Publication Date:
2011-08-24
Description:
The COMPTEL sky map of the 1.8 MeV line emission from Al-26 shows an extended diffuse distribution along the Galactic plane with a peculiar large scale asymmetry about the Galactic center (GC) and a clumpy structure with several noticeable hot spots. The most prominent hot spot at the GC appears shifted to positive longitude by about 2 deg. Nearby supernova remnants or Wolf-Rayet stars are plausible explanations for individual hot spots such as in the Vela region. We show that the global asymmetry and most hot spots can be understood by a more general model: the Al-26 sources are confined in the spiral arms of our Galaxy, and coagent star formation is responsible for additional clumpiness. The off-centered GC hot spot is probably due to the observed asymmetrically distributed circumnuclear molecular gas interacting with a central stellar bar, whose existence has been inferred from IR observations.
Keywords:
ASTROPHYSICS
Type:
Astrophysical Journal, Part 2 - Letters (ISSN 0004-637X); 440; 2; p. L57-L60
Format:
text
