NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Collections About News Help Login
Back to Results
Dense gas and HII regions in the starburst galaxy NGC 253The energetic activity in the nuclear barred region of NGC 253 is attributable to a burst of star formation. NGC 253 is in many ways a twin of the prototypical starburst galaxy M82; the strong non-thermal radio continuum, high far-infrared luminosity, and bright molecular emission of the central 1 Kpc parallel the morphology of the M82 starburst. Furthermore, the filamentary low ionization optical emission and extended x ray emission along the minor axis in NGC 253 is similar to a scaled down version of the well developed galactic bipolar wind in M82. The infrared luminosity of NGC 253, 3(exp 10) solar luminosity, is comparable to M82 but is emitted from a smaller region (Telesco and Harper 1980). This suggests that the NGC 253 starburst may be more intense and at an earlier evolutionary stage than M82. However, the presence of a non-stellar AGN in NGC 253 may complicate the comparison (Turner and Ho, 1985). Researchers used the Hat Creek millimeter interferometer to map emission from the J = 1 to 0 transitions of HCN and HCO(+) as well as 3 mm continuum emission, toward the nuclear region of NGC 253. The HCO(+) and continuum observations are sensitive to spatial scales from 6 to 45 seconds. The 2 minute field of view comfortably includes the entire starburst region (about 40 seconds; 650 pc). Because the longer baseline HCN observations are not yet complete, they are only sensitive to spatial scales from 15 to 45 seconds.
Document ID
19910004907
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Carlstrom, J. E. (California Univ. Berkeley., United States)
Jackson, James M. (Max-Planck-Inst. fuer Physik und Astrophysik Garching (Germany, F.R.)., United States)
Ho, Paul T. P. (Center for Analysis Newport Beach, CA., United States)
Turner, J. L. (California Univ. Los Angeles., United States)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
July 1, 1990
Publication Information
Publication: NASA, Ames Research Center, The Interstellar Medium in External Galaxies: Summaries of Contributed Papers
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Accession Number
91N14220
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NSF AST-87-14721
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

Related Records

There are no records associated with this record.
No Preview Available