The Company Carinae Keeps: Stellar and Interstellar Content

of the Carina Nebula

Nolan R. Walborn
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218
Received ; accepted
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ABSTRACT
The remarkable nebular and stellar constituents of Carinaes habitat,
the giant Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), are reviewed. They are relevant to the
interpretation of Car itself. They include mysterious nebular structures,
recently recognized ongoing star formation, some of the hottest and most massive
O stars frequently in close multiple systems, the most extreme high-velocity
interstellar absorption-line proles in the Galaxy, and both stellar and diuse
X-ray sources.
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1. Introduction
The fame and brilliance of Carinae sometimes overwhelm its equally fascinating
stellar and nebular environment. But the context of associated phenomena can provide vital
clues to the nature of an otherwise bizarre peculiar object, for instance, its age and initial
mass. In fact, the giant H II region known as the Carina Nebula, or NGC 3372, is one of
the most powerful laboratories for investigation of the early evolution of the most massive
stars because of its relative proximity and moderate extinction, independently of Car
itself. The O3 spectral class (recently expanded to O2 through O3.5) was rst recognized
there. Current star formation likely triggered by the rst-generation O stars, a ubiquitous
characteristic of giant H II regions, has only recently been recognized in the Carina Nebula
as a result of new infrared observations. This region also harbors extreme and in some
respects unique high-energy phenomena, revealed by the interstellar absorption lines and
X-rays. The Carina Nebula is a dynamic, transitory cauldron of astrophysical interactions
from which we have yet much to learn.
The distance and stellar content of the Carina Nebula were reviewed in detail by
Walborn (1995). Its distance is best given as 2500 300 pc, the uncertainty being due
primarily to anomalous reddening laws that may vary from star to star, and to a range of
stellar ages with subluminous, zero-age OB main sequences as of progressively lower masses
with increasing age. Pre-main sequences at very low masses also aect the analysis of
color-magnitude diagrams, the more so since subclusters of dierent ages may be spatially
superposed. At that distance, the diameter of the H II region is about 40 pc. The total
mass of ionized hydrogen is of order 10
4
M

, a thousand times that of the Orion Nebula but

one to two orders of magnitude below that of 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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2. Nebular Structures
The early radio-continuum observations of the Carina Nebula revealed two strong
peaks in the northern part of the nebula, called Carina I and II (Gardner et al. 1970).
They coincide with optical structures, the rst with a semicircular dust incursion into
the H II near the compact cluster Trumpler 14, and the second with a curious apparent
bright ring a few arcminutes northwest of Car. Subsequent radio observations with higher
spatial resolution showed greater complexity in these structures (Huchtmeier & Day 1975;
Retallack 1983; Whiteoak 1994).
Walborn (1975) and Deharveng & Maucherat (1975) showed that the Car II ring
is a physical structure best dened in the light of [S II]. There are other strange
[S II] structures in the vicinity, and the general appearance of the northern part of
the Carina Nebula is completely dierent in the light of [O III]. The gas kinematics
of the region was further investigated by Meaburn, L opez, & Keir (1984). Kennicutt
et al. (2000) have investigated the implications of this inhomogeneity for standard
nebular analyses, nding that the O abundance is unaected but there are problems
with N and S. Images of the Car II ring with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field
Planetary Camera 2 reveal further intricate details, including barely resolved dark
globules and the astounding adjacent Finger Nebula, evidently sculpted by the WN
star HD 93162 (Walborn 2002; http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2000/06/;
http://www.stsci.edu/~jmaiz/carina.html).
The association of Car with the Carina Nebula has been demonstrated twice, rst
by Walborn & Liller (1977) who discovered nearby dust clouds reecting the peculiar
spectrum of the star, and then by Allen (1979) who showed that the redward component of
the double nebular emission lines is occulted by the Homunculus. The former observation
has important implications for the drawing of the Carina Nebula by John Herschel at the
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time of Cars Great Outburst during the 19th century. He drew the bright nebulosity
immediately to the west of the variable as far brighter and more extensive than it appears
today, dening his Keyhole Nebula (the upper part of which is the Car II ring). The
accuracy of Herschels drawing was questioned by B. Bok on the assumption that the
nebulosity was entirely ionized; Car at maximum would not have been hot enough to
excite it. Since we now know that this nebulosity has a reection component, it is likely
that the latter was considerably brighter when the variable was at maximum, and that
Herschels drawing is correct.
Molecular observations toward the Carina Nebula provide a dierent, complementary
perspective. Early observations in the H
2
CO and OH lines showed two strong peaks,
coincident not with the radio-continuum maxima but with the dense V-shaped dust lanes
that divide the northern and southern parts of the Nebula (Gardner, Dickel, & Whiteoak
1973; Dickel & Wall 1974; Dickel 1974). More extensive CO observations revealed an
elongated giant molecular cloud with a mass of order 10
5
M

, the Carina Nebula being

located near one end (Grabelsky et al. 1988). CO observations with higher spatial resolution
discovered discrete cloudlets with masses of order 10M

in the vicinity of Car II (Cox &

Bronfman 1995), which are undoubtedly related to the subject of the following section.
3. Current Star Formation
Until recently, the Carina Nebula was generally regarded as an evolved H II region,
with no particular evidence of ongoing star formation. However, more powerful IR
instrumentation in the Southern Hemisphere and in space have drastically revised that
perspective. Megeath et al. (1996) discovered a small IR cluster within a bright-rimmed
globule southeast of and facing Car and Trumpler 16. A larger scale view from the
Midcourse Space Experiment reveals a number of similarly oriented dust pillars and IR
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sources somewhat further to the southeast (Smith et al. 2000). Some additional cloudlets
near Car II, as well as three possible ultracompact H II regions and a young stellar object
with a disk in the vicinity of Trumpler 14, have been reported by Rathborne et al. (2002).
It is quite possible that the Finger Nebula noted above will give birth to a small cluster of
low-mass stars, if the condensations responsible for its protuberances are suciently dense.
A striking overview of the IR activity in the Carina Nebula is provided by the 2MASS JHK
composite image (http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/carinaatlas.jpg).
Thus, the Carina Nebula also displays the ubiquitous evidence for apparently triggered,
second-generation star formation in H II regions (Walborn 2002).
4. Stellar Content
The principal ionizing clusters of the Carina Nebula are Trumpler 16, which contains
Car, and the very compact Trumpler 14 in the northern part; and Collinder 228 in the
southern part. The O3 subclass was introduced by Walborn (1971, 1973) to describe six
stars in Tr 14 and Tr 16 with spectral types earlier than the earliest (O4) MK standards.
One of them, HD 93129A, the brightest star in Tr 14, presented a qualitatively new kind of
O-type spectrum, with a narrow N IV 4058 emission line stronger than the normal Of N III
46344042 lines, which was denoted as Of*, and strong N V 460420 absorption lines.
These N IV and N V features are present in O4f spectra, but much more weakly and with
the N IV weaker than N III; that is, the O3f* spectrum is a higher-ionization analogue of
the O4f. There are also three WN-A, or WNL (i.e., narrow-line, late-type, high-luminosity
WN), stars present, which bear strong spectroscopic relationships to the O3f*, in terms of
progressive envelope or wind development (Walborn 1974; Walborn & Fitzpatrick 2000).
One of the WN-A stars is in Tr 16, while the other two are at the western and southern
edges of the Nebula. This stellar population corresponds to an evolutionary age of 2.5 Myr
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and upper masses of 100M

. Evidence that Tr 14 is somewhat younger, and Cr 228

somewhat older, was discussed by Walborn (1995), as was the speculative possibility that
the two errant WN-A stars are runaways from Tr 16. Because of the smooth spectroscopic
progression from the associated types O3 V through O3 If* to WN-A, it is likely that Car
is a post-WN-A star, if its current state is essentially a product of single-star evolution, as
opposed to a binary interaction. Langer et al. (1994) advocated the same progression from
a theoretical standpoint.
In a recent review of the O3 subclass, it has been subdivided into three including the
new types O2 and O3.5 (Walborn et al. 2002a). HD 93129A is now the prototype of the
O2 If* category on the basis of its large N IV/N III emission-line ratio, while the other
Carina Nebula members have been reclassied as O3.5 V((f)), except one (HDE 303308)
back to O4 V((f)) based on the higher quality digital data now available.
A large percentage of the most massive stars are found in spectroscopic binary and
compact multiple systems; the Carina Nebula population is no exception. Outstanding
examples are the O3.5 V((f)) + O8 V system HD 93205 (Morrell et al. 2001) and the
WN7-A + O8-9 HD 92740 (Schweickhardt et al. 1999). Triple lines have been found
in the spectra of CPD 59

