HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGES OF THE GAS NEAR THE CENTER OF 30 DORADUS

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Session 13 -- HII Regions
Display presentation, Wednesday, January 12, 9:30-6:45, Salons I/II Room (Crystal Gateway)

[13.05] HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGES OF THE GAS NEAR THE CENTER OF 30 DORADUS

Paul A. Scowen (Arizona State University), Deidre A. Hunter (Lowell Observatory), J. Jeff Hester (Arizona State University), Ed Shaya (University of Maryland), and the WF/PC IDT

We present images of a region of the 30 Doradus nebula centered about one arcminute north of the luminous star cluster R136 in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The images were obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera through filters F656N, F673N, and F702W. These data allow us to examine this region of star formation and the breakup of the cloud around R136 on a scale of 0.027 pc per pixel. We also present a ground-based echelle spectrum of the H$\alpha$ and [NII] emission lines in this region.

In the images one sees an extensive filamentary structure surrounding regions that have been hollowed out by R136 and other massive stars in the area. The [SII] image shows a sharper, more filamentary appearance than the H$\alpha$ image, and the filaments are offset in [SII] generally away from R136. These characteristics are indicative of ionization fronts that are outlining the neutral material and dust features. We also find fingers of enhanced [SII] emission located about 90'' to the northwest of R136. The [SII] fingers appear to be radiating generally from a common region and to have velocity offsets with respect to the rest of the gas of 43--80 km sec$^{-1}$ .

We find that a small knot of emission resolves into two shells of about 0.5 pc diameter, each of which encircles one or two stars. One of the stars has been identified as an early main sequence O star by Walborn \& Blades (1987), and the shell is likely to be a young wind-blown bubble. We also find a parabolic-shaped structure with a cone opening up away from R136. The head of the parabola is located near a luminous candidate protostar identified by Hyland et al (1992).

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