A Herschel [C ii] Galactic plane survey. II. CO-dark H2 in clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langer, W. D.; Velusamy, T.; Pineda, J. L.; Willacy, K.; Goldsmith, P. F.

2014-01-01

Context. H i and CO large scale surveys of the Milky Way trace the diffuse atomic clouds and the dense shielded regions of molecular hydrogen clouds, respectively. However, until recently, we have not had spectrally resolved C+ surveys in sufficient lines of sight to characterize the ionized and photon dominated components of the interstellar medium, in particular, the H2 gas without CO, referred to as CO-dark H2, in a large sample of interstellar clouds. Aims: We use a sparse Galactic plane survey of the 1.9 THz (158 μm) [C ii] spectral line from the Herschel open time key programme, Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+), to characterize the H2 gas without CO in a statistically significant sample of interstellar clouds. Methods: We identify individual clouds in the inner Galaxy by fitting the [C ii] and CO isotopologue spectra along each line of sight. We then combine these spectra with those of H i and use them along with excitation models and cloud models of C+ to determine the column densities and fractional mass of CO-dark H2 clouds. Results: We identify1804 narrow velocity [C ii] components corresponding to interstellar clouds in different categories and evolutionary states. About 840 are diffuse molecular clouds with no CO, ~510 are transition clouds containing [C ii] and 12CO, but no 13CO, and the remainder are dense molecular clouds containing 13CO emission. The CO-dark H2 clouds are concentrated between Galactic radii of ~3.5 to 7.5 kpc and the column density of the CO-dark H2 layer varies significantly from cloud to cloud with a global average of 9 × 1020 cm-2. These clouds contain a significant fraction by mass of CO-dark H2, that varies from ~75% for diffuse molecular clouds to ~20% for dense molecular clouds. Conclusions: We find a significant fraction of the warm molecular ISM gas is invisible in H i and CO, but is detected in [C ii]. The fraction of CO-dark H2 is greatest in the diffuse clouds and decreases with increasing total column density, and is lowest in the massive clouds. The column densities and mass fraction of CO-dark H2 are less than predicted by models of diffuse molecular clouds using solar metallicity, which is not surprising as most of our detections are in Galactic regions where the metallicity is larger and shielding more effective. There is an overall trend towards a higher fraction of CO-dark H2 in clouds with increasing Galactic radius, consistent with lower metallicity there. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

The Molecular Gas Environment in the 20 km s{sup −1} Cloud in the Central Molecular Zone

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Xing; Gu, Qiusheng; Zhang, Qizhou

We recently reported a population of protostellar candidates in the 20 km s{sup −1} cloud in the Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way, traced by H{sub 2}O masers in gravitationally bound dense cores. In this paper, we report molecular line studies with high angular resolution (∼3″) of the environment of star formation in this cloud. Maps of various molecular line transitions as well as the continuum at 1.3 mm are obtained using the Submillimeter Array. Five NH{sub 3} inversion lines and the 1.3 cm continuum are observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. The interferometric observations aremore » complemented with single-dish data. We find that the CH{sub 3}OH, SO, and HNCO lines, which are usually shock tracers, are better correlated spatially with the compact dust emission from dense cores among the detected lines. These lines also show enhancement in intensities with respect to SiO intensities toward the compact dust emission, suggesting the presence of slow shocks or hot cores in these regions. We find gas temperatures of ≳100 K at 0.1 pc scales based on RADEX modeling of the H{sub 2}CO and NH{sub 3} lines. Although no strong correlations between temperatures and linewidths/H{sub 2}O maser luminosities are found, in high-angular-resolution maps we note several candidate shock-heated regions offset from any dense cores, as well as signatures of localized heating by protostars in several dense cores. Our findings suggest that at 0.1 pc scales in this cloud star formation and strong turbulence may together affect the chemistry and temperature of the molecular gas.« less

Penetration of Cosmic Rays into Dense Molecular Clouds: Role of Diffuse Envelopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivlev, A. V.; Dogiel, V. A.; Chernyshov, D. O.; Caselli, P.; Ko, C.-M.; Cheng, K. S.

2018-03-01

A flux of cosmic rays (CRs) propagating through a diffuse ionized gas can excite MHD waves, thus generating magnetic disturbances. We propose a generic model of CR penetration into molecular clouds through their diffuse envelopes, and identify the leading physical processes controlling their transport on the way from a highly ionized interstellar medium to the dense interior of the cloud. The model allows us to describe a transition between a free streaming of CRs and their diffusive propagation, determined by the scattering on the self-generated disturbances. A self-consistent set of equations, governing the diffusive transport regime in an envelope and the MHD turbulence generated by the modulated CR flux, is characterized by two dimensionless numbers. We demonstrate a remarkable mutual complementarity of different mechanisms leading to the onset of the diffusive regime, which results in a universal energy spectrum of the modulated CRs. In conclusion, we briefly discuss implications of our results for several fundamental astrophysical problems, such as the spatial distribution of CRs in the Galaxy as well as the ionization, heating, and chemistry in dense molecular clouds. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Vadim Tsytovich.

On the star-forming ability of Molecular Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anathpindika, S.; Burkert, A.; Kuiper, R.

