The Large-scale ISM of SS433/W50 Revisited

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution CO and HI data to analyze the large-scale interstellar medium around SS 433/W50, revealing molecular cloud alignments, jet-ISM interactions, and estimating the system's distance and impact on the surrounding gas.

Contribution

It provides new high-resolution observations and analysis of the ISM environment around SS 433/W50, highlighting jet-ISM interactions and molecular cloud alignments.

Findings

Molecular clouds align with SS 433's precession cone.

Gas features suggest jet-ISM interactions ~10^5 years ago.

Estimated distance to SS 433/W50 is 4.9 kpc.

Abstract

With new high-resolution CO and HI data, we revisited the large-scale interstellar medium (ISM) environment toward the SS 433/W50 system. We find that two interesting molecular cloud (MC) concentrations, G39.315-1.155 and G40.331-4.302, are well aligned along the precession cone of SS 433 within a smaller opening angle of ~7deg. The kinematic features of the two MCs at ~73--84 km/s, as well as those of the corresponding atomic-gas counterparts, are consistent with the kinematic characteristics of SS 433. That is, the receding gas from SS 433 jet is probably responsible for the redshifted feature of G39.315-1.155 near the Galactic plane and the approaching one may power the blueshifted gas of G40.331-4.302 toward the observer. Moreover, the HI emission at VLSR~70--90 km/s displays the morphological resemblance with the radio nebula W50. We suggest that the VLSR=77\pm5 km/s gas is physically associated with SS 433/W50, leading to a near kinematic distance of 4.9\pm0.4 kpc for the system. The observed gas features, which are located outside the current radio boundaries of W50, are probably the fossil record of jet-ISM interactions at ~10^5 years ago. The energetic jets of the unique microquasar have profound effects on its ISM environment, which may facilitate the formation of molecular gas on the timescale of <0.1 Myr for the ram pressure of ~2x10^6 K cm-3.