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A fast starburst wind consumes most of the energy from supernovae

Nature·@MarcAudard·2 months ago
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Starburst galaxies often host multiphase, galaxy-scale winds thought to enrich the circumgalactic medium and limit further star formation by disrupting interstellar gas clouds1,2,3. These winds are primarily powered by supernovae4,5,6, but it remains unclear how supernova energy forms an organized flow. Here we use the Resolve spectrometer on the X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission to show that the hot (T = 2 × 107 K) gas in the nucleus of the starburst galaxy M82 is moving quickly, with a line-of-sight velocity dispersion \(\sigma =59{5}_{-128}^{+464}\,\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}\). This is consistent with a hot, nuclear wind generated by thermal pressure. We show that a free-wind model reproduces the measured temperature but underpredicts the velocity. The inferred mass and energy outflow rates from the nucleus, about 7 M⊙ yr−1 and 4 × 1042 erg s−1, require that most supernova energy is thermalized.…

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