Ultracompact H II region

This picture of the evolution of H II regions and molecular clouds is one of constant turmoil, a few transient O stars serving to keep the material stirred, in constant motion, continually producing new stars and churning clouds of gas and dust. In this way some of the stellar thermonuclear energy is converted into the kinetic energy of interstellar gas. This process begins just after the formation of the massive star that will power the mature H II region. The star begins producing copious amounts of ultraviolet radiation, converting the surrounding H₂ to atomic hydrogen, and then ionizing it to very dense high-pressure H⁺.

The very dense, very young H II regions within molecular clouds are called “ultracompact” because of their small sizes and high densities. These nebulae are observed only at the wavelengths of radio and far-infrared radiation, both of which are able to penetrate the thick dust in the clouds. They are extremely bright at wavelengths of 50 micrometres. There are about 2,500 in the Milky Way Galaxy, representing 10 to 20 percent of the total O-type star population. Usually only a light-month in size, 100 times smaller than a typical H II region, they show densities in the ionized region of 10⁵ hydrogen atoms per cubic cm. They cannot be at rest with respect to the surrounding gas; if they were, the immense pressure exerted by their dense hot gas would cause a violent expansion. (Their lifetimes would be only about 3,000 years—exceedingly short on an astronomical timescale—and not nearly as many could be seen as the number observed by astronomers.) Rather, their gas is kept confined because they are moving through the surrounding cloud at speeds of about 10 km (6 miles) per second, and what is observed is the cloud of freshly ionized gas ahead of them that has not yet had time to expand. The ultracompact H II regions leave behind a trail of ionized material that is not as bright as the confined gas ahead of them. This trail gradually fades as it recombines after the ionizing star has passed. The radio radiation is produced by the ionized gas, but the far-infrared radiation is emitted by the 5,000 solar masses of surrounding dust warmed by the luminosity of the embedded star.

Supergiant nebulae

The most energetic H II regions within nearby galaxies have over 1,000 times more ionizations per second than does the Orion Nebula, too many to be provided by a single star. Indeed, there are clumps of ionized gas ionized by tight groupings of single stars that are embedded in rather diffuse material. These objects are more than 10 times as luminous as any in the Milky Way Galaxy and are about 200 light-years in diameter. If they were located at the Orion Nebula, they would cover the entire constellation of Orion with brightly glowing gas. These supergiant nebulae are more than 10 times as luminous as any in the Galaxy. The entire Local Group—the cluster of galaxies consisting of the Milky Way Galaxy, the great spiral galaxy in Andromeda, the smaller spiral in Triangulum, and more than 20 other stellar assemblages—contains but one supergiant nebula: the Tarantula Nebula (also called 30 Doradus), in the Large Magellanic Cloud. It contains a stellar cluster called R136, the source of most of the energy radiated by the nebula. This grouping consists of dozens of the most massive known stars of the Milky Way Galaxy, all packed into a volume only a thousandth of a typical stellar spacing in size. How such a cluster could form is a fascinating puzzle. There are other supergiant nebulae outside the Local Group, some of which radiate 10 times the energy of 30 Doradus.