2018-02-01

The star-forming ability of a molecular cloud depends on the fraction of gas it can cycle into the dense-phase. Consequently, one of the crucial questions in reconciling star formation in clouds is to understand the factors that control this process. While it is widely accepted that the variation in ambient conditions can alter significantly the ability of a cloud to spawn stars, the observed variation in the star-formation rate in nearby clouds that experience similar ambient conditions, presents an interesting question. In this work, we attempted to reconcile this variation within the paradigm of colliding flows. To this end we develop self-gravitating, hydrodynamic realizations of identical flows, but allowed to collide off-centre. Typical observational diagnostics such as the gas-velocity dispersion, the fraction of dense-gas, the column density distribution (N-PDF), the distribution of gas mass as a function of K-band extinction and the strength of compressional/solenoidal modes in the post-collision cloud were deduced for different choices of the impact parameter of collision. We find that a strongly sheared cloud is terribly inefficient in cycling gas into the dense phase and that such a cloud can possibly reconcile the sluggish nature of star formation reported for some clouds. Within the paradigm of cloud formation via colliding flows this is possible in case of flows colliding with a relatively large impact parameter. We conclude that compressional modes - though probably essential - are insufficient to ensure a relatively higher star-formation efficiency in a cloud.

Water in dense molecular clouds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wannier, P.G.; Kuiper, T.B.H.; Frerking, M.A.

1991-08-01

The G.P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) was used to make initial observations of the half-millimeter ground-state transition of water in seven giant molecular clouds and in two late-type stars. No significant detections were made, and the resulting upper limits are significantly below those expected from other, indirect observations and from several theoretical models. The implied interstellar H2O/CO abundance is less than 0.003 in the cores of three giant molecular clouds. This value is less than expected from cloud chemistry models and also than estimates based on HDO and H3O(+) observations. 78 refs.

Molecular Composition and Chemistry of Isolated Dense Cores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cook, Amanda; Boogert, A.

2009-01-01

The composition of molecular clouds and the envelopes and disks surrounding low mass protostars within them is still poorly known. There is little doubt that a large fraction of the molecules is frozen on grains, but the abundance of several crucial species (e.g. ammonia, methanol, ions) in the ices is still uncertain. In addition, prominent spectral features discovered decades ago are still not securely identified (e.g. the 6.85-micron absorption band). Gas phase and grain surface chemistry play pivotal roles in molecule formation, but numerous other processes could have significant impacts as well: shocks, thermal heating, irradiation of ices by ultraviolet photons and cosmic rays. Complex species could be formed this way, profoundly influencing cloud, disk and planetary/cometary chemistry. We have obtained Spitzer/IRS spectra of an unprecedented sample of sight-lines tracing 25 dense isolated cores. These cores physically differ from the large, cluster-forming molecular clouds (e.g. Ophiuchus, Perseus) that are commonly studied: they are less turbulent, colder, less dense, and likely longer lived. These IRS spectra of isolated cores thus provide unique information on ice formation and destruction mechanisms. Toward the same cores, we observed 33 highly extincted background stars as well, tracing the quiescent cloud medium against which the ices around protostars can be contrasted.

The interstellar N2 abundance towards HD 124314 from far-ultraviolet observations.

PubMed

Knauth, David C; Andersson, B-G; McCandliss, Stephan R; Moos, H Warren

2004-06-10

The abundance of interstellar molecular nitrogen (N2) is of considerable importance: models of steady-state gas-phase interstellar chemistry, together with millimetre-wavelength observations of interstellar N2H+ in dense molecular clouds predict that N2 should be the most abundant nitrogen-bearing molecule in the interstellar medium. Previous attempts to detect N2 absorption in the far-ultraviolet or infrared (ice features) have hitherto been unsuccessful. Here we report the detection of interstellar N2 at far-ultraviolet wavelengths towards the moderately reddened star HD 124314 in the constellation of Centaurus. The N2 column density is larger than expected from models of diffuse clouds and significantly smaller than expected for dense molecular clouds. Moreover, the N2 abundance does not explain the observed variations in the abundance of atomic nitrogen (N I) towards high-column-density sightlines, implying that the models of nitrogen chemistry in the interstellar medium are incomplete.

Reduction of unsaturated compounds under interstellar conditions: chemoselective reduction of C≡C and C=C bonds over C=O functional group

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jonusas, Mindaugas; Guillemin, Jean-Claude; Krim, Lahouari

2017-07-01

The knowledge of the H-addition reactions on unsaturated organic molecules bearing a triple or a double carbon-carbon bond such as propargyl or allyl alcohols and a CO functional group such as propynal, propenal or propanal may play an important role in the understanding of the chemical complexity of the interstellar medium. Why different aldehydes like methanal, ethanal, propynal and propanal are present in dense molecular clouds while the only alcohol detected in those cold regions is methanol? In addition, ethanol has only been detected in hot molecular cores. Are those saturated and unsaturated aldehyde and alcohol species chemically linked in molecular clouds through solid phase H-addition surface reactions or are they formed through different chemical routes? To answer such questions, we have investigated a hydrogenation study of saturated and unsaturated aldehydes and alcohols at 10 K. We prove through this experimental study that while pure unsaturated alcohol ices bombarded by H atoms lead to the formation of the corresponding fully or partially saturated alcohols, surface H-addition reactions on unsaturated aldehyde ices exclusively lead to the formation of fully saturated aldehyde. Such results show that in addition to a chemoselective reduction of C≡C and C=C bonds over the C=O group, there is no link between aldehydes and their corresponding alcohols in reactions involving H atoms in dense molecular clouds. Consequently, this could be one of the reasons why some aldehydes such as propanal are abundant in dense molecular clouds in contrast to the non-detection of alcohol species larger than methanol.

