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Ionized gas in the Smith Cloud

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2012

A.S. Hill
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
L.M. Haffner
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
R.J. Reynolds
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
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Abstract

We present WHAM observations of Hα, [N II], and [S II] in the Smith Cloud. A map of Hα emission from the cloud shows ionized gas coincident with the brightest H I emission, but nearly-as-bright Hα in some regions with faint H I. The ionized mass of the cloud is at least as large as the neutral mass, >106M. Ionized gas in the core of the Smith Cloud has an electron temperature 6000 K < T < 16 000 K. The observed ratio [N II]/Hα = 0.39 ± 0.09 shows that the cloud has a non-primordial nitrogen abundance, 0.1 − 1× solar.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2012

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