Simulating the Impact of the Smith Cloud
| Autor: | C. Alig, Andreas Burkert, Clare Dobbs, N. Borodatchenkova, S. Hammer |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
010308 nuclear & particles physics Star formation business.industry Milky Way Dark matter FOS: Physical sciences Astronomy and Astrophysics Observable Cloud computing Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics Astrophysics Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies 01 natural sciences Galaxy Space and Planetary Science Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) 0103 physical sciences Disc business 010303 astronomy & astrophysics Event (particle physics) Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics |
| Zdroj: | The Astrophysical Journal. 869:L2 |
| ISSN: | 2041-8213 |
| Popis: | We investigate the future evolution of the Smith Cloud by performing hydrodynamical simulations of the cloud impact onto the gaseous Milky Way Galactic disk. We assume a local origin for the cloud and thus do not include a dark matter component to stabilize it. Our main focus is the cloud's influence on the local and global star formation rate (SFR) of the Galaxy and whether or not it leads to an observable event in the far future. Our model assumes two extremes for the mass of the Smith Cloud, an upper mass limit of 10$^7$ M$_{\odot}$ and a lower mass limit of 10$^6$ M$_{\odot}$, compared to the observational value of a few 10$^6$ M$_{\odot}$. In addition, we also make the conservative assumption that the entirety of the cloud mass of the extended Smith Cloud is concentrated within the tip of the cloud. We find that the impact of the low-mass cloud produces no noticeable change in neither the global SFR nor the local SFR at the cloud impact site within the galactic disk. For the high-mass cloud we find a short-term (roughly 5 Myr) increase of the global SFR of up to 1 M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$, which nearly doubles the normal Milky Way SFR. This highly localized starburst should be observable. Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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