The astrochemistry of H+3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herbst, E.

2000-09-01

The reactions of the molecular ion H3+ are pivotal to the chemistry of dense interstellar clouds. Produced by the cosmic-ray ionizati on of molecular hydrogen, H3+ reacts with a variety of a toms and molecules to produce species that are precursors to many of the detect ed molecules in dense clouds. For example, the reaction of H3+ with atomic O leads, eventually, to the production of water, while the re action with HD leads to the production of a wide variety of deuterated isotopom ers. In this article, the chemistry of H3+ and the produc ts derived from it are discussed in the larger context of interstellar chemistr y.

The dense gas mass fraction in the W51 cloud and its protoclusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ginsburg, Adam; Bally, John; Battersby, Cara; Youngblood, Allison; Darling, Jeremy; Rosolowsky, Erik; Arce, Héctor; Lebrón Santos, Mayra E.

2015-01-01

Context. The density structure of molecular clouds determines how they will evolve. Aims: We map the velocity-resolved density structure of the most vigorously star-forming molecular cloud in the Galactic disk, the W51 giant molecular cloud. Methods: We present new 2 cm and 6 cm maps of H2CO, radio recombination lines, and the radio continuum in the W51 star forming complex acquired with Arecibo and the Green Bank Telescope at ~ 50″ resolution. We use H2CO absorption to determine the relative line-of-sight positions of molecular and ionized gas. We measure gas densities using the H2CO densitometer, including continuous measurements of the dense gas mass fraction (DGMF) over the range 104cm-3 104cm-3, while it is low, f< 20%, in W51 B. We did not detect any H2CO emission throughout the W51 GMC; all gas dense enough to emit under normal conditions is in front of bright continuum sources and therefore is seen in absorption instead. Conclusions: (1) The dense gas fraction in the W51 A and B clouds shows that W51 A will continue to form stars vigorously, while star formation has mostly ended in W51 B. The lack of dense, star-forming gas around W51 C indicates that collect-and-collapse is not acting or is inefficient in W51. (2) Ongoing high-mass star formation is correlated with n ≳ 1 × 105cm-3 gas. Gas with n> 104cm-3 is weakly correlated with low and moderate mass star formation, but does not strongly correlate with high-mass star formation. (3) The nondetection of H2CO emission implies that the emission detected in other galaxies, e.g. Arp 220, comes from high-density gas that is not directly affiliated with already-formed massive stars. Either the non-star-forming ISM of these galaxies is very dense, implying the star formation density threshold is higher, or H ii regions have their emission suppressed. The data set has been made public at http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/26818Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

The Photoevaporation of a Neutral Structure by an EUV+FUV Radiation Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lora, Veronica; Vasconcelos, M. J.; Raga, A. C.; Cerqueira, A. H.; Esquivel, A.

The expansion of an HII region into a surrounding inhomogeneous molecular cloud, leads to the formation of elongated "elephant trunk" structures. The EUV photo-ionising radiation and FUV dissociating radiation from newly born stars photo-evaporate their parental neutral cloud, leading to the formation of dense clumps in the tips of elephant trunks, that could in principle eventually form stars. We study th effects of including a photo-dissociating FUV flux in models of fragmentation of a photo-evaporating, self-gravitating molecular cloud.

Making and Breaking Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-10-01

Molecular clouds which youre likely familiar with from stunning popular astronomy imagery lead complicated, tumultuous lives. A recent study has now found that these features must be rapidly built and destroyed.Star-Forming CollapseA Hubble view of a molecular cloud, roughly two light-years long, that has broken off of the Carina Nebula. [NASA/ESA, N. Smith (University of California, Berkeley)/The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)]Molecular gas can be found throughout our galaxy in the form of eminently photogenic clouds (as featured throughout this post). Dense, cold molecular gas makes up more than 20% of the Milky Ways total gas mass, and gravitational instabilities within these clouds lead them to collapse under their own weight, resulting in the formation of our galaxys stars.How does this collapse occur? The simplest explanation is that the clouds simply collapse in free fall, with no source of support to counter their contraction. But if all the molecular gas we observe collapsed on free-fall timescales, star formation in our galaxy would churn a rate thats at least an order of magnitude higher than the observed 12 solar masses per year in the Milky Way.Destruction by FeedbackAstronomers have theorized that there may be some mechanism that supports these clouds against gravity, slowing their collapse. But both theoretical studies and observations of the clouds have ruled out most of these potential mechanisms, and mounting evidence supports the original interpretation that molecular clouds are simply gravitationally collapsing.A sub-mm image from ESOs APEX telescope of part of the Taurus molecular cloud, roughly ten light-years long, superimposed on a visible-light image of the region. [ESO/APEX (MPIfR/ESO/OSO)/A. Hacar et al./Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin]If this is indeed the case, then one explanation for our low observed star formation rate could be that molecular clouds are rapidly destroyed by feedback from the very stars they create. But to match with observations, this wouldsuggest that molecular clouds are short-lived objects that are built (and therefore replenished) just as quickly as they are destroyed. Is this possible?Speedy Building?In a recent study, a team of scientists led by Mordecai-Mark Mac Low (American Museum of Natural History and Heidelberg University, Germany) explore whether there is a way to create molecular clouds rapidly enough to match the necessary rate of destruction.Mac Low and collaborators find that some common mechanisms used to explain the formation of molecular clouds like gas being swept up by supernovae cant quite operate quickly enough to combat the rate of cloud destruction. On the other hand, the Toomre gravitational instability,which is a large-scale gravitational instability that occurs in gas disks,can very rapidly assemble gas into clumps dense enough to form molecules.A composite of visible and near-infrared images from the VLT ANTU telescope of the Barnard 68 molecular cloud, roughly half a light-year in diameter. [ESO]A Rapid CycleBased on their findings, the authors argue that dense, star-forming molecular clouds persist only for a short time before collapsing into stars and then being blown apart by stellar feedback but these very clouds are built equally quickly via gravitational instabilities.Conveniently, this model has a very testable prediction: the Toomre instability is expected to become even stronger at higher redshift, which suggests that the fraction of gas in the form of molecules should increase at high redshifts. This appears to agree with observations, supporting the authors picture of a rapid cycle of cloud assembly and destruction.CitationMordecai-Mark Mac Low et al 2017 ApJL 847 L10. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa8a61

