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An emission map of the disk–circumgalactic medium transition in starburst IRAS 08339+6517

Nature Astronomy (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Most of a galaxy’s mass is located beyond its stellar component, spread out to hundreds of kiloparsecs. This diffuse reservoir of gas, the circumgalactic medium, acts as the interface between a galaxy and the cosmic web that connects galaxies. We present kiloparsec-scale-resolution integral field spectroscopy of emission lines that trace cool ionized gas from the centre of a nearby galaxy to 30 kpc into its circumgalactic medium. We find a smooth surface brightness profile with a break in slope at twice the 90% stellar radius. The gas also changes from being photoionized by H ii star-forming regions in the disk to being ionized by shocks or the extragalactic UV background at greater distances. This transition represents the boundary between the interstellar medium and the circumgalactic medium, revealing how the dominant reservoir of baryonic matter directly connects to its galaxy.

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Fig. 1: The spatial distribution of ionized gas in the CGM at kiloparsec scales.
Fig. 2: Radial SB and ionization profiles.
Fig. 3: Emission line ratios of CGM gas do not behave similar to galaxies.

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Data availability

Raw Keck/KCWI data are publicly available via the Keck Observatory Archive at https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/koa/public/koa.php under programme IDs W143, W185 and C232. Hubble Space Telescope imaging is publicly available via the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes under programme ID GO-16749. Fully reduced data are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. X. Prochaska for comments on the paper. Parts of this research were supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) through project number CE170100013. R.R.V. and K.S. acknowledge funding support from National Science Foundation Award Number 1816462. Some of the data presented herein were obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and NASA (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. Observations were supported by the joint Swinburne–Caltech Keck programme C143 and Swinburne Keck programmes W185 and W143. We wish to recognize and acknowledge the cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. This research is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract number NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with programme id GO-16749. This research made use of Montage. It is funded by the National Science Foundation under grant number ACI-1440620, and was previously funded by the NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office, Computation Technologies Project, under Cooperative Agreement Number NCC5-626 between NASA and the California Institute of Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

    Nikole M. Nielsen, Deanne B. Fisher, Glenn G. Kacprzak & Bronwyn Reichardt Chu

  2. The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Nikole M. Nielsen, Deanne B. Fisher, Glenn G. Kacprzak & Bronwyn Reichardt Chu

  3. Homer L. Dodge Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Nikole M. Nielsen

  4. Department of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    John Chisholm

  5. Cahill Center for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    D. Christopher Martin

  6. Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Bronwyn Reichardt Chu

  7. Institute for Computational Cosmology, Department of Physics, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Bronwyn Reichardt Chu

  8. Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Karin M. Sandstrom & Ryan J. Rickards Vaught

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Contributions

N.M.N. and D.B.F. organized and wrote the main body of the paper. N.M.N. and G.G.K. led the observing proposal, observations and planning of the galaxy KCWI observations, and D.B.F. provided the target selection. D.B.F. led the CGM KCWI observing proposal and N.M.N., G.G.K. and D.C.M. contributed to the proposal development and writing. N.M.N. and D.B.F. led the HST observing proposal and planning. N.M.N., D.B.F., G.G.K., D.C.M., B.R.C., K.M.S. and R.J.R.V. participated in the CGM KCWI observations and planning. D.C.M. built KCWI, developed the reduction pipeline and provided technical expertise for the observations. N.M.N. developed the KCWI gradient removal tools and performed the KCWI data reduction, SB measurements, SB profile fitting and mass calculations. D.B.F. led the analysis and interpretation of the ionization conditions. G.G.K. and J.C. assisted in the interpretation of the results. B.R.C. developed code to perform the dust extinction corrections to the galaxy disk. All authors provided feedback on the paper.

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Correspondence to Nikole M. Nielsen.

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Nature Astronomy thanks Prateek Sharma and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Surface brightness and ionization do not vary significantly with azimuthal angle.

Points are colored as Fig. 2. The large points represent spaxels that have been binned radially for each KCWI pointing (10 radial bins per pointing) and correspond to the CGM points plotted in Fig. 3. Error bars on the binned data points are 1σ errors on the mean. Note that the y-axis ranges differ for each panel to emphasize the azimuthal variations and so the power law slope differences between lines are not reflected here.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Radial profiles for R23 and [O III]/H β.

Points are colored as Fig. 2. The large points represent spaxels that have been binned radially for each KCWI pointing (10 radial bins per pointing) and correspond to the CGM points plotted in Fig. 3.

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Nielsen, N.M., Fisher, D.B., Kacprzak, G.G. et al. An emission map of the disk–circumgalactic medium transition in starburst IRAS 08339+6517. Nat Astron (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02365-x

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