The Hot Gas Properties of NGC 253's Starburst Driven Outflow
Collaborators: Laura Lopez, Dustin Nguyen, Todd Thompson, Smita Mathur, Alberto Bolatto, Neven Vulic, and Amy Sardone
In this project we studied various properties of the X-ray emitting phase of NGC 253's outflow. We derived metallicity, temperature, and density gradients along the outflow. We compare them to wind models and find that a spherical adiabatically expanding wind model is not consistent with observed profiles. In order to match non-spherical geometry and mass loading processes need to be included. The metal abundances show high alpha to Fe ratios indicating most of the outflow is composed of supernova ejecta. We also derived cooling times for the gas and find that they are of order the predicted advection times near the starburst base. This indicates the hot outflow may be undergoing bulk radiative cooling providing an origin for the cooler phases. Paper is here: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2023ApJ...942..108L/abstract NOVA Press Release is here: https://aasnova.org/2023/01/30/outflows-from-the-silver-coin-galaxy-ngc-253/ Chandra Press Release: https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2023/ngc253/ OSU Press Release: https://astronomy.osu.edu/news/how-cosmic-winds-transform-galactic-environments |