NEWS
New Results：Distribution of Highly-excited Gas in the Central Molecular Zone of Our Galaxy
Figure: Spatial distributions of molecular gas (upper) and highly-excited gas (lower) in the CMZ of our Galaxy.
2007-06-22
The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of our Galaxy, a region of radius $\sim 200$ pc, contains large amount of dense molecular gas with high temperature and a peculiar chemical composition. Using ASTE, T. Oka (Univ. of Tokyo) and colleagues found three spatially extended areas and a number of compact spots of highly excited gas. Many of them show signs of shockwave passage indicating that they may have been heated and accelerated by supernova blastwaves. This suggests that the anomalous physical conditions and peculiar chemical compostion in the CMZ may be originated by a series of supernova explosions, which are legacies of active star formation in the recent past. (Oka, Nagai, Kamegai, & Tanaka, PASJ, 59, 15)
[ Detail | list of new results ]
visitors since 2001-01-19