1982Apj. . .255. .564D the Astrophysical Journal, 255:564-576, 1982 April 15 © 1982. the American Astronomical Society. All
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.564D .255. The Astrophysical Journal, 255:564-576, 1982 April 15 . © 1982. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A. 1982ApJ. THE H i CLOUD SURROUNDING THE EMISSION-LINE STAR LkHa 101 IN THE REGION OF NGC 1579 P. E. Dewdney and R. S. Roger Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics Received 1981 July 15; accepted 1981 October 5 ABSTRACT The reflection nebula NGC 1579 is situated in a dark cloud and is illuminated by the highly obscured emission-line star LkHa 101. New aperture synthesis observations at 21 cm (resolution 2'X3'5 by 0.67 km s_I in radial velocity) show a continuum source of 176 mJy centered on the star and ~85 M0 of atomic hydrogen in a surrounding cloud ~3.5 pc across at the assumed distance of 800 pc. The highest column densities of H i (13 X1020 cm-2) are near the stellar position with the greatest extension of low-brightness emission to the northwest. The gas is distributed over radial velocities —4 to 6 km s-1 (LSR) with an absorption component on most profiles near 1 km s-1. The absorption, of optical depth ~3, may be due to a cool H i shell on the near side of the associated dark cloud. Models of the H i emission cloud based on two-step dissociation of H2 by ultraviolet radiation from the central star indicate that the density in the medium is much higher on the near side of the star than on the other, in agreement with the observed extended distribution of CO. Unlike H i zones associated with more diffuse H n regions, no expansion of the atomic gas is detected. This reinforces other evidence that the star and its H n and H i regions are newly formed. The widths of the H i emission profiles (~7 km s_1) are more than twice those of CO profiles in the same directions, which indicates that there is no detailed mixing of the CO and the atomic gas. Subject headings: nebulae: individual — nebulae: reflection — radio sources: 21 cm radiation — stars: early-type — stars: emission-line I. INTRODUCTION from near the star was detected by Felli and Churchwell (1972), but no flux density or size was given. Spencer NGC 1579 is an irregularly shaped reflection nebula and Schwartz (1974), at 2.7 and 8.1 GHz, discovered a in Perseus measuring about 10' across on the red print very compact radio source (< l") centered on LkHa of the Palomar Sky Survey. It was first photographed by 101. Altenhoff et ai (1976), with the Westerbork tele- Pease (1917) who drew attention to a faint central star scope at 5.0 and 10.7 GHz, detected both this compact in a dark lane crossing the nebula. Herbig (1956, 1971) (unresolved) component and extended emission of half- found that this star, LkHalOl, though heavily obscured width 35" with flux densities (5 GHz) of 23 mJy and 160 (Av~\l mag), possessed a spectrum bright in Ha and mJy, respectively. Observations at 2.7 GHz and 8.1 GHz rich in emission Unes which matched those of the nebula. (Brown, Broderick, and Knapp 1976) also showed both LkHa 101 is spectroscopically a very unusual star. components but indicated angular diameters for the The reflected emission shows only the H and K Unes of extended component of 79"X48" and 50"X48" for the Ca ii in absorption. In the near-infrared Herbig (1971) low and high frequencies, respectively. Brown et al show found many narrow emission Unes and a number of that the extended component has a relatively flat spec- unidentified spectral features. Figure 1 is a photograph trum indicating that it is an H n region which is in red light (Herbig 1971) which shows the star clearly. optically thin down to at least 1.4 GHz. The compact From UBV magnitudes of two nearby nebulous B source, on the other hand, has a spectrum which be- stars, Herbig (1971) estimated the distance to NGC comes optically thick below 50 GHz (Purton et al 1981). 1579 to be 800 pc but noted that this may be an An infrared source was detected at 0.84 and 2.2 pm in underestimate if these stars lie above the main sequence. the IRC survey of Neugebauer and Leighton (1969) We will use this estimate in calculations in this paper. (IRC 40091) and optically identified with LkHa 101 Sharpless (1959) cataloged the nebula as an H ii by Cohen and Dewhirst (1970). Its infrared color index region (S222), and as such it was included in several supports Herbig’s assessment of heavy obscuration in searches for radio emission. Weak emission at 1.4 GHz front of LkHa 101. The near-infrared source is ap- 564 © American Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System .564D H i CLOUD SURROUNDING LKHa 101 565 .255. 1982ApJ. Fig. 1.—A photograph (6300-6700 À) from Herbig (1971). NGC 1579, a reflection nebula, is illuminated by LkHa 101 (indicated by arrow). Note the obscuring band over the southeast part of the nebula. parently smaller than 26" (Cohen and Woolf 1971). and review the morphology of the entire region within More recent infrared observations (Harvey, Thronson, which the H i has formed, with emphasis on large scale and Gatley 1979) revealed a 100 jam source about 1' in structure. diameter. Near-infrared spectroscopy at 2 jam (Thompson et al. 1977) showed bright emission Unes consistent with recombination within an H n region. A cloud of H i coincident with the nebula was de- II. OBSERVATIONS tected by Riegel (1967) in a search for H i associated with H II regions. We present new observations at 21 cm a) Interferometer of both the thermal emission from the extended H n The aperture synthesis interferometer at Penticton component and the H i line emission from the atomic (Roger etal. 1973) consists of two movable 9 m para- cloud, confirming its association with the star. The boloids mounted on an east-west track. It is designed to linear extent of this cloud is 4 or 5 times that of the make H i spectral-line observations simultaneously with reflection nebula. We will describe a model for the cloud observations of continuum emission uncontaminated © American Astronomical Society • Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System .564D .255. 566 DEWDNEY AND ROGER Vol. 255 . TABLE 1 Observational Parameters 1982ApJ. a h m s Observational phase center .... «c=04 26 00.0 , SC = 3S°09'00"; (epoch 1950) / = 165?2, b = —9?2 Primary field pattern FWHM= 106' circular Synthesized beam FWHM=2.0' EWX3.5' NS Polarization Left circular Continuum channel sensitivity . ac =2.3 mJy per beam area at map center Spectral channel sensitivity a = 7 K (254 mJy per beam area) at map center Radial velocity resolution At> =0.67 km s“^ -1 -1 Range in FLSR (125 channels).. — 27 km s to 26 km s aMap geometry referenced to this phase center is given by the relations .x =cos 8 sin (a — ac) and y = [cos 8C — cos 8 cos (a — ac)]/sin 8C, where x and y have origins at ac, 8C and have the same sense as a and 8. with H i emission. The spectral line is detected with a cies missing from the interferometer measurements. digital correlation spectrometer. These maps, calibrated separately in brightness tempera- Observations were recorded along concentric elliptical ture, were added to the spectral line maps made from tracks in the (w, ü)-plane, each 12 hours long. Each the interferometer observations. track was individually calibrated for gain and phase Table 1 is a synopsis of the important characteristics using the unresolved calibration sources 3C 295 and 3C of the final maps. 147 with flux densities as given by Baarse/ al (1977). III. CONTINUUM RADIATION FROM THE EXTENDED b) Single Antenna H II REGION Spectral-line measurements corresponding to the Our observations show a continuum source with a center of the (w, t>)-plane (not measurable with the flux density of 176 ±2.4 mJy. The source appears slightly interferometer) were made with the Penticton 26 m resolved with a 2'X3Í5 beam, and we estimate a mean paraboloid using the digital correlation spectrometer diameter of 45" ±10". This estimate lies between the operated as an autocorrelator. Maps of the field were diameters measured by Altenhoff et ai (1976) and made using frequency switching to subtract basehne and Brown, Broderick, and Knapp (1976) for the extended out-of-band continuum, and calibrated in intensity component of thermal emission. However, because of against the standard regions S6 and S8 (Wilhams 1973). the uncertainty in our estimate and because the mea- surements of Altenhoff et al have more extensive w, v c) Map Synthesis coverage, we will use a diameter of 35" in the following The interferometer observations were interpolated analysis. Using an electron temperature of 8000 K onto a rectangular (w, u)-grid and Fourier transformed (Knapp et al 1976), we derive two sets of parameters for to make maps in the continuum and in each spectral the H ii region assuming two spherically symmetric channel. The continuum map was subtracted from each density distributions, one of constant density and one spectral line map, effectively setting the zero point at the with a Gaussian distribution of density (Olnon 1975). level of the out-of-band continuum. The H i maps were The parameters are given in Table 2. Since the first then scaled to units of brightness temperature using the density distribution has a sharp cutoff in radius and the effective area of the synthesized beam.