The Chandra Carina Complex Project: Deciphering the Enigma of Carina's Diffuse X-ray Emission

Abstract

We present a 1.42 square degree mosaic of diffuse X-ray emission in the Great Nebula in Carina from the Chandra X-ray Observatory Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer camera. After removing >14,000 X-ray point sources from the field, we smooth the remaining unresolved emission, tessellate it into segments of similar apparent surface brightness, and perform X-ray spectral fitting on those tessellates to infer the intrinsic properties of the X-ray-emitting plasma. By modeling faint resolved point sources, we estimate the contribution to the extended X-ray emission from unresolved point sources and show that the vast majority of Carina's unresolved X-ray emission is truly diffuse. Line-like correlated residuals in the X-ray spectral fits suggest that substantial X-ray emission is generated by charge exchange at the interfaces between Carina's hot, rarefied plasma and its many cold neutral pillars, ridges, and clumps.

Accepted for the ApJS Special Issue on the Chandra Carina Complex Project (CCCP), scheduled for publication in May 2011. All 16 CCCP Special Issue papers are available at http://cochise.astro.psu.edu/Carina_public/special_issue.html through 2011 at least. 32 pages, 14 figures

References in corpus (16)

• A Pan-Carina YSO Catalog: Intermediate-Mass Young Stellar Objects in the Carina Nebula Identified Via Mid-Infrared Excess Emission
• An Introduction to the Chandra Carina Complex Project
• The importance of magnetic-field-oriented thermal conduction in the interaction of SNR shocks with interstellar clouds
• The Magnetohydrodynamics of Shock-Cloud Interaction in Three Dimensions
• A Catalog of Chandra X-ray Sources in the Carina Nebula
• A deep X-ray observation of M82 with XMM-Newton
• X-ray Star Clusters in the Carina Complex
• The Integrated Diffuse X-ray Emission of the Carina Nebula Compared to Other Massive Star-forming Regions
• The turbulent destruction of clouds - I. A k-epsilon treatment of turbulence in 2D models of adiabatic shock-cloud interactions
• Near-Infrared properties of the X-ray emitting young stellar objects in the Carina Nebula
• A Chandra ACIS Study of the Young Star Cluster Trumpler 15 in Carina and Correlation with Near-infrared Sources
• The Chandra Carina Complex Project View of Trumpler 16
• A Naive Bayes Source Classifier for X-ray Sources
• A Smoking Gun in the Carina Nebula
• Source Contamination in X-ray Studies of Star-Forming Regions: Application to the Chandra Carina Complex Project
• The isolated neutron star candidate 2XMM J104608.7-594306

Cited by in corpus (40)

• The Big Problems in Star Formation: the Star Formation Rate, Stellar Clustering, and the Initial Mass Function
• An Introduction to the Chandra Carina Complex Project
• A Catalog of Chandra X-ray Sources in the Carina Nebula
• The Massive Star-forming Regions Omnibus X-ray Catalog
• X-ray Star Clusters in the Carina Complex
• The Integrated Diffuse X-ray Emission of the Carina Nebula Compared to Other Massive Star-forming Regions
• Herschel far-infrared observations of the Carina Nebula Complex. - III: Detailed cloud structure and feedback effects
• A Chandra ACIS Study of the Young Star Cluster Trumpler 15 in Carina and Correlation with Near-infrared Sources
• The Chandra Carina Complex Project View of Trumpler 16
• Candidate X-ray-Emitting OB Stars in the Carina Nebula Identified Via Infrared Spectral Energy Distributions
• Herschel far-infrared observations of the Carina Nebula complex II: The embedded young stellar and protostellar population
• Constraining physical conditions for the PDR of Trumpler 14 in the Carina Nebula
• Gamma-ray follow-up studies on Eta Carinae
• X-ray Emission from Eta Carinae near Periastron in 2009 I: A Two State Solution
• The Massive Star-Forming Regions Omnibus X-Ray Catalog, Second Installment
• Feedback from Winds and Supernovae in Massive Stellar Clusters - II. X-Ray Emission
• Source Contamination in X-ray Studies of Star-Forming Regions: Application to the Chandra Carina Complex Project
• Highlights and Discoveries from the Chandra X-ray Observatory
• The Massive Star-Forming Regions Omnibus X-Ray Catalog, Third Installment
• Jet-driving protostars identified from infrared observations of the Carina Nebula complex
• H.E.S.S. observations of the Carina nebula and its enigmatic colliding wind binary Eta Carinae
• Hot gas in the Wolf-Rayet nebula NGC3199
• The role of low-mass star clusters in forming the massive stars in DR 21
• Emission lines between 1 and 2 keV in Cometary X-ray Spectra
• The Structure of the Young Star Cluster NGC 6231. II. Structure, Formation, and Fate
• New XMM-Newton observation of the thermally emitting isolated neutron star 2XMM J104608.7-594306
• X-ray Emission from Charge Exchange in the Cygnus Loop SNR
• The Duration of Star Formation in Galactic Giant Molecular Clouds. I. The Great Nebula in Carina
• The peculiar isolated neutron star in the Carina Nebula - Deep XMM-Newton and ESO-VLT observations of 2XMM J104608.7-594306
• Gaia-ESO Survey: Gas dynamics in the Carina Nebula through optical emission lines
• Chandra X-ray observation of the HII region Gum 31 in the Carina Nebula complex
• GRAVITY spectro-interferometric study of the massive multiple stellar system HD 93 206 A
• Deep optical imaging of the gamma-ray pulsar J1048-5832 with the VLT
• IRAS 09002-4732: A Laboratory for the Formation of Rich Stellar Clusters
• Momentum and energy injection by a wind-blown bubble into an inhomogeneous interstellar medium
• Suzaku Observation of Diffuse X-Ray Emission from a Southwest Region of the Carina Nebula
• A First Look at the X-ray Population of the Young Massive Cluster VVV CL077
• Unusual X-ray Oxygen Line Ratios of SN 1987A Arising From the Absorption of Galactic Hot Interstellar Medium
• Non-thermal processes in coronae and beyond
• Star Forming Regions