IA/U.Porto Seminar - The physical and chemical structure of SgrB2. Studying the most massive cloud in the Galaxy - 28 março 2018

The giant molecular cloud complex Sagittarius B2 (hereafter, SgrB2) is the most massive region with ongoing star formation in the Galaxy. It is located at a projected distance of about 100 pc along the plane to the Galactic Center and at 8.5 kpc from the Sun. The whole complex contains a total gas mass of 10^7 Msun, with the main sites of active star formation corresponding to the hot molecular cores SgrB2(N) and SgrB2(M) that are located at the center of the complex. They contain more than 50 high-mass stars with spectral types ranging from O5 to B0, and constitute one of the best laboratories for the search of new chemical species in the Universe. 

 

In the last years, we have pursued a large project to characterize the structure of SgrB2 combining observations at different wavelengths and sensitive to all the scales (ranging from the large envelope that extends about 40 pc down to a few hundred AU), with 3D radiative transfer modelling. Some of the main results reveal (i) distributed (high-mass) star formation happening throughout the whole SgrB2 envelope and not only in the central hot molecular cores, (ii) extended HII regions, mixed with non-thermal emission, likely shaping the structure of the envelope, (iii) clusters of hot molecular cores with a myriad of lines and different chemical and physical properties, and (iv) a converging filamentary structure that transports mass from the outside to the center of the most massive cores. These results and others will be presented in the talk.

Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (Auditorium)

Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto