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The Lagoon Nebula (M8) is host to multiple regions with recent and ongoing massive star formation, due to which it appears as one of the brightest regions in the sky. M8-Main and M8 East, two prominent regions of massive star formation, have been studied in detail over the past few years, while large parts of the nebula and its surroundings have received little attention. These largely unexplored regions comprise a large sample of molecular clumps that are affected by the presence of massive O- and B-type stars. Thus, exploring the dynamics and chemical composition of these clumps will improve our understanding of the feedback from massive stars on star-forming regions in their vicinity. We established an inventory of species observed towards 37 known molecular clumps in M8 and investigated their physical structure. We compared our findings for these clumps with the galaxy-wide sample of massive dense clumps observed as part of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). Furthermore, we investigated the region for signs of star formation and stellar feedback. To obtain an overview of the kinematics and chemical abundances across the sample of molecular clumps in the M8 region, we conducted an unbiased line survey for each clump. We used the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) 12\,m submillimetre telescope and the 30m telescope of the Institut de Radioastronomie e trique (IRAM) to conduct pointed on-off observations of 37 clumps in M8. These observations cover bandwidths of 53\,GHz and 40\,GHz in frequency ranges from 210\,GHz to 280\,GHz and from 70\,GHz to 117\,GHz, respectively. Temperatures were derived from rotational transitions of acetonitrile, methyl acetylene, and para-formaldehyde. Additional archival data from the Spitzer Herschel MSX, APEX, WISE, JCMT, and AKARI telescopes were used to investigate the morphology of the region and to derive the physical parameters of the dust emission by fitting spectral energy distributions to the observed flux densities. Across the observed M8 region, we identify 346 transitions from 70 different molecular species, including isotopologues. While many species and fainter transitions are detected exclusively towards M8 East, we also observe a large chemical variety in many other molecular clumps. We detect tracers of photo-dissociation regions (PDRs) across all the clumps, and 38<!PCT!> of these clumps show signs of star formation. In our sample of clumps with extinctions between 1 and 60\,mag, we find that PDR tracers are most abundant in clumps with relatively low H$_2$ column densities. When comparing M8 clumps to ATLASGAL sources at similar distances, we find them to be slightly less massive (median $10\ M_ odot $) and have compatible luminosities (median $200\ L_ odot $) and radii (median $0.16$\,pc). In contrast, dust temperatures of the clumps in M8 are found to be increased by approximately 5\,K (25<!PCT!>), indicating substantial external heating of the clumps by radiation of the present O- and B-type stars. This work finds clear and widespread effects of stellar feedback on the molecular clumps in the Lagoon Nebula. While the radiation from the O- and B-type stars possibly causes fragmentation of the remnant gas and heats the molecular clumps externally, it also gives rise to extended PDRs on the clump surfaces. Despite this fragmentation, the dense cores within 38<!PCT!> of the observed clumps in M8 are forming a new generation of stars.
The Lagoon Nebula (M8) is host to multiple regions with recent and ongoing massive star formation, due to which it appears as one of the brightest regions in the sky. M8-Main and M8 East, two prominent regions of massive star formation, have been studied in detail over the past few years, while large parts of the nebula and its surroundings have received little attention. These largely unexplored regions comprise a large sample of molecular clumps that are affected by the presence of massive O- and B-type stars. Thus, exploring the dynamics and chemical composition of these clumps will improve our understanding of the feedback from massive stars on star-forming regions in their vicinity. We established an inventory of species observed towards 37 known molecular clumps in M8 and investigated their physical structure. We compared our findings for these clumps with the galaxy-wide sample of massive dense clumps observed as part of the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). Furthermore, we investigated the region for signs of star formation and stellar feedback. To obtain an overview of the kinematics and chemical abundances across the sample of molecular clumps in the M8 region, we conducted an unbiased line survey for each clump. We used the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) 12\,m submillimetre telescope and the 30m telescope of the Institut de Radioastronomie e trique (IRAM) to conduct pointed on-off observations of 37 clumps in M8. These observations cover bandwidths of 53\,GHz and 40\,GHz in frequency ranges from 210\,GHz to 280\,GHz and from 