The Herschel M 33 extended survey (HerM33es): PACS spectroscopy of the star-forming region BCLMP 302

Abstract

Context. The emission line of [C ii] at 158 μm is one of the strongest cooling lines of the interstellar medium (ISM) in galaxies.
Aims: Distinguishing the relative contributions of the different ISM phases to [C ii] emission is a major objective of the HerM33es program, a Herschel key project to study the ISM in the nearby spiral galaxy M 33.
Methods: Using PACS, we have mapped the emission of [C ii] 158 μm, [O i] 63 μm, and other FIR lines in a 2' × 2' region of the northern spiral arm of M 33, centered on the H ii region BCLMP 302. At the peak of Hα emission, we observed in addition a velocity-resolved [C ii] spectrum using HIFI. We use scatterplots to compare these data with PACS 160 μm continuum maps, and with maps of CO and H i data, at a common resolution of 12″ or 50 pc. Maps of Hα and 24 μm emission observed with Spitzer are used to estimate the SFR. We created maps of the [C ii] and [O i] 63 μm emission and detected [N ii] 122 μm and [N iii] 57 μm at individual positions.
Results: The [C ii] line observed with HIFI is significantly broader than that of CO, and slightly blue-shifted. In addition, there is little spatial correlation between [C ii] observed with PACS and CO over the mapped region. There is even less spatial correlation between [C ii] and the atomic gas traced by H i. Detailed comparison of the observed intensities towards the H ii region with models of photo-ionization and photon-dominated regions, confirms that a significant fraction, 20-30%, of the observed [C ii] emission stems from the ionized gas and not from the molecular cloud. The gas heating efficiency, using the ratio of [C ii] to the TIR as a proxy, varies between 0.07 and 1.5%, with the largest variations found outside the H ii region.

Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.