Astronomy Seminar: Summary of H2 Formation and Excitation in the Stephan's Quintet Galaxy-Wide Collision
| Date/Time: | Friday, 04 Nov 2016 at 4:10 pm |
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| Location: | Room 38, Physics Bldg. |
| Contact: | Curtis Struck |
| Phone: | 515-294-5440 |
| Channel: | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences |
| Categories: | Lectures |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
(Journal article review) The Spitzer Space Telescope detected powerful mid-infrared molecular Hydrogen emission from the galaxy wide collision in the Stephan's Quintet galaxy group. A later discovery showed more distant H2 luminous extragalactic sources with extremely low spectroscopic signatures of star formation. Post shock gas in the Stephan's Quintet collisions has also been observed to be multiphase, with H2 gas coexisting in a hot x-ray emitting plasma. Several questions are raised, why is H2 present in post shock gas, how is it excited and why is H2 a dominate coolant? Through modeling the collision as two flows of multiphase dusty gas, constraints can be placed on the gas cooling, dust destruction and H2 formation and excitation in the postshock medium.