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Paper: Structured Molecular Gas Reveals Galactic Spiral Arms
Volume: 476, New Trends in Radio Astronomy in the ALMA Era
Page: 279
Authors: Sawada, T.; Hasegawa, T.; Koda, J.; Handa, T.; Sugimoto, M.
Abstract: We studied the spatial structures of molecular gas and their variation across the Galactic spiral arms by analyzing wide-field, high-resolution CO J = 1–0 line data. The data reveal that the bright and compact (structured) emission is predominantly located in the spiral arms, whereas the fainter, diffuse emission dominates in the inter-arm regions. A possible evolutionary sequence of the gas is suggested: diffuse gas in the inter-arm regions develops compact structures upon entering the spiral arms; stars form in these structures; and the gas eventually returns to diffuse, unstructured state after the spiral arm passage.
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