Superbubble vs Supergiant Shell: Comparing the X-ray gas in N44 and LMC-2

Session 45 - Interstellar Medium I.
Display session, Tuesday, January 16
North Banquet Hall, Convention Center

[45.09] Superbubble vs Supergiant Shell: Comparing the X-ray gas in N44 and LMC-2

E. A. Magnier, D. Bomans, Y. -H. Chu, S. D. Points (U. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), U. Hwang, J. Parker (GSFC), M. Itoh (Kobe U.)

Superbubbles are the \sim100 pc diameter shells found around OB associations. Supergiant shells are the \sim1000 pc diameters shells found around large stellar ``complexes''. Both may contain hot gas, but the heating history and cooling timescales are likely to be very different. N44 and \mboxLMC-2 in the LMC are the only resolved superbubble and supergiant shell to have been observed with ASCA. These two structures are generally similar, morphologically, but have very different sizes (60 pc for N44; 900 pc for LMC-2) and ages (a few Myr for N44; a few tens of Myr for LMC-2). There have been reports of blowouts in both structures. We have used the spectroscopic capabilities of ASCA to compare the physical condition of the X-ray gas in these two regions. Optical observations of the stellar populations have helped to constrain the energy input to the two structures.

Program listing for Tuesday