High-velocity cloud
High-velocity clouds are large accumulations of gas with an unusually rapid motion relative to their surroundings. They can be found throughout the galactic halo of the Milky Way. Their bulk motions in the local standard of rest have velocities which are measured in excess of 70–90 km s−1. These clouds of gas can be massive in size, some on the order of millions of times the mass of the Sun, and cover large portions of the sky. They have been observed in the Milky Way's halo and within other nearby galaxies.
HVCs are important to the understanding of galactic evolution because they account for a large amount of baryonic matter in the galactic halo. In addition, as these clouds fall into the disk of the galaxy, they add material that can form stars in addition to the dilute star forming material already present in the disk. This new material aids in maintaining the star formation rate of the galaxy.
The origins of the HVCs are still in question. No one theory explains all of the HVCs in the galaxy. However, it is known that some HVCs are probably spawned by interactions between the Milky Way and satellite galaxies, such as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds which produce a well-known complex of HVCs called the Magellanic Stream. Because of the various possible mechanisms that could potentially produce HVCs, there are still many questions surrounding HVCs for researchers to study.
Observational history
In the mid-1950s, dense pockets of gas were first discovered outside of the galactic plane. This was quite notable because the models of the Milky Way showed the density of gas decreasing with distance from the galactic plane, rendering this a striking exception. According to the prevailing galactic models, the dense pockets should have dissipated long ago, making their very existence in the halo quite puzzling. In 1956 the solution was proposed that the dense pockets were stabilized by a hot, gaseous corona that surrounds the Milky Way. Inspired by this proposal, Jan Oort, of Leiden University, Netherlands, proposed that cold gas clouds might be found in the galactic halo, far away from the galactic plane.They were soon located, in 1963, via their neutral hydrogen radio emission. They were traveling toward the galactic disk at a very high velocity relative to other entities in the galactic disk. The first two clouds that were located were named Complex A and Complex C. Due to their anomalous velocities, these objects were dubbed "high-velocity clouds", distinguishing them from both gas at normal local standard of rest velocities as well as their slower-moving counterparts known as intermediate-velocity clouds. Several astronomers proposed hypotheses regarding the nature of HVCs, but their models were further complicated in the early 1970s by the discovery of the Magellanic Stream, which behaves like a string of HVCs.
In 1988, a northern-sky survey of neutral hydrogen radio emissions was completed using the Dwingeloo radio telescope in the Netherlands. From this survey, astronomers were able to detect more HVCs.
In 1997, a map of the Milky Way's neutral hydrogen was largely complete, again allowing astronomers to detect more HVCs. In the late 1990s, using data from the La Palma Observatory in the Canary Islands, the Hubble Space Telescope, and, later, the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, the distance to an HVC was gauged for the first time. Around the same time, the chemical composition of HVCs was first measured. Additionally, in 2000, a southern hemisphere survey of neutral hydrogen radio emissions was completed using the Villa Elisa radio telescope in Argentina from which yet more HVCs were discovered.
Later observations of Complex C showed that the cloud, originally thought to be deficient in heavy elements, contains some sections with a higher metallicity compared to the bulk of the cloud, indicating that it has begun to mix with other gas in the halo. Using observations of highly ionized oxygen and other ions astronomers were able to show that hot gas in Complex C is an interface between hot and cold gas.
Characteristics
Multi-phase structure
HVCs are typically the coldest and densest components of the galactic halo. However, the halo itself also has a multi-phase structure: cold and dense neutral hydrogen at temperatures less than 104 K, warm and warm-hot gas at temperatures between 104 K and 106 K, and hot ionized gas at temperatures greater than 106 K. As a result, cool clouds moving through the diffuse halo medium have a chance to become ionized by the warmer and hotter gas. This can create a pocket of ionized gas that surrounds a neutral interior in an HVC. Evidence of this cool-hot gas interaction in the halo comes from the observation of OVI absorption.Distance
HVCs are defined by their respective velocities, but distance measurements allow for estimates on their size, mass, volume density, and even pressure. In the Milky Way, clouds are typically located between 2–15 kpc from the centre, and at z-heights within 10 kpc. The Magellanic Stream and the Leading Arm are at ~55 kpc, near the Magellanic Clouds, and may extend to about 100–150 kpc. There are two methods of distance determination for HVCs.Direct-distance constraint
The best method for determining the distance to an HVC involves using a halo star of known distance as a standard for comparison. We can extract information about the distance by studying the star's spectrum. If a cloud is located in front of the halo star, absorption lines will be present, whereas if the cloud is behind the star, no absorption lines should be present. CaII, H, K, and/or NaII are the double absorption lines that are used in this technique. Halo stars that have been identified through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey have led to distance measurements for almost all of the large complexes currently known.Indirect-distance constraint
The indirect-distance-constraint methods are usually dependent on theoretical models, and assumptions must be made in order for them to work. One indirect method involves Hα observations, where an assumption is made that the emission lines come from ionizing radiation from the galaxy, reaching the cloud's surface. Another method uses deep HI observations in the Milky Way and/or Local Group with the assumption that the distribution of HVCs in the Local Group is similar to that of the Milky Way. These observations put the clouds within 80 kpc of the galaxy, and observations of the Andromeda Galaxy put them at approximately 50 kpc. For those HVCs where both are available, distances measured via Hα emission tend to agree with those found via direct distances measurements.Spectral features
HVCs are typically detected at the radio and optical wavelengths, and for hotter HVCs, ultraviolet and/or X-ray observations are needed. Neutral hydrogen clouds are detected via the 21 cm emission line. Observations have shown that HVCs can have ionized exteriors due to external radiation or the motion of the HVC through a diffuse halo medium. These ionized components can be detected through Hα emission lines and even absorption lines in the ultraviolet. The warm-hot gas in HVCs exhibit OVI, SiIV, and CIV absorption lines.Temperature
Most HVCs show spectral line widths that are indicative of a warm, neutral medium for HVCs at about 9000 Kelvin. However, many HVCs have line widths which indicate that they are also partly composed of cool gas at less than 500 K.Mass
Estimates on the peak column density of HVCs and typical distances yield a mass estimate of HVCs in the Milky Way in the range of 7.4x107. If the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud are included, the total mass would increase by another 7x108.Size
Observed angular sizes for HVCs range from 103 degrees2 down to the resolution limit of the observations. Typically, high resolution observations eventually show that larger HVCs are often composed of many smaller complexes. When detecting HVCs solely via HI emission, all of the HVCs in the Milky Way cover about 37% of the night sky. Most HVCs are somewhere between 2 and 15 kilo parsecs across.Lifetimes
Cold clouds moving through a diffuse halo medium are estimated to have a survival time on the order of a couple hundred million years without some sort of support mechanism that prevents them from dissipating. The lifetime mainly depends on the mass of the cloud, but also on the cloud density, halo density, and velocity of the cloud. HVCs in the galactic halo are destroyed through what is called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability.The infall of clouds can dissipate energy leading to the inevitable heating of the halo medium. The multi-phase structure of the gaseous halo suggests that there is an ongoing life-cycle of HVC destruction and cooling.