Catching the Butterfly and the Homunculus of n Carinae with ALMA
The nature and origin of the molecular gas component located in the circumstellar vicinity of n Carinae are still far from being completely understood. Here, we present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array CO(3-2) observations with a high angular resolution (∼0.″15) and a great sensitivity t...
| Autores: | , , , , , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | Argentina |
| Institución: | Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas |
| Repositorio: | CONICET Digital (CONICET) |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/214007 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/11336/214007 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Evolved stars Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3 https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1 |
| Sumario: | The nature and origin of the molecular gas component located in the circumstellar vicinity of n Carinae are still far from being completely understood. Here, we present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array CO(3-2) observations with a high angular resolution (∼0.″15) and a great sensitivity that are employed to reveal the origin of this component in n Carinae. These observations reveal much higher velocity (-300 to +270 km s-1) blue- and redshifted molecular thermal emission than previously reported, which we associate with the lobes of the Homunculus Nebula, and which delineates very well the innermost contours of the red- and blueshifted lobes likely due to limb brightening. The inner contour of the redshifted emission was proposed to be a disrupted torus, but here we reveal that it is at least part of the molecular emission originating from the lobes and/or the expanding equatorial skirt. On the other hand, closer to systemic velocities (±100 km s-1), the CO molecular gas traces an inner butterfly-shaped structure that is also revealed at near-IR and mid-IR wavelengths as the region in which the shielded dust resides. The location and kinematics of the molecular component indicate that this material has formed after the different eruptions of n Carinae. |
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