70\,GHz to 117\,GHz, respectively. Temperatures were derived from rotational transitions of acetonitrile, methyl acetylene, and para-formaldehyde. Additional archival data from the Spitzer Herschel MSX, APEX, WISE, JCMT, and AKARI telescopes were used to investigate the morphology of the region and to derive the physical parameters of the dust emission by fitting spectral energy distributions to the observed flux densities. Across the observed M8 region, we identify 346 transitions from 70 different molecular species, including isotopologues. While many species and fainter transitions are detected exclusively towards M8 East, we also observe a large chemical variety in many other molecular clumps. We detect tracers of photo-dissociation regions (PDRs) across all the clumps, and 38<!PCT!> of these clumps show signs of star formation. In our sample of clumps with extinctions between 1 and 60\,mag, we find that PDR tracers are most abundant in clumps with relatively low H$_2$ column densities. When comparing M8 clumps to ATLASGAL sources at similar distances, we find them to be slightly less massive (median $10\ M_ odot $) and have compatible luminosities (median $200\ L_ odot $) and radii (median $0.16$\,pc). In contrast, dust temperatures of the clumps in M8 are found to be increased by approximately 5\,K (25<!PCT!>), indicating substantial external heating of the clumps by radiation of the present O- and B-type stars. This work finds clear and widespread effects of stellar feedback on the molecular clumps in the Lagoon Nebula. While the radiation from the O- and B-type stars possibly causes fragmentation of the remnant gas and heats the molecular clumps externally, it also gives rise to extended PDRs on the clump surfaces. Despite this fragmentation, the dense cores within 38<!PCT!> of the observed clumps in M8 are forming a new generation of stars.
Radial velocity fluctuations on the plane of the sky are a powerful tool for studying the turbulent dynamics of emission line regions. We conduct a systematic statistical analysis of the Hα velocity field for a diverse sample of 9 ${\rm H\, \small {II}}$ regions, spanning two orders of magnitude in size and luminosity, located in the Milky Way and other Local Group galaxies. By fitting a simple model to the second-order spatial structure function of velocity fluctuations, we extract three fundamental parameters: the velocity dispersion, the correlation length, and the power law slope. We determine credibility limits for these parameters in each region, accounting for observational limitations of noise, atmospheric seeing, and the finite map size. The plane-of-sky velocity dispersion is found to be a better diagnostic of turbulent motions than the line width, especially for lower luminosity regions where the turbulence is subsonic. The correlation length of velocity fluctuations is found to be always roughly 2% of the ${\rm H\, \small {II}}$ region diameter, implying that turbulence is driven on relatively small scales. No evidence is found for any steepening of the structure function in the transition from subsonic to supersonic turbulence, possibly due to the countervailing effect of projection smoothing. Ionized density fluctuations are too large to be explained by the action of the turbulence in any but the highest luminosity sources. A variety of behaviors are seen on scales larger than the correlation length, with only a minority of sources showing evidence for homogeneity on the largest scales.
We analyze the structure of 15 protocluster forming regions in the Milky Way using their 1.3 mm continuum emission maps from the ALMA-IMF large program. The analysis of the clouds structure is performed using the delta-variance spectrum technique. The calculated spectra display a self-similar regime on small scales as well as the presence of a prominent bump on larger scales and whose physical size, Lhub, falls in the range of ≈7000 au to 60000 au. These scales correspond to the sizes of the most compact clumps within the protocluster forming clouds. A significant correlation is found between Lhub and the surface density of the free-free emission estimated from the integrated flux of the H41α recombination line $\left(\Sigma _{\rm H41\alpha }^{\rm free-free}\right)$ as well as a significant anti-correlation between Lhub and the ratio of the 1.3 mm to 3 mm continuum emission fluxes $\left(S_{\rm 1.3mm}^{\rm cloud}/S_{\rm 3mm}^{\rm cloud}\right)$. Smaller values of $\left(S_{\rm 1.3mm}^{\rm cloud}/S_{\rm 3mm}^{\rm cloud}\right)$ and larger values of $\Sigma _{\rm H41\alpha }^{\rm free-free}$ correspond to more advanced evolutionary stages of the protocluster forming clumps. Hence, our results suggest that the sizes of the densest regions in the clouds are directly linked to their evolutionary stage and to their star formation activity with more evolved clouds having larger protocluster forming clumps. This is an indication that gravity plays a vital role in regulating the size and mass growth and star formation activity of these clumps with ongoing gas accretion.
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