Detection of the 205 μm [N II] line from the Carina Nebula

Oberst, T. E., Parshley, S. C., Stacey, G. J., Nikola, T., Löhr, A., Harnett, J. I., Tothill, N. F. H., Lane, A. P., Stark, A. A. and Tucker, Carole ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1851-3918 2006. Detection of the 205 μm [N II] line from the Carina Nebula. Astrophysical Journal 652 (2) , L125-L128. 10.1086/510289

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Abstract

We report the first detection of the 205 μm 3P1img1.gif P0 [N II] line from a ground-based observatory using a direct detection spectrometer. The line was detected from the Carina star formation region using the South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer (SPIFI) on the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO) at the South Pole. The [N II] 205 μm line strength indicates a low-density (n ~ 32 cm-3) ionized medium, similar to the low-density ionized halo previously reported in its [O III] 52 and 88 μm line emission. When compared with the Infrared Space Observatory [C II] observations of this region, we find that 27% of the [C II] line emission arises from this low-density ionized gas, but the large majority (~73%) of the observed [C II] line emission arises from the neutral interstellar medium. This result supports and underpins prior conclusions that most of the observed [C II] 158 μm line emission from Galactic and extragalactic sources arises from the warm, dense photodissociated surfaces of molecular clouds. The detection of the [N II] line demonstrates the utility of Antarctic sites for THz spectroscopy.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Publisher:	IOP Publishing
ISSN:	0004-637X
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2022 10:54
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/46320

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