OH main line masers in the M82 starburst

Abstract

A study of the distribution of OH gas in the central region of the nearby active starburst galaxy M82 has confirmed two previously known bright masers and revealed several new main line masers. Three of these are seen only at 1665 MHz, one is detected only at 1667 MHz, while the rest are detected in both lines. Observations covering both the 1665 and 1667 MHz lines, conducted with both the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN), have been used to accurately measure the positions and velocities of these features. This has allowed a comparison with catalogued continuum features in the starburst such as HII regions and supernova remnants, as well as known water and satellite line OH masers. Most of the main line masers appear to be associated with known HII regions although the two detected only at 1665 MHz are seen along the same line of sight as known supernova remnants.

MNRAS accepted. 16 pages, 13 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Chandra High-Resolution Camera Observations of the Luminous X-Ray Source in the Starburst Galaxy M82
• A Parsec-Scale Study of the 5/15 GHz Spectral Indices of the Compact Radio Sources in M82
• Hard X-ray Variability in M82: Evidence for a Nascent AGN?
• Formation of a Massive Black Hole at the Center of the Superbubble in M82
• Water Maser Emission from the Active Nucleus in M51
• OH Satellite Line Masers and an AGN Candidate in M82

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Constraints on OH Megamaser Excitation from a Survey of OH Satellite Lines
• 22 GHz Water Maser Search in 37 Nearby Galaxies - Four New Water Megamasers in Seyfert 2 and OH Maser/Absorber Galaxies
• High-velocity-resolution observations of OH main line lasers in the M82 starburst
• Resolving the masers in M82