FOREST unbiased Galactic plane imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope (FUGIN): Possible evidence of cloud-cloud collisions triggering high-mass star formation in the giant molecular cloud M16 (Eagle Nebula)

TL;DR

This study presents evidence that cloud-cloud collisions within a giant molecular cloud in M16 likely triggered high-mass star formation, supported by detailed CO observations and velocity structure analysis.

Contribution

It provides new observational evidence linking cloud-cloud collisions to high-mass star formation in the Eagle Nebula, using combined CO data and velocity analysis.

Findings

Identification of two colliding velocity components in the GMC.

Collision likely triggered formation of high-mass stars and shaped nebula features.

Estimated collision timescale of approximately 4 x 10^5 years.

Abstract

M16, the Eagle Nebula, is an outstanding \HII \ region which exhibits extensive high-mass star formation and hosts remarkable "pillars". We herein obtained new $^{12}$CO $J=$1-0 data for the region observed with NANTEN2, which were combined with the $^{12}$CO $J=$1-0 data obtained using FUGIN survey. These observations revealed that a giant molecular cloud (GMC) of $\sim 1.3 \times 10^5$ \Msun \ is associated with M16, which is elongated by over 30 pc and is perpendicular to the galactic plane, at a distance of 1.8 kpc. This GMC can be divided into the northern (N) cloud, the eastern (E) filament, the southeast (SE) cloud, the southeast (SE) filament, and the southern (S) cloud. We also found two velocity components (blue and red shifted component) in the N cloud. The blue-shifted component shows a ring-like structure, as well as the red-shifted component coincides with the intensity depression of the ring-like structure. The position-velocity diagram of the components showed a V-shaped velocity feature. The spatial and velocity structures of the cloud indicated that two different velocity components collided with each other at a relative velocity of 11.6 \kms. The timescale of the collision was estimated to be $\sim 4 \times 10^5$ yr. The collision event reasonably explains the formation of the O9V star ALS15348, as well as the shape of the Spitzer bubble N19. A similar velocity structure was found in the SE cloud, which is associated with the O7.5V star HD168504. In addition, the complementary distributions of the two velocity components found in the entire GMC suggested that the collision event occurred globally. On the basis of the above results, we herein propose a hypothesis that the collision between the two components occurred sequentially over the last several $10^{6}$ yr and triggered the formation of O-type stars in the NGC6611 cluster.