Probing the molecular interstellar medium of M82 with Herschel-SPIRE spectroscopy
Abstract
We present the observations of the starburst galaxy M82 taken with the Herschel SPIRE Fourier Transform Spectrometer. The spectrum (194-671 {\mu}m) shows a prominent CO rotational ladder from J = 4-3 to 13-12 emitted by the central region of M82. The fundamental properties of the gas are well constrained by the high J lines observed for the first time. Radiative transfer modeling of these high-S/N 12CO and 13CO lines strongly indicates a very warm molecular gas component at ~500 K and pressure of ~3x10^6 K cm^-3, in good agreement with the H_2 rotational lines measurements from Spitzer and ISO. We suggest that this warm gas is heated by dissipation of turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) rather than X-rays or UV flux from the straburst. This paper illustrates the promise of the SPIRE FTS for the study of the ISM of nearby galaxies.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1005.1877,
title = {Probing the molecular interstellar medium of M82 with Herschel-SPIRE spectroscopy},
author = {P. Panuzzo and N. Rangwala and A. Rykala and K. G. Isaak and J. Glenn and C. D. Wilson and R. Auld and M. Baes and M. J. Barlow and G. J. Bendo and J. J. Bock and A. Boselli and M. Bradford and V. Buat and N. Castro-Rodríguez and P. Chanial and S. Charlot and L. Ciesla and D. L. Clements and A. Cooray and D. Cormier and L. Cortese and J. I. Davies and E. Dwek and S. A. Eales and D. Elbaz and T. Fulton and M. Galametz and F. Galliano and W. K. Gear and H. L. Gomez and M. Griffin and S. Hony and L. R. Levenson and N. Lu and S. Madden and B. O'Halloran and K. Okumura and S. Oliver and M. J. Page and A. Papageorgiou and T. J. Parkin and I. Pérez-Fournon and M. Pohlen and E. T. Polehampton and E. E. Rigby and H. Roussel and N. Sacchi and M. Sauvage and B. Schulz and M. R. P. Schirm and M. W. L. Smith and L. Spinoglio and J. A. Stevens and S. Srinivasan and M. Symeonidis and B. Swinyard and M. Trichas and M. Vaccari and L. Vigroux and H. Wozniak and G. S. Wright and W. W. Zeilinger},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.1877},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
5 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication on the A&A Herschel Special Issue