SIMBAD references

2023ApJ...951...35S - Astrophys. J., 951, 35 (2023/July-1)

Interstellar Bow Shocks around Fast Stars Passing through the Local Interstellar Medium.

SHULL J.M. and KULKARNI S.R.

Abstract (from CDS):

Bow shocks are produced in the local interstellar medium by the passage of fast stars from the Galactic thin-disk and thick-disk populations with velocities V* = 40-80 km s–1. Stellar transits of local H I clouds occur every 3500-7000 yr on average and last between 104 and 105 yr. There could be 10-20 active bow shocks around low-mass stars inside clouds within 15 pc of the Sun. At local cloud distances of 3-10 pc, their turbulent wakes have transverse radial extents Rwake ≈ 100-300 au, angular sizes 10″-100″, and Lyα surface brightnesses of 2-8 R in gas with total hydrogen density nH ≈ 0.1 cm–3 and V* = 40-80 km s–1. These transit wakes may cover an area fraction fA ≈ (Rwake/Rcl) ≈ 10–3 of local H I clouds and be detectable in IR (dust), UV (Lyα, two-photon), or nonthermal radio emission. Turbulent heating in these wakes could produce the observed elevated rotational populations of H2 (J ≥ 2) and influence the endothermic formation of CH+ in diffuse interstellar gas at T > 103 K.

Abstract Copyright: © 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.

Journal keyword(s): Interstellar clouds - Stellar bow shocks

Simbad objects: 24

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