天の川銀河で恒星形成の痕跡となる「化石バブル」を発見(A “Fossil Bubble” in Milky Way Reveals a Relay of Star Formation)

2026-07-02 中国科学院(CAS)

中国科学院(CAS)新疆天文台(XAO)のSUN Mingke氏らは、天の川銀河内にある巨大なリング状分子雲構造「G35.28+0.04」を解析し、この構造が数千万年にわたる星形成の「リレー」を記録した“化石バブル”である可能性を示した。G35.28+0.04は地球から約8.85キロパーセクに位置し、半径約79パーセク、質量約78万太陽質量を持つ膨張中のリング状分子雲で、「Milky Way Image」サーベイのCO観測データから、大質量星の紫外線放射や恒星風、超新星爆発による長期的なフィードバックの痕跡と考えられる。運動学解析では、分子ガスに顕著な青方偏移・赤方偏移が確認され、約7.9km/sで外向きに膨張していることが判明した。また、多波長観測ではリング内部に赤外線放射の痕跡が残る一方、電離ガスの放射はほとんど見られず、膨張を駆動した励起源はすでに弱まるか消失したと推定された。本研究は、大質量星のフィードバックが世代を超えた星形成を誘発する過程を示す重要な証拠となる。

天の川銀河で恒星形成の痕跡となる「化石バブル」を発見(A “Fossil Bubble” in Milky Way Reveals a Relay of Star Formation)
Multiwavelength view of the ring-like molecular structure G35.28+0.04. (Image by XAO)

<関連情報>

膨張する環状構造G35.28+0.04に関連した複数時代にわたる星形成 Multi-epoch star formation associated with the expanding ring-like structure G35.28+0.04

Mingke Sun,Jarken Esimbek,Christian Henkel,Jianjun Zhou,Gang Wu,Yuxin He,Xinyu Yang,Dalei Li,Xindi Tang,Toktarkhan Komesh,…
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society  Published:03 June 2026
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1030

ABSTRACT

We present a study of the expanding molecular ring G35.28+0.04. Based on 6.7 GHz methanol maser data, we determine its distance to be 8.85+1.15-0.91 kpc. Using CO (⁠ J =  1–0) observations from the Purple Mountain Observatory 13.7 m telescope together with multiwavelength archival data, we investigate the kinematic properties of the ring and its potential role in multigeneration star formation. The molecular gas shows clear expansion signatures, and the probability density function of NH2 exhibits a typical double lognormal distribution, consistent with turbulence and feedback-driven compression. H ii regions inside and outside the ring show a bimodal age distribution, which is suggestive of sequential or hierarchical star formation, with younger regions potentially associated with later stages of feedback. Spectral energy distribution fitting of point sources reveals no clear age gradient among young stellar objects. Class III sources are radially concentrated toward regions of strong molecular compression; however, these sources may largely trace an earlier stellar population or the ambient field rather than being directly produced by the current expansion of the ring. Infrared and radio continuum data further indicate that the ionizing feedback from the original exciting source has significantly weakened, although the ring structure still preserves dynamical imprints of its long-term evolution. Taken together, our results are consistent with a scenario in which G35.28+0.04 has experienced feedback-influenced, possibly multigenerational star formation over the past∼21–28 Myr, providing new insight into the evolution of molecular rings and hierarchical star formation processes.

1701物理及び化学
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