Interactions of massive stars with the interstellar medium: Bow shocks and superbubbles

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6690434

Maclow, M

Stellar winds and supernovae from massive stars carry most of the energy transferred from stars to the interstellar medium. The structures created by these processes reveal glimpses of the movement of mass between stars and the galactic ecological cycle. Two such structures are modeled bow shocks and superbubbles. Multiple supernovae and winds from OB associations carve large holes filled with hot gas in the galactic disk. These superbubbles sweep up thin, cold, dense shells that eventually grow large enough to blow out of the disk, venting hot gas into the galactic halo. To model superbubbles, the blast waves from supernovae within them are analytically described, showing they become subsonic before reaching the walls or cooling radiatively. The Kompaneets or thin-shell approximation are used to numerically model the growth of superbubbles in stratified disks until they become Raleigh-Taylor unstable. ZEUS, a two-dimensional hydrodynamics code was used to follow the breakup of the shell. The differences between the results and previous models are explained. Considering stars with strong winds leads to an explanation for ultracompact H II regions (USHRs). It was proposed that UCHRs are trapped in bow shocks swept up by the winds of massive stars moving supersonically through molecular clouds. A thin shell approximation was used to find the shape of such bow shocks. Simulated maps were produced and compared to G12.21 - 0.01, G29.96 - 0.02, G34.26 + 0.15, and G43.89 - 0.78.

• Research Organization: Colorado Univ., Boulder, CO (USA). Cooperative Inst. for Research in Environmental Sciences
• OSTI ID: 6690434
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640102* -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CLOUDS
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
DATA
ENERGY TRANSFER
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
FLUID MECHANICS
H2 REGIONS
HYDRODYNAMICS
INFORMATION
INTERSTELLAR SPACE
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
NUMERICAL DATA
SPACE
STAR CLUSTERS
STAR MODELS
STARS
STELLAR ACTIVITY
STELLAR WINDS
SUPERNOVAE
THEORETICAL DATA
VARIABLE STARS