Regularly Spaced Infrared Peaks in the Dusty Spirals of Messier 100

TL;DR

Infrared observations of Messier 100 reveal regularly spaced clumps along filaments, supporting a model where large-scale gravitational instabilities lead to the formation of giant clouds and star complexes in spiral galaxies.

Contribution

This study provides the first detailed infrared analysis of regularly spaced dust clumps in M100's filaments, linking gravitational instabilities to star formation.

Findings

Clumps are spaced ~410 pc apart, consistent with gravitational instability theory.

Clump colors indicate dust associated with diffuse gas, PAH emission, and star formation.

Filament ages appear uniform, suggesting systematic gas accumulation over several kpc.

Abstract

Spitzer Space Telescope InfraRed Array Camera (IRAC) images of M100 show numerous long filaments with regularly-spaced clumps, suggesting the associated cloud complexes formed by large-scale gravitational instabilities in shocked and accumulated gas. Optical images give no hint of this underlying regularity. The typical spacing between near infrared (NIR) clumps is ~410 pc, which is ~3 times the clump diameter, consistent with the fastest growing mode in a filament of critical line density. The IRAC magnitudes and colors of several hundred clumps are measured in the most obvious 27 filaments and elsewhere. The clump colors suggest that the dust is associated with diffuse gas, PAH emission, and local heating from star formation. Neighboring clumps on the same filament have similar magnitudes. The existence of many clumps all along the filament lengths suggests that the ages of the filaments are uniform. The observations support a model where interstellar gas is systematically accumulated over lengths exceeding several kpc, forming spiral-like filaments that spontaneously collapse into giant clouds and stellar complexes. Optical wavelengths show primarily the irregular dust debris, HII regions, and lingering star formation downstream from these primal formation sites.