Chandra observations of NGC 253: New insights into the nature of starburst-driven superwinds

Details Chandra observations of NGC 253: New insights into the nature of starburst-driven superwinds Chandra observations of NGC 253: New insights into the nature of starburst-driven superwinds

Oct 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000head....5.1514s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, HEAD Meeting #5, #15.14; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.1204

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Arcsecond-resolution X-ray imaging of the nucleus of the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253 with Chandra reveals a well-collimated, strongly limb-brightened, kiloparsec-scale conical outflow from the central starburst region. The outflow is very similar in morphology to the known Hα outflow cone, on scales down to < ~ 20 pc. This provides, for the first time, robust evidence that both X-ray and Hα emission come from low volume filling factor regions of interaction between the fast energetic wind of SN-ejecta and the denser ambient interstellar medium (ISM), and not from the wind fluid itself. We provide estimates of the (observationally and theoretically important) filling factor of the X-ray emitting gas, of between ~ 4 and 40 per cent, consistent with an upper limit of ~ 40 per cent based directly on the observed limb-brightened morphology of the outflow. Only < ~ 20 per cent of the observed X-ray emission can come from the volume-filling, metal-enriched, wind fluid itself. We show that these observations are easily explained by, and fully consistent with, the standard model of a superwind driven by a starburst of NGC 253's observed power. This observation implies that X-ray observations of starbursts do not directly probe the energetic, metal-enriched, gas that drives the observed superwind outflows. We discuss the implications of these findings for the enrichment and heating of the IGM by starburst-driven winds. This work was supported by NASA through grants LTSA NAG56400 and GO0-1008X.

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