Powerful Molecular Hydrogen Line-Cooling in Stephans Quintet

Details Powerful Molecular Hydrogen Line-Cooling in Stephans Quintet Powerful Molecular Hydrogen Line-Cooling in Stephans Quintet

Jan 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21533005c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #330.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.428

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Scientific paper

We report the discovery of widespread, powerful warm H2 emission associated with the group-wide shock in Stephan's Quintet, found to clearly dominate the cooling due to X-ray emission. These results are from deep, mid-infrared spectral mapping (using the Spitzer Space Telescope) of this strongly interacting compact group, currently experiencing a group-wide shock due to the high velocity ( 1000 km.s-1) collision of an intruder galaxy with the intragroup medium.
The pure rotational H2 emission is chiefly from the main shock (containing a warm H2 mass of 5.0x108 Msolar) and a previously unknown shock-excited feature, likely a remnant of previous tidal interactions. This brings the total H2 line luminosity of the group in excess of 1042 erg.s-1, exceeding the X-ray luminosity by a factor of greater than 3. We find in SQ the phenomenal projected coexistence of hot X-ray plasma (106Emission line maps show evidence of dust reprocessing in the shock ridge and a lack of star formation (as traced via nebulae lines or PAH emission) in the main shock.
The concordance with a model of H2 emission driven by turbulent energy transfer, and the prevalence of this pathway over other sources of cooling in fast galaxy-scale shocks, may have important implications for the cooling of gas in the assembly of the first massive galaxies, as well as shock physics in systems ranging from ULIRGs to supernovae remnants.

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