Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jun 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998aj....115.2475s&link_type=abstract
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 115, Issue 6, pp. 2475-2482.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
17
Stars: Circumstellar Matter, Ism: Bubbles, Ism: Individual: Ngc Number: Ngc 2359, Stars: Individual: Henry Draper Number: Hd 56925, Stars: Wolf-Rayet
Scientific paper
We report the first direct detection of molecular hydrogen emission in the interstellar medium in the vicinity of a Wolf-Rayet (W-R) star. The spatial distribution of the excited molecular gas associated with NGC 2359 is filamentary and lies mainly on the border of the ionized gas, as traced by optical emission lines such as Hα or [O iii] lambda5007. The typical 1-0 S(1) H_2 brightness in the filaments is 5 x 10^-5 ergs s^-1 cm^-2 sr^-1 and the total 1-0 S(1) H_2 luminosity detected is ~4 L_&sun;. The detected line flux in the 1-0 S(1) transition of H_2 at lambda = 2.122 μm could equally be explained by shock excitation or by fluorescence from the strong ultraviolet flux of the W-R star. The morphological distribution of the H_2 filaments is not inconsistent with either mode of excitation. Although the ubiquity of this phenomenon needs to be confirmed, the relatively high level of 1-0 S(1) H_2 emission detected in this W-R nebula indicates that hot stars could potentially contribute a significant fraction of the total H_2 emission of young starburst galaxies.
Chagnon François
Doyon Rene
Nadeau Daniel
St-Louis Nicole
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