Bibcode
Knödlseder, J.; Cerviño, M.; Schaerer, D.; von Ballmoos, P.; Meynet, G.
Bibliographical reference
In: Exploring the gamma-ray universe. Proceedings of the Fourth INTEGRAL Workshop, 4-8 September 2000, Alicante, Spain. Editor: B. Battrick, Scientific editors: A. Gimenez, V. Reglero & C. Winkler. ESA SP-459, Noordwijk: ESA Publications Division, ISBN 92-9092-677-5, 2001, p. 47 - 50
Advertised on:
9
2001
Citations
5
Refereed citations
3
Description
The detection of 1.809 MeV gamma-ray line emission from the Cygnus X
complex by the COMPTEL telescope is one of the most convincing proves of
massive star nucleosynthesis in our Galaxy. The Cygnus X complex is an
extremely active nearby region, containing several star forming regions,
OB associations and young open star clusters. It houses some of the most
massive stars known in our Galaxy and concentrates a large number of
Wolf-Rayet stars. Thermal radio continuum emission and intense [C II]
line emission reveals widespread ionisation, and at least 60 individual
H II regions have been identified. In order to understand the 1.809 MeV
gamma-ray line emission from the Cygnus X complex, and to compare the
observations to theoretical nucleosynthesis calculation, we modelled the
multi-wavelength spectrum of the region by means of an evolutionary
synthesis model. Our investigation leads us to the following
conclusions: 1. Stellar wind ejection is the dominant mechanism for the
observed 26Al enrichment in the Cygnus X region. 2. Cyg OB2
is by far the dominating massive star association in Cygnus X and 1.809
MeV line emission from 26Al produced in this association
should be detectable by the spectrometer SPI on INTEGRAL. 3. There is
only low supernova activity in the Cygnus X complex and the
60Fe lines should be below INTEGRAL's detection sensitivity.
The detectability of an individual massive star cluster (Cyg OB2) by
INTEGRAL provides a fantastic opportunity for future nucleosynthesis
studies using gamma-ray line spectroscopy. We will explore the
scientific potential of such observations, and provide estimates for
gamma-ray line intensity distributions based on the massive star census
of the Cygnus X region.