1998/10/27 by Tomoharu Oka, T. Oka, G. J. White +8 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Optical properties and cooling technologies in crystalline materials #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/307029
17 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal
arxiv created 1998/10/27 · openalex publication_date 1999/04/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We report the detection of a peculiar molecular cloud, CO 0.02-0.02, lying about 5' Galactic east from the center of the Galaxy. 12 CO images taken with Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO) 45 m telescope showed that it is relatively compact (~3 × 4 pc 2 ) as well as having a very large velocity width (Δ V ≥100 km s -1 ). The cloud has a virial mass about 1 order of magnitude larger than the LTE mass, 9 × 10 4 M ☉ , indicating the cloud is apparently gravitationally unbound. New observations with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope 15 m and the NRO 45 m telescopes show that CO 0.02-0.02 is very bright in the CO ( J =3-2) and in the HCN and HCO + ( J =1-0) lines. It appears that the environment may have an unusually high density and temperature, which may be related to the very broad CO line width. We propose that CO 0.02-0.02 may have been accelerated, heated, and compressed in a series of supernovae shocks that have occurred within the last (3-5) × 10 4 yr.