A new view of the Cygnus X region - KOSMA $\mathsf{^{13}}$CO 2 $\to$ 1, 3 $\to$ 2, and $\mathsf{^{12}}$CO 3 $\to$ 2 imaging

By N. Schneider, S. Bontemps, R. Simon, H. Jakob, Fr'ed'erique Motte, M. Miller, C. Kramer, J. Stutzki. 2006

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Context. The Cygnus X region is one of the richest star formation sites in the Galaxy. There is a long-standing discussion about whether the region is a chance superposition of several complexes along the line of sight or a single coherent complex at a distance of 1.5 to 2 kpc. Aims. Combining a 13 CO 2$\;\to\;$1 survey taken with the KOSMA 3 m telescope with mid-IR images from MSX provides a way to improve our understanding of the spatial structure of the complex. The physical properties of the molecular gas can be derived in more detail as it was done in former studies. Methods. Cygnus X has been mapped in 13 CO $J =2\to1$ (10.8 deg 2 ) at an angular resolution of 130 '' , as well as for smaller areas in 12 CO and 13 CO J = 3$\;\to\;$2 (90 '' ), using the KOSMA 3 m submm-telescope. Results. We identified 91 clumps in 13 CO 2$\;\to\;$1 that have a typical excitation temperature of 10-30 K, an average density of $1.3\times10^3$ cm -3 , radii of 1-8 pc, and masses of a few hundred to several ten thousand $M_\odot$. The main cloud complexes, the northern part ($M\simeq2.8\times10^5~ M_\odot$) including DR21 and W75N and the southern region ($M\simeq4.5\times10^5~ M_\odot$) with IC 1318 b/c and AFGL2591, show differences in their physical properties. The 13 CO emission is closely associated with mid-IR emission seen with MSX. We find evidence that Cygnus OB2 and Cygnus OB9 are affecting the molecular material in Cygnus X. Conclusions. Since essentially all molecular cloud complexes in Cygnus X form groups that are connected by molecular emission (visible in channel and position-velocity maps) and partly show evidence of interaction with UV radiation, we conclude that most of the objects seen in this region are located at the same distance, i.e., that of the OB2 cluster at ~1.7 kpc, which is also consistent with the distances of other OB associations (OB9, OB1) in Cygnus X.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

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ON THE STAR FORMATION EFFICIENCY OF TURBULENT MAGNETIZED CLOUDS (2012, background): “Cygnus X is one of the most massive and most active star-forming regions in the Galaxy, including both old and young populations of stars (Schneider et al. 2006).”
The spine of the swan: a Herschel study of the DR21 ridge and filaments in Cygnus X (2012, background): “This study focusses on the DR21 ridge (also called DR21 filament), the densest and most massive cloud structure in the Cygnus X region (Schneider et al. 2006; Motte et al. 2007; Roy et al. 2011) at a distance of 1.4 kpc (Rygl et al. 2012).”
TADPOL: A 1.3 mm SURVEY OF DUST POLARIZATION IN STAR-FORMING CORES AND REGIONS (2013, background): “At a distance of 1.5 kpc (Rygl et al. 2010), Cygnus X is one of the nearest massive star forming complexes in our galaxy (Schneider et al. 2006; Motte et al. 2007).”
Molecular Clouds in the Milky Way (2015, unknown): “…2000; 48, Dame et al. 2001; 49, Lee et al. 2001; 50, Moriguchi et al. 2001; 51, Sawada et al. 2001; 52, Mizuno & Fukui 2004; 53, Jackson et al. 2006; 54, Schneider et al. 2006; 55, Yoda et al. 2010; 56, Schneider et al. 2011; 57, Burton et al. 2013; 58, Brunt et al. 2015; 59, Barnes et al. 2015.”
STAR FORMATION IN MASSIVE CLUSTERS VIA THE WILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE AND THE SPITZER GLIMPSE SURVEY (2009, background): “The bubble contains Cyg OB2 (see also Schneider et al. (2006)).”
Dynamic star formation in the massive DR21 filament (2010, methodology): “This subfilament indeed corresponds to ’clump 7’ in the DR21 region, identified in the 13CO 2→1 survey by Schneider et al. (2006).”
THE LEGACY OF SCUPOL: 850 μm IMAGING POLARIMETRY FROM 1997 TO 2005 (2009, unknown): “56+0.10 SFR 72 1.7 Schneider et al. (2006) Y CRL 2688 AGB 73 1 Ney et al. (1975) N Greaves (2002); Sabin et al. (2007a, 2007b) NGC 7027 PN 74 1 Zijlstra et al. (2008) N Greaves (2002); Sabin et al. (2007b) CB 230 BG 75 0.400 ± 0.100 Launhardt & Henning (1997); Kun (1998) N Wolf et al. (2004, 2003a,…”
Toward Understanding Massive Star Formation (2007, background): “…for obscured, i.e., a young phase (∼ 1 Myr); sources optically visible but heavily dust extincted Note: AFGL 2591 may be at a distance of 1700 pc (Schneider et al. 2006) and part of the Cyg OB2 association, one of the richest regions of massive stars in the Galaxy with ∼ 100 O stars,…”
WFCAM, Spitzer/IRAC and SCUBA observations of the massive star-forming region DR21/W75 - I. The collimated molecular jets (2006, background): “…has already benefited from wide-field observations with Spitzer, SCUBA and now WFCAM is the DR21/W75S, DR21(OH) and W75N complex of massive star forming cores in Cygnus X (Westerhout 1958; Downes & Rinehart 1966, for a more recent overview of the Cygnus X complex of GMCs see Schneider et al. 2006).”
The earliest phases of high-mass star formation: a 3 square degree millimeter continuum mapping of Cygnus X (2007, background): “In CygX-North (280×1 3 M⊙, cf. Schneider et al. 2006), the concentration factor is 8 foreach step while in CygX-South (480× 103 M⊙) it is 18 for each step.”
ATLASGAL - properties of a complete sample of Galactic clumps (2017, result): “The velocity dispersion of the clumps associated with each cluster are typically lower than a few km s−1 and in line with the velocity dispersions reported for Galactic and extragalactic GMCs (5-20 km s−1; Schneider et al. 2006, Fukui et al. 2009).”
Parallaxes and proper motions of interstellar masers toward the Cygnus X star-forming complex. I. Membership of the Cygnus X region (2011, methodology): “The connection between DR 21 and DR 21(OH) has already been noted by Schneider et al. (2006), since these SFRs are part of the same elongated filament seen in CO emission.”
Fragmentation and mass segregation in the massive dense cores of Cygnus X (2009, background): “Cygnus X is a nearby massive complex with a distance of only 1.7 kpc (Schneider et al. 2006, Schneider et al. 2007).”