The Formation of Milky Way "Bones": Ubiquitous HI Narrow Self-Absorption Associated with CO Emission

TL;DR

This study reveals the widespread presence of HI narrow self-absorption in Galactic bones, indicating ongoing HI to H2 conversion and rapid star formation in distant giant molecular clouds, using FAST observations and archival data.

Contribution

It introduces an improved methodology to detect HINSA features associated with CO emission in Galactic bones, demonstrating their ubiquity and providing insights into cloud formation and evolution.

Findings

HINSA features are ubiquitous in Galactic bones.

HI-H2 conversion timescale is 2.2 to 13.2 million years.

Galactic bones are young giant molecular clouds with rapid star formation.

Abstract

Long and skinny molecular filaments running along Galactic spiral arms are known as "bones", since they make up the skeleton of the Milky Way. However, their origin is still an open question. Here, we compare spectral images of HI taken by FAST with archival CO and Herschel dust emission to investigate the conversion from HI to H$_2$ in two typical Galactic bones, CFG028.68-0.28 and CFG047.06+0.26. Sensitive FAST HI images and an improved methodology enabled us to extract HI narrow self-absorption (HINSA) features associated with CO line emission on and off the filaments, revealing the ubiquity of HINSA towards distant clouds for the first time. The derived cold HI abundances, [HI]/[H$_2$], of the two bones range from $\sim$(0.5 to 44.7)$\times10^{-3}$, which reveal different degrees of HI-H$_2$ conversion and are similar to that of nearby, low-mass star forming clouds, Planck Galactic cold clumps and a nearby active high-mass star forming region G176.51+00.20. The HI-H$_2$ conversion has been ongoing for 2.2 to 13.2 Myr in the bones, a timescale comparable to that of massive star formation therein. Therefore, we are witnessing young giant molecular clouds with rapid massive star formation. Our study paves the way of using HINSA to study cloud formation in Galactic bones, and more generally, in distant giant molecular clouds, in the FAST era.