10 MK GAS in M17 and the ROSETTE NEBULA: X-RAY FLOWS in GALACTIC H Ii REGIONS Leisa K
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The Astrophysical Journal, 593:874–905, 2003 August 20 # 2003. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. 10 MK GAS IN M17 AND THE ROSETTE NEBULA: X-RAY FLOWS IN GALACTIC H ii REGIONS Leisa K. Townsley,1 Eric D. Feigelson,1,2 Thierry Montmerle,2 Patrick S. Broos,1 You-Hua Chu,3 and Gordon P. Garmire1 Received 2003 January 10; accepted 2003 April 28 ABSTRACT We present the first high spatial resolution X-ray images of two high-mass star forming regions, the Omega Nebula (M17) and the Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237–2246), obtained with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer instrument. The massive clusters powering these H ii regions are resolved at the arcsecond level into more than 900 (M17) and 300 (Rosette) stellar sources similar to those seen in closer young stellar clusters. However, we also detect soft diffuse X-ray emission on parsec scales that is spatially and spectrally distinct from the point-source population. The diffuse emission has luminosity 33 À1 LX ’ 3:4 Â 10 ergs s in M17 with plasma energy components at kT ’ 0:13 and ’0.6 keV (1.5 and 7 32 À1 MK), while in Rosette it has LX ’ 6 Â 10 ergs s with plasma energy components at kT ’ 0:06 and ’0.8 keV (0.7 and 9 MK). This extended emission most likely arises from the fast O star winds thermalized either by wind-wind collisions or by a termination shock against the surrounding media. We establish that only a small portion of the wind energy and mass appears in the observed diffuse X-ray plasma; in these blister H ii regions, we suspect that most of it flows without cooling into the low-density interstellar medium. These data provide compelling observational evidence that strong wind shocks are present in H ii regions. Subject headings: H ii regions — open clusters and associations: individual (NGC 2244, NGC 6618) — stars: early-type — stars: pre–main-sequence — X-rays: stars 1. INTRODUCTION the wind freely expands and cools, followed by a hot T 6 One of the great successes in astrophysics during the mid- 10 K region starting at the wind termination shock 6 pc from the star and extending to an outer shock at 27 pc. 20th century was the development of a detailed explanation This X-ray–emitting region occupies most of the volume of for H ii regions and other bright emission-line nebulae the bubble and consists mostly of evaporated interstellar (Menzel 1937; Stro¨mgren 1939; Aller 1956). A hot star with material rather than wind material. Outside this hot region strong ultraviolet radiation produces an expanding ioniza- lies a thin shell of swept-up interstellar matter at T 104 K, tion front that spreads into the surrounding medium. Early ’ beyond which lies the much larger standard photoionized studies concentrated on the ionization front, its associated H ii region. shock, and various other considerations such as magnetic The fate of OB winds in H ii regions may not be as simple fields, turbulence, dynamical instabilities, and radiation as described in the Weaver et al. interstellar bubble model. pressure on dust particles (Mathews & O’Dell 1969). The windswept bubble can be larger or smaller than the ion- These efforts omitted the potential effects of the powerful ized H ii region, and nonadiabatic dissipation due to con- winds of OB stars, which were not known until the discov- duction, mixing, turbulence, and magnetic fields at the ery of ultraviolet P Cyngi profiles by Morton (1967). Winds make a relatively small contribution to the overall energy shock fronts may affect the properties of the coronal region (Capriotti & Kozminski 2001). Another possibility is that budget of H ii regions: the wind mechanical luminosity the winds are slowed by the entrainment of dense clumps of ranges from 0.3% (B0 V) to 2% (O4 V) of the ionizing con- interstellar matter before the termination shock. In such tinuum luminosity (Panagia 1973; Howarth & Prinja 1989). mass-loaded stellar winds, extensively studied by Dyson However, they can easily dominate the dynamics of the neb- and his collaborators (Pittard, Hartquist, & Dyson 2001 ula by evacuating a hot cavity with characteristic tempera- and references therein), the flow is heated to X-ray tempera- tures of T 107–108 K and producing two-fluid shocks that tures closer to the star and the outer shock is weaker. lie within the ionization shocks in the cooler T 104 KHii Finally, it is possible that no X-ray emission will emerge at region (e.g., Pikel’ner 1968; Dyson & de Vries 1972; Weaver all if the surrounding medium is too fragmented (McKee, et al. 1977). See Lamers & Cassinelli (1999) for details of these models and a historical review of stellar wind studies. Van Buren, & Lazareff 1984) or wind energy is slowly dissipated in a thick