Relationship between the column density distribution and evolutionary class of molecular clouds as viewed by ATLASGAL

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abreu-Vicente, J.; Kainulainen, J.; Stutz, A.; Henning, Th.; Beuther, H.

2015-09-01

We present the first study of the relationship between the column density distribution of molecular clouds within nearby Galactic spiral arms and their evolutionary status as measured from their stellar content. We analyze a sample of 195 molecular clouds located at distances below 5.5 kpc, identified from the ATLASGAL 870 μm data. We define three evolutionary classes within this sample: starless clumps, star-forming clouds with associated young stellar objects, and clouds associated with H ii regions. We find that the N(H2) probability density functions (N-PDFs) of these three classes of objects are clearly different: the N-PDFs of starless clumps are narrowest and close to log-normal in shape, while star-forming clouds and H ii regions exhibit a power-law shape over a wide range of column densities and log-normal-like components only at low column densities. We use the N-PDFs to estimate the evolutionary time-scales of the three classes of objects based on a simple analytic model from literature. Finally, we show that the integral of the N-PDFs, the dense gas mass fraction, depends on the total mass of the regions as measured by ATLASGAL: more massive clouds contain greater relative amounts of dense gas across all evolutionary classes. Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

Large scale IRAM 30 m CO-observations in the giant molecular cloud complex W43

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlhoff, P.; Nguyen Luong, Q.; Schilke, P.; Motte, F.; Schneider, N.; Beuther, H.; Bontemps, S.; Heitsch, F.; Hill, T.; Kramer, C.; Ossenkopf, V.; Schuller, F.; Simon, R.; Wyrowski, F.

2013-12-01

We aim to fully describe the distribution and location of dense molecular clouds in the giant molecular cloud complex W43. It was previously identified as one of the most massive star-forming regions in our Galaxy. To trace the moderately dense molecular clouds in the W43 region, we initiated W43-HERO, a large program using the IRAM 30 m telescope, which covers a wide dynamic range of scales from 0.3 to 140 pc. We obtained on-the-fly-maps in 13CO (2-1) and C18O (2-1) with a high spectral resolution of 0.1 km s-1 and a spatial resolution of 12''. These maps cover an area of ~1.5 square degrees and include the two main clouds of W43 and the lower density gas surrounding them. A comparison to Galactic models and previous distance calculations confirms the location of W43 near the tangential point of the Scutum arm at approximately 6 kpc from the Sun. The resulting intensity cubes of the observed region are separated into subcubes, which are centered on single clouds and then analyzed in detail. The optical depth, excitation temperature, and H2 column density maps are derived out of the 13CO and C18O data. These results are then compared to those derived from Herschel dust maps. The mass of a typical cloud is several 104 M⊙ while the total mass in the dense molecular gas (>102 cm-3) in W43 is found to be ~1.9 × 106 M⊙. Probability distribution functions obtained from column density maps derived from molecular line data and Herschel imaging show a log-normal distribution for low column densities and a power-law tail for high densities. A flatter slope for the molecular line data probability distribution function may imply that those selectively show the gravitationally collapsing gas. Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.orgThe final datacubes (13CO and C18O) for the entire survey are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/560/A24

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Asahina, Yuta; Kawashima, Tomohisa; Furukawa, Naoko

The formation mechanism of CO clouds observed with the NANTEN2 and Mopra telescopes toward the stellar cluster Westerlund 2 is studied by 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, taking into account the interstellar cooling. These molecular clouds show a peculiar shape composed of an arc-shaped cloud on one side of the TeV γ -ray source HESS J1023-575 and a linear distribution of clouds (jet clouds) on the other side. We propose that these clouds are formed by the interaction of a jet with clumps of interstellar neutral hydrogen (H i). By studying the dependence of the shape of dense cold clouds formed bymore » shock compression and cooling on the filling factor of H i clumps, we found that the density distribution of H i clumps determines the shape of molecular clouds formed by the jet–cloud interaction: arc clouds are formed when the filling factor is large. On the other hand, when the filling factor is small, molecular clouds align with the jet. The jet propagates faster in models with small filling factors.« less

From gas to stars in energetic environments: dense gas clumps in the 30 Doradus region within the Large Magellanic Cloud

