Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-12T11:37:25.863Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Molecular Gas in Galactic Nuclei

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

Nick Scoville*
Affiliation:
Owens Valley Radio Observatory, California Institute of Technology

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Recent high resolution interferometric observations of the molecular gas in luminous IR galaxies reveal extraordinary concentrations of star forming material in the central few kpc. In several of the nearest IR bright galaxies, the molecular gas in the central regions is concentrated in a bar-like distribution (IC342, NGC 6946, and NGC 253) and in NGC 1068, approximately 40% of the molecular gas is confined to two arms or a ring at approximately 1.6 kpc radius. Interferometry on the most luminous galaxies (LIR ≥ 1011L) reveals that approximately half of the total interstellar matter is contained in the central kpc with mean densities of several hundred H2 cm-3. Such gas concentrations should result in the very rapid formation of stars, i.e. a central star burst yielding a massive central star cluster.

Type
Joint Commission Meeting
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1989

References

Ball, R., Sargent, A.I., Scoville, N.Z., Lo, K.Y., and Scott, S.L. 1985, Ap.J. (Letters), 298, L21 Google Scholar
Canzian, B.J., Mundy, L.G., and Scoville, N.Z. 1988, in preparationGoogle Scholar
Lo, K.Y. et al. 1984, Ap.J. (Letters), 282, L59Google Scholar
Myers, S.T. and Scoville, N.Z. 1986, Ap.J. (Letters), 312, L39 Google Scholar
Norman, C.A. and Scoville, N.Z. 1988, Ap.J. 332, 163 Google Scholar
Sanders, D.B., Scoville, N.Z., Sargent, A.I., and Soifer, B.T. 1988, Ap.J. (Letters), 324, L55 Google Scholar
Sargent, A.I., Sanders, D.B., Scoville, N.Z., and Soifer, B.T. 1987, Ap.J. (Letters), 312, 235 Google Scholar
Scoville, N.Z., Matthews, K., Carico, D., and Sanders, D.B. 1988, Ap.J. (Letters) (submitted)Google Scholar
Scoville, N.Z. and Norman, C.A. 1988, Ap.J., 332, 163 Google Scholar
Scoville, N.Z., Sanders, D.B., Sargent, A.I., Soifer, B.T., Scott, S.L., and Lo, K.Y. 1986, Ap. J. (Letters), 311, L47 Google Scholar
Scoville, N.Z., Soifer, T., Neugebauer, G., Young, J.S., Matthews, K., and Yerka, J. 1985, Ap.J., 289, 129 Google Scholar
Soifer, B.T., et al. 1984, Ap. J., 283, LI Google Scholar
Young, J.S., Kenney, J., Lord, S.D., and Schloerb, F.P. 1984, Ap.J. (Letters), 287, L65 Google Scholar