CO emission from the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Carbon Monoxide, Dwarf Galaxies, Emission Spectra, H Ii Regions, Irregular Galaxies, Molecular Gases, Astronomical Maps, Astronomical Spectroscopy, Interstellar Gas, Local Group (Astronomy), Molecular Clouds

Scientific paper

Four regions of the Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822 have been mapped for CO emission. The regions observed were centered on bright H II regions and strong H I peaks. Of the 47 lines of sight observed, CO emission was detected at only three. The peak line strengths observed in NGC 6822 are intermediate between the line strengths observed at comparable spatial resolution in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. In contrast, the irregular galaxy IC 10, which has a metallicity very similar to NGC 6822, has CO line strengths that are an order of magnitude larger than those in NGC 6822. The product of the star formation rate per galaxy mass and the galaxy metallicity appears to be a better indicator of CO line strength than metallicity alone. However, these low-resolution observations cannot rule out the possibility that the line strength variations are simply due to differing molecular hydrogen surface densities. Within substantial uncertainties in the CO to H2 conversion factor, the molecular gas mass detected at each position is comparable to what is seen in Galactic giant molecular clouds. Comparing these mass estimates with the H-alpha fluxes, the two largest H II regions in NGC 6822 appear to have star formation efficiencies similar to those of giant H II regions seen in other galaxies.

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