High-resolution images of the dust and ionized gas distributions in the Carina Nebula

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Abstract
Observations of the entire Carina Nebula have been made in the radio continuum at 0.843 GHz using the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST), covering an area of 7 deg^2^ with an enhanced resolution of 30". The observations reveal both the detailed structure of Car I and Car II, and the filamentary nature of the surrounding emission. Car I consists of three bright features, two of which (Car I-E and Car I-W) are opposing arcs that form a ringlike structure of diameter 2', while a third structure (Car I-S) lies several arcminutes to the south. These three features lie within a broad plateau and are interpreted as ionization fronts at a dense dust/molecular Cloud to the west. The characteristics of the region are consistent with ionization by the Tr 14 cluster. In the Car II region, three ionization fronts are present (Car II-E, Car II-W, and Car II-N) that form a ring structure enveloping a small dense molecular cloud. Radio emission associated with the peculiar star n Car appears prominently in the observations. New resolution-enhanced IRAS images of the nebula at 60 microns are also presented, and these show a close correspondence with the radio in all parts of the nebula, except to the west of Car I where bright infrared emission arises from a radio dark channel. No evidence of nonthermal Galactic radio emission is found in the region. The new data suggest that the dust/molecular cloud lying in the dark lanes across the nebula has a low density and is intermixed with the ionized gas to the southeast of Car II, but increases significantly in density near Car I, where its eastern face lies in contact with the ionized material, before wrapping around the back of the nebula.

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