The Kinematics of the Ionized Hydrogen in NGC 3372 (Carina Nebula)

Abstract

A typical characteristic of the Carina Nebula is its complex kinematical structure which is observed in optical and radio lines. Due to the existence of many young and massive stars, there are considerable amounts of ionized gas. By using observations of the atomic transition H166α radio recombination line (RRL) the behavior of the kinematics of the ionized gas in the region was studied. In this work a grid of about 600 profiles, obtained with the Parkes Radio-telescope, has been analyzed. Each profile was processed in order to fit a base line and after that a Gaussian fit was made for each position. The radial velocity resolution of the profiles is about 4 km s-1. Finally, the region was mapped for different radial velocity at interval of 10 km s-1. A set of maps shows the kinematics of the gas which suggests a shell like structure of ionized gas. It is apparent that the structure is spatially correlated with the young open clusters Trumpler (Tr) 14 and 16. As a result it is suggesting that the ionized gas is being blown out by the stellar wind of the young stars of the cluster.