Discipline: Physics
Subcategory: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Alia Wofford - Elizabeth City State University
Starburst galaxy NGC 2146 is believed to have been formed approximately 800 million years ago, when two galaxies collided with each other possibly leading to a burst of star formation. Molecular clouds serve as nurseries for star formation. Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) and Carbon monoxide (CO) are molecules found in molecular gas clouds. HCN molecules are tracers for high density star forming gas. Whereas, CO molecules are tracers for low density star forming gas. In this project, we are observing these two molecules and their proximity to where the stars are forming in the galaxy to determine if the star formation is occurring in the same area as the high and low density molecular gas areas in starburst galaxy NGC 2146.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): NSF, LSAMP, National Radio Astronomy Obseravatory
Faculty Advisor: Amanda Kepley, akepley@nrao.edu
Role: In this project, I used python scripts to duplicate Gao and Solomon plots the premise of our work. Then in Casaviewer, I observed images of HCN,CO and IR to see the location of gases in galaxy. I found a spectra of HCN and CO from a particular region of the galaxy. Then, using the spectral mean I calculated the intensity of the HCN and CO by getting the height and full width at half maximum of the line from spectra. Lastly, I calculated the luminosity using the small angle formula and the physical size of the region in (pc).