ASKAP EMU radio detection of the reflection Nebula VdB-80 in the Monoceros crossbones filamentary structure

Abstract

We present a new radio detection from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) survey associated with the Reflection Nebula (RN) VdB-80. The radio detection is determined to be a previously unidentified HII region, now named Lagotis. The RN is located towards Monoceros, centred in the molecular cloud feature known as the 'Crossbones'. The 944 MHz EMU image shows a roughly semicircular HII region with an integrated flux density of 30.2±0.3 mJy. The HII region is also seen at 1.4 GHz by NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), yielding an estimated spectral index of 0.65±0.51, consistent with thermal radio emission. Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) and Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) data give a distance to the stars associated with the HII region of ∼960 pc. This implies a size of 0.76×0.68(±0.09) pc for the HII region. We derive an HII region electron density of the bright radio feature to be 26 cm^-3, requiring a Lyman-alpha photon flux of 10^45.6 s^-1, which is consistent with the expected Lyman flux of HD 46060, the B2 II type star which is the likely ionising star of the region. The derived distance to this region implies that the Crossbones feature is a superposition of two filamentary clouds, with Lagotis embedded in the far cloud.