SOFIA FEEDBACK Survey: The Eagle Nebula in [C II] and Molecular Lines

Abstract

We characterize the physical conditions and energy budget of the M16 H II region using SOFIA FEEDBACK observations of the [C II] 158 $μ$m line. The O stars in the $\sim 10^{4}~{\rm M}_{\odot}$ NGC 6611 cluster powering this H II region have blown at least 2 cavities into the giant molecular cloud: the large M16 cavity and the small N19 bubble. We detect the spectroscopic signature of an expanding photodissociation region shell towards N19, and traces of a thin, fragmented expanding shell towards M16. Our [C II] observations are resolved to 0.5 km s$^{-1}$ and 15.5$^{\prime\prime}$ and analyzed alongside similarly resolved CO J=3$-$2 observations as well as archival data ranging from the radio to X-ray tracing a variety of gas phases spanning dense $\sim$10 K molecular gas, $10^{4}$ K photoionized gas, and million-K collisionally ionized plasma. With this dataset, we evaluate the coupling of energetic feedback from NGC 6611 and the O9 V star within N19 to the surrounding gas. Winds from NGC 6611 have blown a 20 pc radius cavity constrained in size along the major axis of the natal giant molecular filament, and much of the mechanical wind energy ($>$90%) has escaped through breaches in the $\lesssim 10^{4}~{\rm M}_{\odot}$ shell. Reservoirs of dense gas remain within a few parsecs of the cluster. N19, younger than M16 by $\gtrsim 10^6$ yr, is driven by a combination of mechanical wind energy and thermal pressure from photoionized gas and has swept up $\sim 10^{3}~{\rm M}_{\odot}$ into neutral atomic and molecular shells.