Formaldehyde in the Cygnus-X region
ABSTRACT A new high-sensitivity survey of 6 cm $\rm H_2CO$ $(1_{1,0}$–$1_{1,1})$ absorption and ${\rm H110} \, \alpha$ emission confirms the widespread molecular structures in the Cygnus-X region. High formaldehyde column densities identify regions with ongoing or new star formation activity, while the hydrogen recombination emission reveals past and evolved star formation regions. A novel method has been introduced to estimate the H$_2$CO excitation temperature $T_{\rm ex}$ of the Cygnus-X region using only the 6 cm transition that resulting in an updated map of the excitation temperature field. The excitation temperatures and the associated background temperatures in the Cygnus-North region confirm the star formation activity in Cygnus-North to be higher than in Cygnus-South. The $\rm H_2CO$ absorption contours and the ${\rm H110} \, \alpha$ contours show some association with the 6 cm continuum structure and reveal a complex structure of current and past star formation regions. The formaldehyde line proves to be an excellent tracer of existing and future star formation regions.
Authors
- Xindi Tang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4154-4309)
- Qaynar Jandaolet
- Gang Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0933-7112)
- Jarken Esimbek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4910-1390)
- Yuxin He (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8760-8988)
- Yingxiu Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0776-0753)
- Kadirya Tursun
- Toktarkhan Komesh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3415-4636)
- Jianjun Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0356-818X)
- Willem A. Baan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3389-6838)
- А. М. Соболев (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7575-5254)
- Dongdong Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4644-8110)
- Dilda Berdikhan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7629-7099)
- Ernar Imanaly
Institutions
- Ural Federal University (RU)
- Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KZ)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (CN)
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE)
- Beijing Chaoyang Emergency Medical Center (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Nazarbayev University (KZ)
- Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (NL)
- Xinjiang University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2025-08-15
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf1346
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation
- Natural Science Foundation of Xinjiang
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association