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Kinematic distance determinations are complicated by a kinematic distance ambiguity (KDA) within the Solar orbit. For an axisymmetric Galactic rotation model, two distances, a "near" and "far" distance, have the same radial velocity. Formaldehyde (H2CO) absorption measurements have been used to resolve the KDA toward Galactic HII regions. This method relies on the detection of H2CO absorption against the broadband radio continuum emission from HII regions. H2CO absorption at velocities between the HII region velocity and the maximum velocity along the line of sight (the tangent point velocity) implies that the HII region lies at the far kinematic distance whereas a lack of absorption implies that it lies at the near kinematic distance. The reliability of KDA resolutions using H2CO is unclear, however, as disagreements between distances derived using H2CO absorption and those derived using other methods are common. Here we use new H2CO and radio recombination line data from the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) Diffuse Ionized Gas Survey (GDIGS) to test whether H2CO absorption measurements can accurately resolve the KDA for 44 Galactic HII regions that have known distances from maser parallax measurements. For each of the 44 HII regions we determine whether the parallax distance is consistent with either the near or the far kinematic distance. We find that the Galactic distribution of H2CO is too sparse to reliably determine whether an HII region is at its near kinematic distance. The H2CO method also incorrectly resolves the KDA for 80% of HII regions that it places at the far kinematic distance; in such cases H2CO absorption may be caused by other sources of radio continuum emission (possibly the CMB, diffuse free-free, or synchrotron). Our results indicate that the H2CO method is unsuitable to resolve the KDA toward Galactic HII regions.
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Thermal formaldehyde emission in NGC 7538 IRS 1
ABSTRACT Spectral lines from formaldehyde (H2CO) molecules at cm wavelengths are typically detected in absorption and trace a broad range of environments, from diffuse gas to giant molecular clouds. In contrast, thermal emission of formaldehyde lines at cm wavelengths is rare. In previous observations with the 100 m Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), we detected 2 cm formaldehyde emission towards NGC 7538 IRS1 – a high-mass protostellar object in a prominent star-forming region of our Galaxy. We present further GBT observations of the 2 and 1 cm H2CO lines to investigate the nature of the 2 cm H2CO emission. We conducted observations to constrain the angular size of the 2 cm emission region based on a East–West and North–South cross-scan map. Gaussian fits of the spatial distribution in the East–West direction show a deconvolved size (at half maximum) of the 2 cm emission of 50 arcsec ± 8 arcsec. The 1 cm H2CO observations revealed emission superimposed on a weak absorption feature. A non-LTE radiative transfer analysis shows that the H2CO emission is consistent with quasi-thermal radiation from dense gas ($${\sim}10^5$$–$$10^6$ cm−3). We also report detection of four transitions of CH3OH (12.2, 26.8, 28.3, 28.9 GHz), the (8,8) transition of NH3 (26.5 GHz), and a cross-scan map of the 13 GHz SO line that shows extended emission (>50 arcsec).
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- PAR ID:
- 10247915
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Volume:
- 504
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0035-8711
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1733 to 1748
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab933
