The M 82 superwind – in detail, and in 3D

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
² Space Telescope Science Institute and European Space Agency, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
³ Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 5534 Sterling, 475 North Charter St., Madison, WI 53706, USA

Abstract

It has long been known that the starburst in M 82 drives a large-scale bipolar superwind, carrying large volumes of material (in the form of hot, warm and cool gas and dust) out of the disk plane. However, what is not known is exactly how the hundreds of catalogued super star clusters power the outflow, and how it becomes so structured and collimated.

Here I will present part of the most comprehensive set of spectroscopic integral field observations ever made of the starburst clumps and outflow in M 82. I will describe how we have mapped in detail the spatial variation of Hα kinematics, gas density and excitation from the wind roots out into the halo, and how these compare to features seen in recent high resolution imaging campaigns. These observations will be used to address questions such as: how does the 2D variation of gas kinematics evolve from the core out into the halo? Our spectra indicate evidence for the sites of mass-loading – where is it occurring within the wind?