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anderson, Crystal N.; Meier, David S.; Ott, Jürgen

2014-09-20

We present parsec-scale interferometric maps of HCN(1-0) and HCO{sup +}(1-0) emission from dense gas in the star-forming region 30 Doradus, obtained using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. This extreme star-forming region, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), is characterized by a very intense ultraviolet ionizing radiation field and sub-solar metallicity, both of which are expected to impact molecular cloud structure. We detect 13 bright, dense clumps within the 30 Doradus-10 giant molecular cloud. Some of the clumps are aligned along a filamentary structure with a characteristic spacing that is consistent with formation via varicose fluid instability. Our analysis showsmore » that the filament is gravitationally unstable and collapsing to form stars. There is a good correlation between HCO{sup +} emission in the filament and signatures of recent star formation activity including H{sub 2}O masers and young stellar objects (YSOs). YSOs seem to continue along the same direction of the filament toward the massive compact star cluster R136 in the southwest. We present detailed comparisons of clump properties (masses, linewidths, and sizes) in 30Dor-10 to those in other star forming regions of the LMC (N159, N113, N105, and N44). Our analysis shows that the 30Dor-10 clumps have similar masses but wider linewidths and similar HCN/HCO{sup +} (1-0) line ratios as clumps detected in other LMC star-forming regions. Our results suggest that the dense molecular gas clumps in the interior of 30Dor-10 are well shielded against the intense ionizing field that is present in the 30 Doradus region.« less

Molecular gas in high-mass filament WB673

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirsanova, Maria S.; Salii, Svetlana V.; Sobolev, Andrej M.; Olofsson, Anders Olof Henrik; Ladeyschikov, Dmitry A.; Thomasson, Magnus

2017-12-01

We studied the distribution of dense gas in a filamentary molecular cloud containing several dense clumps. The center of the filament is given by the dense clump WB673. The clumps are high-mass and intermediate-mass starforming regions. We observed CS (2-1), 13CO (1-0), C18O(1-0), and methanol lines at 96 GHz toward WB673 with the Onsala Space Observatory 20-m telescope. We found CS (2-1) emission in the inter-clump medium so the clumps are physically connected and the whole cloud is indeed a filament. Its total mass is 104 M⊙ and mass-to-length ratio is 360M⊙ pc-1 from 13CO (1-0) data. Mass-to-length ratio for the dense gas is 3.4 - 34M⊙ pc-1 from CS (2-1) data. The PV-diagram of the filament is V-shaped. We estimated physical conditions in the molecular gas using methanol lines. Location of the filament on the sky between extended shells suggests that it could be a good example to test theoretical models of formation of the filaments via multiple compression of interstellar gas by supersonic waves.

The Green Bank Ammonia Survey of the Gould Belt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Friesen, Rachel; Pineda, Jaime; GAS Team

2018-01-01

The past several years have seen a tremendous advancement in our ability to characterize the structure of nearby molecular clouds traced by large-scale continuum surveys. Critical, comparable data on the dense gas kinematics and temperatures are needed to understand the history and future fate of star-forming material. Filling this gap is the Green Bank Ammonia Survey (GAS), an ambitious legacy survey for the Green Bank Telescope to observe key molecular tracers of dense gas within all Gould Belt clouds visible from the northern hemisphere. I will present the latest science from GAS, whose goals are to 1) evaluate the stability of dense gas structures as a function of scale, 2) track the dissipation of turbulence and evolution of angular momentum in filaments and cores, and 3) quantitatively test predictions of models of core and filament formation via mass flows and accretion.

Environmental Catastrophes in the Earth's History Due to Solar Systems Encounters with Giant Molecular Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pavlov, Alexander A.

2011-01-01

In its motion through the Milky Way galaxy, the solar system encounters an average density (>=330 H atoms/cubic cm) giant molecular cloud (GMC) approximately every 108 years, a dense (approx 2 x 103 H atoms/cubic cm) GMC every approx 109 years and will inevitably encounter them in the future. However, there have been no studies linking such events with severe (snowball) glaciations in Earth history. Here we show that dramatic climate change can be caused by interstellar dust accumulating in Earth's atmosphere during the solar system's immersion into a dense (approx ,2 x 103 H atoms/cubic cm) GMC. The stratospheric dust layer from such interstellar particles could provide enough radiative forcing to trigger the runaway ice-albedo feedback that results in global snowball glaciations. We also demonstrate that more frequent collisions with less dense GMCs could cause moderate ice ages.

The chemistry of planet-forming regions is not interstellar.

PubMed

Pontoppidan, Klaus M; Blevins, Sandra M

2014-01-01

Advances in infrared and submillimeter technology have allowed for detailed observations of the molecular content of the planet-forming regions of protoplanetary disks. In particular, disks around solar-type stars now have growing molecular inventories that can be directly compared with both prestellar chemistry and that inferred for the early solar nebula. The data directly address the old question of whether the chemistry of planet-forming matter is similar or different and unique relative to the chemistry of dense clouds and protostellar envelopes. The answer to this question may have profound consequences for the structure and composition of planetary systems. The practical challenge is that observations of emission lines from disks do not easily translate into chemical concentrations. Here, we present a two-dimensional radiative transfer model of RNO 90, a classical protoplanetary disk around a solar-mass star, and retrieve the concentrations of dominant molecular carriers of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen in the terrestrial region around 1 AU. We compare our results to the chemical inventory of dense clouds and protostellar envelopes, and argue that inner disk chemistry is, as expected, fundamentally different from prestellar chemistry. We find that the clearest discriminant may be the concentration of CO2, which is extremely low in disks, but one of the most abundant constituents of dense clouds and protostellar envelopes.

