A Large‐Scale CO Survey of the Galactic Center

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Abstract
We present high-resolution CO images of the Galactic center region taken with the 2 × 2 focal-plane array receiver mounted on the 45 m telescope of Nobeyama Radio Observatory. We have collected about 44,00012C16O (J = 1-0) spectra and over 13,00013C16O (J = 1-0) spectra with a 34'' (1.4 pc) grid spacing. The 12CO mapping area is roughly -15 ≤ l ≤ +34 and -06 ≤ b ≤ +06, which covers almost the full extent of the molecular gas concentration in the Galactic center. These CO images demonstrate extremely complex distribution and kinematics of molecular gas in the Galactic center. While its large-scale behavior can be attributed to the well-known coherent features, bright CO emission arises from a number of compact (d ≤ 10 pc) clouds with large velocity widths (ΔV ≥ 30 km s-1). The small-scale structure of molecular gas is characterized by filaments, arcs, and shells. The boisterous molecular gas kinematics there may be a result of violent release of kinetic energy by a number of supernova explosions and/or Wolf-Rayet stellar winds.

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