Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Nature Of The H2-Emitting Gas In The Crab Nebula, C. T. Richardson, J. A. Baldwin, Gary J. Ferland, E. D. Loh, C. A. Kuehn, A. C. Fabian, Philippe Salomé

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Understanding how molecules and dust might have formed within a rapidly expanding young supernova remnant is important because of the obvious application to vigorous supernova activity at very high redshift. In previous papers, we have mapped the Crab nebula (the Crab) in a rotovibrational H₂emission line, and then measured the molecular excitation temperature for a few of the brighter H₂-emitting knots that we have found to be scattered throughout the Crab's filaments. We found that H₂ emission is often quite strong, correlates with optical low-ionization emission lines and has a surprisingly high excitation temperature. Here, …