2603 (O7 V + O9.5 V + B0.2 IV; Rauw et al. 2001) and

CPD 59

2636 (O7 V + O8 V + O9 V; Albacete Colombo et al. 2002). Even more

extreme is the double spectroscopic binary HD 93206, which has two sets of lines with
dierent periods (Leung, Moat, & Seggewiss 1979; Morrison & Conti 1980), but has yet
to be resolved spatially despite attempts with groundbased speckle and the HST Fine
Guidance Sensor interferometer! Subsequently to the discussion by Walborn et al. (2002a),
E. Nelan has observed HD 93129A with the FGS and resolved it into a 60 milliarcsec binary
with a magnitude dierence of 0.5 (preliminary numbers)! This star has provided an anchor
point for not only the classication but also quantitative analysis of the most massive stars
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(e.g., Taresch et al. 1997). A similar result has been obtained for HDE 303308. These
results for some well known, relatively nearby stars emphasize anew the fundamental
uncertainties introduced by the endemic multiplicity of the O stars, frequently at or beyond
the detection capabilities of current techniques. A binary nature of Car would not be
surprising, in view of the characteristics of its associated population.
5. Interstellar Absorption Lines
The interstellar absorption lines toward stars in the Carina Nebula have been
studied by the author and collaborators for many years with progressively more powerful
instrumentation, up to the current state of the art with the HST Space Telescope Imaging
Spectrograph (Danks et al. 2001; Walborn et al. 2002b; and references therein). They
present the most extreme proles known in the Galaxy, similar in fact to some QSO
narrow-line systems. Radial velocities in the strong, low-ionization lines range from nearly
400 to +200 km s
1
, with up to 26 components resolved in a single line of sight. The rapid
spatial variations in the proles over small angular distances, higher frequency of complex
proles toward more massive stars, and large temporal variations in several components
toward one star observed twice with STIS all suggest that the high-velocity features arise
in the near foregrounds of the stars toward which they are observed, i.e. within the Nebula.
Although a model does not yet exist, an interaction between the stellar winds and dense
surrounding material appears to be a likely origin of the phenomenon. If this kinetic energy
is being thermalized by collisions, temperatures of a few million degrees would result, which
is likely relevant to the following section.
In contrast, the dominant components in the high-ionization and excited-state
interstellar lines have velocities similar to the blueward components of the double nebular
emission lines, that is, they arise in the near side of the globally expanding H II region.
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Thus, they provide valuable absorption diagnostics of the ionized material.
6. X-Rays
The Einstein Observatory discovered that all of the bright stars in the Carina Nebula,
including Car, are X-ray sources, but more surprisingly, that the entire Nebula is a
source of diuse soft X-rays (Seward et al. 1979; Seward & Chlebowski 1982). In view of
the energy correspondence, the diuse X-rays are very likely related to the high-velocity
motions revealed by the interstellar absorption lines, as discussed in the previous section.
The X-ray structure of Car is beautifully resolved both spatially and energetically by
the Chandra Observatory images (http://space.mit.edu/nss/Eta Carina 3col.gif),
which also detect many fainter stellar sources. Trumpler 14 appears as an extended, no
doubt composite, source. It is also noteworthy that the WN6-A member of Trumpler 16
HD 93162, the sculptor of the Finger Nebula, has by far the highest X-ray luminosity
known for a Wolf-Rayet star; van der Hucht et al. (1992) suggested that it may be a
colliding-wind binary, although independent evidence of binarity remains to be found.
My travel to Crystal Mountain/Mt. Rainier was supported by NASA through grant
GO-7301.02-96 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA,
Inc., under contract NAS 5-26555.
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This manuscript was prepared with the AAS L
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