turbulent mixing layer (Kahn & In the interstellar bubble model developed by Weaver Breitschwerdt 1990). et al. (1977), a single 106 yr old O7 star with a terminal wind Despite three decades of theoretical discussions of hot velocity v ¼ 2000 km sÀ1 and mass-loss rate M_ ¼ 1 Â 10À6 w cavities produced by OB stellar winds, only a few detailed M yrÀ1, surrounded by a uniform interstellar medium of predictions of observable X-ray properties of the shocked density n ¼ 1cmÀ3, will have an innermost region where 0 wind have been made. Dorland & Montmerle (1987) investi- À1 gated the dissipation of a vw ¼ 1000 km s Ostarwind, 1 Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 525 Davey Laboratory, including conduction processes, predicting an X-ray to wind Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802. À5 kinetic luminosity ratio LX=Lw 10 and X-ray tem- 2 Service d’Astrophysique, Centre d’E´ tudes de Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur- Yvette, France. peratures around 2 keV (23 MK) with a nonthermal hard- 3 Astronomy Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, energy tail. Comero´n (1997) presents a two-dimensional 1002 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801. hydrodynamic model of an O star residing near the edge of 874 10 MK GAS IN M17 AND ROSETTE NEBULA 875 an interstellar cloud, showing the evolution of X-ray mor- asymmetrically from the stellar cluster, in addition to sev- phology as the wind cavity produces a blowout into the dif- eral hundred young stars. Preliminary results for M17 were fuse interstellar medium. Strickland & Stevens (1999) give a presented in Townsley et al. (2003). In the Rosette, we see hydrodynamic calculation for a very young (t 104 yr) O relatively faint X-ray emission suffusing the hollow core of star completely embedded in a dense cloud and find that, the H ii gas, together with a rich stellar population.4 These while most of the emission from the wind termination shock observations, and the astrophysical analysis derived from is in the EUV band, the windswept interior emits X-rays up them, represent the strongest observational evidence to date to several keV in temperature. Canto´,Raga,&Rodrı´guez for X-ray emission from the wind-blown cavities of H ii (2000) present a three-dimensional hydrodynamic calcula- regions; the morphological and spectral properties of the tion of a rich ensemble of O stars allowing for mass loading, hot plasma should constrain some of the theoretical uncer- wind collisions, and shocks, but without an encounter with a tainties concerning the fate of OB winds and the resulting surrounding cloud. This results in an inhomogeneous X-ray evolution of H ii regions. 35 À1 7 structure with LX ’ 6 Â 10 ergs s and T ’ 2 Â 10 K The paper starts with an overview of each H ii region (x 2) concentrated in the inner r ’ 0:3 pc of the stellar cluster. and then presents our observations and results from data On the observational side, until very recently there had analysis (x 3). The complex morphologies of the X-ray been no unambiguous report of diffuse X-ray emission from images are reviewed in x 4, and the physical nature of the H ii regions, although it has been detected around some iso- emitting gas is derived in x 5. Several possible origins of the lated Wolf-Rayet (W-R) stars, within planetary nebulae, diffuse emission are considered in x 6 and the wind shock and in starburst superbubbles (see reviews by Mac Low model is discussed in more detail in x 7. The two regions 2000; Chu, Guerrero, & Gruendl 2003; Chu 2003; Chu, studied here are placed into a wider context in x 8. The paper Gruendl, & Guerrero 2003). Using the Einstein Observatory, ends with general comments about the fate of O star winds Seward & Chlebowski (1982) found extended soft X-rays in H ii regions (x 9). over tens of parsecs in the Carina Nebula with 35 À1 LX ’ 2 Â 10 ergs s , in addition to a score of individual OB/W-R stellar sources. However, this is a large and old 2. OBSERVATIONAL BACKGROUND ON THE ii star formation region with many supergiants, so it is possi- H REGIONS ble that this extended emission is dominated by past super- 2.1. M17 nova remnants (SNRs). Leahy (1985) suggested a diffuse ii l b origin for emission within the Rosette Nebula seen with Ein- The H region M17 [= Omega Nebula = W38, at ð ; Þ¼ stein, further discussed by Dorland & Montmerle (1987), ð15=1; À0=7Þ] is visually very bright and has been extensively but a later higher resolution ROSAT study concluded that studied for two centuries. It is illuminated by the massive stellar cluster NGC 6618, the center of which consists of a this unresolved component was due to the integrated emis- 0 sion from many lower mass pre–main-sequence stars ring of seven O stars 1 in diameter located behind sub- stantial obscuring material, with A 8 mag (Hanson, (Bergho¨fer & Christian 2002).