Extreme fragmentation and complex kinematics at the center of the L1287 cloud

Aims. The filamentary ~10-pc-scale infrared dark cloud L1287 located at a parallax distance of ~929 pc is actively forming a dense cluster of low-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) at its inner ~0.1 pc region. To help understand the origin of this low-mass YSO cluster, the present work aims at resolving the gas structures and kinematics with high angular resolution. Methods. We performed ~1′′ angular resolution (~930 AU) observations at ~1.3 mm wavelengths using the Submillimeter Array (SMA), which simultaneously cover the dust continuum emission and various molecular line tracers for dense gas, warm gas, shocks, and outflows. Results. From a 1.3-mm continuum image with a resolution of ~2′′ we identified six dense cores, namely SMA1-6. Their gas masses are in the range of ~0.4–4 M⊙. From a 1.3-mm continuum image with a resolution of ~1′′, we find a high fragmentation level, with 14 compact millimeter sources within 0.1 pc: SMA3 contains at least nine internal condensations; SMA5 and SMA6 are also resolved with two internal condensations. Intriguingly, one condensation in SMA3 and another in SMA5 appear associated with the known accretion outburst YSOs RNO 1C and RNO 1B. The dense gas tracer DCN (3–2) well traces the dust continuum emission and shows a clear velocity gradient along the NW-SE direction centered at SMA3. There is another velocity gradient with opposite direction around the most luminous YSO, IRAS 00338 + 6312. Conclusions. The fragmentation within 0.1 pc in L1287 is very high compared to other regions at the same spatial scales. The incoherent motions of dense gas flows are sometimes interpreted by being influenced by (proto)stellar feedback (e.g., outflows), which is not yet ruled out in this particular target source. On the other hand, the velocities (with respect to the systemic velocity) traced by DCN are small, and the directions of the velocity gradients traced by DCN are approximately perpendicular to those of the dominant CO outflow(s). Therefore, we alternatively hypothesize that the velocity gradients revealed by DCN trace the convergence from the ≳0.1 pc scales infalling motion towards the rotational motions around the more compact (~0.02 pc) sources. This global molecular gas converging flow may feed the formation of the dense low-mass YSO cluster. Finally, we also found that IRAS 00338 + 6312 is the most likely powering source of the dominant CO outflow. A compact blue-shifted outflow from RNO 1C is also identified.

VLBI astrometry of a water maser source in the Sgr B2 complex with VERA

We have conducted astrometric observations toward a 22 GHz water maser source associated with the Sgr B2 complex in the Galactic center region with VERA (VLBI exploration of Radio Astrometry). We measured a trigonometric parallax and absolute proper motion of the Sgr B2 complex with respect to an extra-galactic source by observing the water maser source at 10 epochs from 2014 to 2017. The measured distance was 7.52+3.01−1.67 kpc for the Sgr B2M region.We also succeeded to measure internal motions of maser spots in Sgr B2M, and N region. The number of spots which we could measure the internal motions is about 400. The distribution of the maser spots shows that the maser spots are associated with envelope of HII region seen in radio continuum image obtained with VLA and ALMA. We discuss relative motions between Sgr B2M, and N by using the internal motion.

New 20-cm radio-continuum study of the small Magellanic cloud - part III: Compact Hii regions

We present and discuss a new catalogue of 48 compact Hii regions in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and a newly created deep 1420 MHz (?=20 cm) radio-continuum image of the N19 region located in the southwestern part of the SMC. The new images were created by merging 1420 MHz radiocontinuum archival data from the Australian Telescope Compact Array. The majority of these detected radio compact Hii regions have rather flat spectral indices which indicates, as expected, that the dominant emission mechanism is of thermal nature.

SMC SMP 24: A newly radio-detected planetary nebula in the small Magellanic cloud

In this paper we report a new radio-continuum detection of an extragalactic planetary nebula (PN): SMC SMP 24. We show the radio-continuum image of this PN and present the measured radio data. The newly reduced radio observations are consistent with the multi-wavelength data and derived parameters found in the literature. SMC SMP 24 appears to be a young and compact PN, optically thick at frequencies below 2 GHz.

HST ACS/HRC imaging of the intergalactic HII regions in NGC 1533

Intergalactic HII regions, far from the confines of a galactic disk, represent a mode of star formation in low-density gas outside of galaxies. The figure below (left) shows an R-band continuum image of NGC 1533 from the SINGG Hα survey (Meurer et al. 2006) overlaid with HI contours and the location of three intergalactic HII regions discovered by Ryan-Weber et al. (2004). The HI contours are 1.6, 2.0, 2.4, 2.8, 3.2 and 4.0 ×1020 cm−2 and have a resolution of ~1′. ACS/HRC images of the intergalactic HII regions (right) are composites of UV, V, and I bands. The half-light radii of the clusters associated with regions 1, 2, and 5 are 24.7, 21.7, and 17.0 pc, respectively, at the distance to NGC 1533 (21 Mpc; Tonry et al. 2001). Assuming a Salpeter IMF with Mup = 100, Hα/UV ratios indicate a small number of ionizing O stars relative to the total number of UV-emitting O and B stars. These young (4-6 Myr), intergalactic stellar populations lend valuable insight to our understanding of the methods by which star formation is triggered and may even represent the first episodes of star formation in emerging galaxies.

Subparsec-scale HI in the Nucleus of NGC 4151

We present sensitive, high-resolution λ21-cm VLBA+VLA observations of the radio jet and nuclear HI absorption in NGC 4151. The 25-mas (1.6-pc) resolution continuum image reveals a highly collimated radio jet, underlying the discrete components seen previously with MERLIN and the VLA. Spatially and kinematically complex HI absorption is detected against the whole 3-pc extent of the continuum component predicted by Ulvestad et al. to contain the AGN. Instead, we suggest the component against which the absorption is detected is part of the eastern counterjet, ruling it out as the location for the AGN.

The Nuclear Region of a Megamaser in a Southern AGN, NGC 5793: Parsec-Scale Structure and OH Absorption

We have carried out VLBA observations of the OH absorption lines toward the nucleus of the active galaxy, NGC 5793, which is known to have a megamaser in its center. We have also successfully made its continuum image at the L band. It reveals the typical “core-jet” structure on parsec scales. Uniform values of optical depth at each point against the background radio continuum source shows that the column densities of the OH absorbing cloud uniformly distributes around the radio compact nucleus.