reaches values above 1×1021 cm-2. This threshold is very similar to what is found in `normal' galactic environments. We derive a total star formation rate of 2.6×10-3 M&sun; yr-1 in the tidal feature. We also present the first high-resolution observations of molecular gas in this region. The molecular gas emission can be separated into at least 5 distinct complexes most of which do not coincide with sites of star formation. The reservoir of neutral and molecular gas in the tidal arm is huge (˜5×108 M&sun;); star formation may continue at the given rate for a Hubble time. We conclude that wide-spread low-level star formation may be a common phenomenon in tidal HI tails, however it will be difficult to detect in interacting systems that are further away.
Heithausen Andreas
Martin Christopher L.
Ott Jorgen
Walter Fabian
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