The chemical evolution of molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iglesias, E.

1977-01-01

The nonequilibrium chemistry of dense molecular clouds (10,000 to 1 million hydrogen molecules per cu cm) is studied in the framework of a model that includes the latest published chemical data and most of the recent theoretical advances. In this model the only important external source of ionization is assumed to be high-energy cosmic-ray bombardment; standard charge-transfer reactions are taken into account as well as reactions that transfer charge from molecular ions to trace-metal atoms. Schemes are proposed for the synthesis of such species as NCO, HNCO, and CN. The role played by adsorption and condensation of molecules on the surface of dust grains is investigated, and effects on the chemical evolution of a dense molecular cloud are considered which result from varying the total density or the elemental abundances and from assuming negligible or severe condensation of gaseous species on dust grains. It is shown that the chemical-equilibrium time scale is given approximately by the depletion times of oxygen and nitrogen when the condensation efficiency is negligible; that this time scale is probably in the range from 1 to 4 million years, depending on the elemental composition and initial conditions in the cloud; and that this time scale is insensitive to variations in the total density.

The dense gas mass fraction of molecular clouds in the Milky Way

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Battisti, Andrew J.; Heyer, Mark H., E-mail: abattist@astro.umass.edu, E-mail: heyer@astro.umass.edu

2014-01-10

The mass fraction of dense gas within giant molecular clouds (GMCs) of the Milky Way is investigated using {sup 13}CO data from the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Plane Surveys and the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) of 1.1 mm dust continuum emission. A sample of 860 compact dust sources are selected from the BGPS catalog and kinematically linked to 344 clouds of extended (>3') {sup 13}CO J = 1-0 emission. Gas masses are tabulated for the full dust source and subregions within the dust sources with mass surface densities greater than 200 M {sub ☉} pc{sup –2}, whichmore » are assumed to be regions of enhanced volume density. Masses of the parent GMCs are calculated assuming optically thin {sup 13}CO J = 1-0 emission and local thermodynamic equilibrium conditions. The mean fractional mass of dust sources to host GMC mass is 0.11{sub −0.06}{sup +0.12}. The high column density subregions comprise 0.07{sub −0.05}{sup +0.13} of the mass of the cloud. Owing to our assumptions, these values are upper limits to the true mass fractions. The fractional mass of dense gas is independent of GMC mass and gas surface density. The low dense gas mass fraction suggests that the formation of dense structures within GMCs is the primary bottleneck for star formation. The distribution of velocity differences between the dense gas and the low density material along the line of sight is also examined. We find a strong, centrally peaked distribution centered on zero velocity displacement. This distribution of velocity differences is modeled with radially converging flows toward the dense gas position that are randomly oriented with respect to the observed line of sight. These models constrain the infall velocities to be 2-4 km s{sup –1} for various flow configurations.« less

Cool Star Beginnings: YSOs in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Young, Kaisa E.; Young, Chadwick H.

2015-01-01

Nearby molecular clouds, where there is considerable evidence of ongoing star formation, provide the best opportunity to observe stars in the earliest stages of their formation. The Perseus molecular cloud contains two young clusters, IC 348 and NGC 1333 and several small dense cores of the type that produce only a few stars. Perseus is often cited as an intermediate case between quiescent low-mass and turbulent high-mass clouds, making it perhaps an ideal environment for studying ``typical low-mass star formation. We present an infrared study of the Perseus molecular cloud with data from the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of the ``From Molecular Cores to Planet Forming Disks (c2d) Legacy project tep{eva03}. By comparing Spitzer's near- and mid-infrared maps, we identify and classify the young stellar objects (YSOs) in the cloud using updated extinction corrected photometry. Virtually all of the YSOs in Perseus are forming in the clusters and other smaller associations at the east and west ends of the cloud with very little evidence of star formation in the midsection even in areas of high extinction.

Laboratory and modeling studies of chemistry in dense molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Huntress, W. T., Jr.; Prasad, S. S.; Mitchell, G. F.

1980-01-01

A chemical evolutionary model with a large number of species and a large chemical library is used to examine the principal chemical processes in interstellar clouds. Simple chemical equilibrium arguments show the potential for synthesis of very complex organic species by ion-molecule radiative association reactions.

A physics-based model for the ionization of samarium by the MOSC chemical releases in the upper atmosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernhardt, Paul A.; Siefring, Carl L.; Briczinski, Stanley J.; Viggiano, Albert; Caton, Ronald G.; Pedersen, Todd R.; Holmes, Jeffrey M.; Ard, Shaun; Shuman, Nicholas; Groves, Keith M.

2017-05-01

Atomic samarium has been injected into the neutral atmosphere for production of electron clouds that modify the ionosphere. These electron clouds may be used as high-frequency radio wave reflectors or for control of the electrodynamics of the F region. A self-consistent model for the photochemical reactions of Samarium vapor cloud released into the upper atmosphere has been developed and compared with the Metal Oxide Space Cloud (MOSC) experimental observations. The release initially produces a dense plasma cloud that that is rapidly reduced by dissociative recombination and diffusive expansion. The spectral emissions from the release cover the ultraviolet to the near infrared band with contributions from solar fluorescence of the atomic, molecular, and ionized components of the artificial density cloud. Barium releases in sunlight are more efficient than Samarium releases in sunlight for production of dense ionization clouds. Samarium may be of interest for nighttime releases but the artificial electron cloud is limited by recombination with the samarium oxide ion.

