A resolved view of the impact of massive star formation in the atomic, molecular and ionized gas in the Carina Nebula

Abstract

The Carina Nebula Complex (CNC) is a spectacular star-forming region located at 2.3 kpc, which is close enough to observe different size scales in detail. With more than 65 O-stars and more than 900 young stellar objects identified it is also the nearest analogue of more extreme star forming regions, such as 30 Doradus. In this talk I will present the results of a major effort to study the relationship between the different gas phases in the Carina region from 100 pc to 0.01 pc using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), the Mopra telescope and ALMA. At large scales, CO image combined with far-infrared data from Herschel revealed the overall molecular mass and its distribution across the CNC (Rebolledo et al. 2016). An extremely detailed map of the HI 21-cm line across the whole nebula revealed a complex filamentary structure in the atomic gas, which allowed the identification of regions where phase transition between atomic and molecular gas is happening (Rebolledo et al. 2017). An ATCA 1-3 GHz radio continuum image across the whole Carina region revealed a complete and spectacular view of the ionized gas in the region (Rebolledo et al. 2021). At small scales, ALMA high spatial resolution observations of molecular line tracers and dust showed that the level of stellar feedback effectively influences the fragmentation process in clumps, and provides further evidence for a higher level of turbulence in the material with a higher level of massive stellar feedback (Rebolledo et al. 2020).