Author(s): Tierra Candelaria , Cassie Low

Presentation: poster

Certain regions in space, known as stellar nurseries, provide the essential environment for creating massive stars. This research examines triggered star formation along the rims of Galactic bubbles. Our goals are to identify how the surrounding molecular gas has slowed the expansion of the bubble and how the bubble's expansion has disturbed the surrounding molecular gas. Measuring the properties of bubbles and their surroundings allows us to better understand the nature of the massive star forming environments. Ammonia (NH3), a high-density gas tracer, can be used to estimate the temperature and column density of the gas. In this study we observed ammonia (NH3) (1,1) emission toward infrared-identified Galactic bubble N56. The data were obtained using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's (NRAO) Green Bank Telescope (GBT). Our results indicate increased line-widths and a map created of the central velocity of NH3 (1,1) emission shows a change in velocity, both coincident with the bubble rim and features inside the bubble. The line broadening and velocity change suggest an interaction between the expanding bubble front and the surrounding molecular gas. These NH3 results will be combined with far-IR images of N56 to constrain the parameters of young stars inside the bubble.

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