Shocked molecular gas and the origin of cosmic rays

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reach, William; Gusdorf, Antoine; Richter, Matthew

2018-06-01

When massive stars reach the end of their ability to remain stable with core nuclear fusion, they explode in supernovae that drive powerful shocks into their surroundings. Because massive stars form in and remain close to molecular clouds they often drive shocks into dense gas, which is now believed to be the origin of a significant fraction of galactic cosmic rays. The nature of the supernova-molecular cloud interaction is not well understood, though observations are gradually elucidating their nature. The range of interstellar densities, and the inclusion of circumstellar matter from the late-phase mass-loss of the stars before their explosions, leads to a wide range of possible appearances and outcomes. In particular, it is not even clear what speed or physical type of shocks are present: are they dense, magnetically-mediated shocks where H2 is not dissociated, or are they faster shocks that dissociate molecules and destroy some of the grains? SOFIA is observing some of the most significant (in terms of cosmic ray production potential and infrared energy output) supernova-molecular cloud interactions for measurement of the line widths of key molecular shocks tracers: H2, [OI], and CO. The presence of gas at speeds 100 km/s or greater would indicate dissociative shocks, while speeds 30 km/s and slower retain most molecules. The shock velocity is a key ingredient in modeling the interaction between supernovae and molecular clouds including the potential for formation of cosmic rays.

Cloud Structure of Galactic OB Cluster-forming Regions from Combining Ground- and Space-based Bolometric Observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Yuxin; Liu, Hauyu Baobab; Li, Di; Zhang, Zhi-Yu; Ginsburg, Adam; Pineda, Jaime E.; Qian, Lei; Galván-Madrid, Roberto; McLeod, Anna Faye; Rosolowsky, Erik; Dale, James E.; Immer, Katharina; Koch, Eric; Longmore, Steve; Walker, Daniel; Testi, Leonardo

2016-09-01

We have developed an iterative procedure to systematically combine the millimeter and submillimeter images of OB cluster-forming molecular clouds, which were taken by ground-based (CSO, JCMT, APEX, and IRAM-30 m) and space telescopes (Herschel and Planck). For the seven luminous (L\\gt {10}6 L ⊙) Galactic OB cluster-forming molecular clouds selected for our analyses, namely W49A, W43-Main, W43-South, W33, G10.6-0.4, G10.2-0.3, and G10.3-0.1, we have performed single-component, modified blackbody fits to each pixel of the combined (sub)millimeter images, and the Herschel PACS and SPIRE images at shorter wavelengths. The ˜10″ resolution dust column density and temperature maps of these sources revealed dramatically different morphologies, indicating very different modes of OB cluster-formation, or parent molecular cloud structures in different evolutionary stages. The molecular clouds W49A, W33, and G10.6-0.4 show centrally concentrated massive molecular clumps that are connected with approximately radially orientated molecular gas filaments. The W43-Main and W43-South molecular cloud complexes, which are located at the intersection of the Galactic near 3 kpc (or Scutum) arm and the Galactic bar, show a widely scattered distribution of dense molecular clumps/cores over the observed ˜10 pc spatial scale. The relatively evolved sources G10.2-0.3 and G10.3-0.1 appear to be affected by stellar feedback, and show a complicated cloud morphology embedded with abundant dense molecular clumps/cores. We find that with the high angular resolution we achieved, our visual classification of cloud morphology can be linked to the systematically derived statistical quantities (I.e., the enclosed mass profile, the column density probability distribution function (N-PDF), the two-point correlation function of column density, and the probability distribution function of clump/core separations). In particular, the massive molecular gas clumps located at the center of G10.6-0.4 and W49A, which contribute to a considerable fraction of their overall cloud masses, may be special OB cluster-forming environments as a direct consequence of global cloud collapse. These centralized massive molecular gas clumps also uniquely occupy much higher column densities than what is determined by the overall fit of power-law N-PDF. We have made efforts to archive the derived statistical quantities of individual target sources, to permit comparisons with theoretical frameworks, numerical simulations, and other observations in the future.

Diamonds in dense molecular clouds - A challenge to the standard interstellar medium paradigm

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, L. J.; Sandford, S. A.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.; Herbst, T. M.

1993-01-01

Observations of a newly discovered infrared C-H stretching band indicate that interstellar diamond-like material appears to be characteristic of dense clouds. In sharp contrast, the spectral signature of dust in the diffuse interstellar medium is dominated by -CH2- and -CH3 groups. This dichotomy in the aliphatic organic component between the dense and diffuse media challenges standard assumptions about the processes occurring in, and interactions between, these two media. The ubiquity of this interstellar diamond-like material rules out models for meteoritic diamond formation in unusual circumstellar environments and implies that the formation of the diamond-like material is associated with common interstellar processes or stellar types.

HD 62542: Probing the Bare, Dense Core of an Interstellar Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Welty, Daniel; Sonnentrucker, Paule G.; Rachford, Brian; Snow, Theodore; York, Donald G.

