[Normal Stars and WD -- Oral ]
The Chandra Carina Complex Project
Leisa Townsley, Penn State University
A recent Chandra VLP surveyed 1.4 square degrees of the Great
Nebula in Carina with 22 ~60ks ACIS-I pointings, providing remarkable
new views of this massive star-forming complex. We will explore some
early results of this survey, highlighting physical processes that
characterize the life of this ``cluster of clusters,'' an example of the
fundamental building blocks of starburst galaxies. This Chandra survey
reveals over 14,000 X-ray point sources in Carina; most are pre-main
sequence stars accompanying >100 massive stars powering this extensive
HII region complex. This X-ray-selected sample of young stars can be
used to study disk frequency and evolution in the proximity of massive
stars. Some of these massive stars are hard X-ray emitters; this may be
a new indicator of close binarity or magnetic fields. Carina is suffused
by diffuse X-ray structures, signatures of multi-million-degree plasmas
created by fast O-star winds or by the deaths of massive stars that
stayed close to their birthplaces, exploding as cavity supernovae within
the proto-superbubble that the Carina complex is creating.