DETECTION OF POWERFUL MID-IR H{sub 2} EMISSION IN THE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE TAFFY GALAXIES
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 (United States)
- NASA Herschel Science Center, IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Spitzer Science Center, IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Universite Paris Sud 11, Orsay (France)
We report the detection of strong, resolved emission from warm H{sub 2} in the Taffy galaxies and bridge. Relative to the continuum and faint polyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission, the H{sub 2} emission is the strongest in the connecting bridge, approaching L(H{sub 2})/L(PAH 8 {mu}m) = 0.1 between the two galaxies, where the purely rotational lines of H{sub 2} dominate the mid-infrared spectrum in a way very reminiscent of the group-wide shock in the interacting group Stephan's Quintet (SQ). The surface brightness in the 0-0 S(0) and S(1) H{sub 2} lines in the bridge is more than twice that observed at the center of the SQ shock. We observe a warm H{sub 2} mass of 4.2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 8} M{sub Sun} in the bridge, but taking into account the unobserved bridge area, the total warm mass is likely to be twice this value. We use excitation diagrams to characterize the warm molecular gas, finding an average surface mass of {approx}5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 6} M{sub Sun} kpc{sup -2} and typical excitation temperatures of 150-175 K. H{sub 2} emission is also seen in the galaxy disks, although there the emission is more consistent with normal star-forming galaxies. We investigate several possible heating mechanisms for the bridge gas but favor the conversion of kinetic energy from the head-on collision via turbulence and shocks as the main heating source. Since the cooling time for the warm H{sub 2} is short ({approx}5000 yr), shocks must be permeating the molecular gas in the bridge region in order to continue heating the H{sub 2}.
- OSTI ID:
- 22037265
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 751, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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