Detection of the 205 µm [NII] Line from the Carina Nebula

We report the first detection of the 205 µm 3 P1 → 3 P0 [NII] line from a ground-based observatory using a direct detection spectrometer. The line was detected from the Carina star formation region using the South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer (SPIFI) on the Antarctic Submillimeter Telesco...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: T. E. Oberst, S. C. Parshley, G. J. Stacey, T. Nikola, A. Löhr, J. I. Harnett, N. F. H. Tothill, A. P. Lane, A. A. Stark
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2006
Subjects:
Antarctic
South Pole
The Antarctic
Antarc*
South pole
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.254.6518
http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0610636v1.pdf
Description
Summary:We report the first detection of the 205 µm 3 P1 → 3 P0 [NII] line from a ground-based observatory using a direct detection spectrometer. The line was detected from the Carina star formation region using the South Pole Imaging Fabry-Perot Interferometer (SPIFI) on the Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO) at South Pole. The [NII] 205 µm line strength indicates a low-density (n ∼ 32 cm −3) ionized medium, similar to the low-density ionized halo reported previously in its [OIII] 52 and 88 µm line emission. When compared with the ISO [CII] observations of this region, we find that 27 % of the [CII] line emission arises from this low-density ionized gas, but the large majority ( ∼ 73%) of the observed [CII] line emission arises from the neutral interstellar medium. This result supports and underpins prior conclusions that most of the observed [CII] 158 µm line emission from Galactic and extragalactic sources arises from the warm, dense photodissociated surfaces of molecular clouds. The detection of the [NII] line demonstrates the utility of Antarctic sites for THz spectroscopy.

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