2018-01-01

We discuss the interstellar absorption from many atomic and molecular species seen in high-resolution HST/STIS UV spectra of the moderately reddened B3-5 V star HD 62542 [E(B-V) ~ 0.35; AV ~ 1.2]. This remarkable sight line exhibits both very steep far-UV extinction and a high fraction of hydrogen in molecular form -- with strong absorption from CH, C2, CN, and CO but weak absorption from CH+ and most of the commonly observed diffuse interstellar bands. Most of the material appears to reside in a single narrow velocity component -- thus offering a rare opportunity to probe the relatively dense, primarily molecular core of a single interstellar cloud, with little associated diffuse atomic gas.Detailed analyses of the absorption-line profiles seen in the UV spectra reveal a number of properties of the main diffuse molecular cloud toward HD 62542:1) The depletions of Mg, Si, and Fe are more severe than those seen in any other sight line, but the depletions of Cl and Kr are very mild; the overall pattern of depletions differs somewhat from those derived from larger samples of Galactic sight lines.2) The rotational excitation of H2 and C2 indicates that the gas is fairly cold (Tk = 40-45 K) and moderately dense (nH > 420 cm-3) somewhat higher densities are suggested by the fine-structure excitation of neutral carbon.3) The excitation temperatures characterizing the rotational populations of both 12CO (11.7 K) and 13CO (7.7 K) are higher than those typically found for Galactic diffuse molecular clouds.4) Carbon is primarily singly ionized -- N(C+) > N(CO) > N(C).5) The relative abundances of various trace neutral atomic species reflect the effects of both the steep far-UV extinction and the severe depletions of some elements.6) Differences in line widths for the various atomic and molecular species are suggestive of differences in spatial distribution within the main cloud.Support for this study was provided by NASA, via STScI grant GO-12277.008-A.

SHOCKFIND - an algorithm to identify magnetohydrodynamic shock waves in turbulent clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lehmann, Andrew; Federrath, Christoph; Wardle, Mark

2016-11-01

The formation of stars occurs in the dense molecular cloud phase of the interstellar medium. Observations and numerical simulations of molecular clouds have shown that supersonic magnetized turbulence plays a key role for the formation of stars. Simulations have also shown that a large fraction of the turbulent energy dissipates in shock waves. The three families of MHD shocks - fast, intermediate and slow - distinctly compress and heat up the molecular gas, and so provide an important probe of the physical conditions within a turbulent cloud. Here, we introduce the publicly available algorithm, SHOCKFIND, to extract and characterize the mixture of shock families in MHD turbulence. The algorithm is applied to a three-dimensional simulation of a magnetized turbulent molecular cloud, and we find that both fast and slow MHD shocks are present in the simulation. We give the first prediction of the mixture of turbulence-driven MHD shock families in this molecular cloud, and present their distinct distributions of sonic and Alfvénic Mach numbers. Using subgrid one-dimensional models of MHD shocks we estimate that ˜0.03 per cent of the volume of a typical molecular cloud in the Milky Way will be shock heated above 50 K, at any time during the lifetime of the cloud. We discuss the impact of this shock heating on the dynamical evolution of molecular clouds.

The Properties of Planck Galactic Cold Clumps in the L1495 Dark Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Mengyao; Liu, Tie; Qin, Sheng-Li; Kim, Kee-Tae; Wu, Yuefang; Tatematsu, Ken’ichi; Yuan, Jinghua; Wang, Ke; Parsons, Harriet; Koch, Patrick M.; Sanhueza, Patricio; Ward-Thompson, D.; Tóth, L. Viktor; Soam, Archana; Lee, Chang Won; Eden, David; Di Francesco, James; Rawlings, Jonathan; Rawlings, Mark G.; Montillaud, Julien; Zhang, Chuan-Peng; Cunningham, M. R.

2018-04-01

Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCCs) possibly represent the early stages of star formation. To understand better the properties of PGCCs, we studied 16 PGCCs in the L1495 cloud with molecular lines and continuum data from Herschel, JCMT/SCUBA-2, and the PMO 13.7 m telescope. Thirty dense cores were identified in 16 PGCCs from 2D Gaussian fitting. The dense cores have dust temperatures of T d = 11–14 K, and H2 column densities of {N}{{{H}}2} = (0.36–2.5) × 1022 cm‑2. We found that not all PGCCs contain prestellar objects. In general, the dense cores in PGCCs are usually at their earliest evolutionary stages. All the dense cores have non-thermal velocity dispersions larger than the thermal velocity dispersions from molecular line data, suggesting that the dense cores may be turbulence-dominated. We have calculated the virial parameter α and found that 14 of the dense cores have α <2, while 16 of the dense cores have α >2. This suggests that some of the dense cores are not bound in the absence of external pressure and magnetic fields. The column density profiles of dense cores were fitted. The sizes of the flat regions and core radii decrease with the evolution of dense cores. CO depletion was found to occur in all the dense cores, but is more significant in prestellar core candidates than in protostellar or starless cores. The protostellar cores inside the PGCCs are still at a very early evolutionary stage, sharing similar physical and chemical properties with the prestellar core candidates.

Interstellar molecules and dense clouds.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rank, D. M.; Townes, C. H.; Welch, W. J.

1971-01-01

Current knowledge of the interstellar medium is discussed on the basis of recent published studies. The subjects considered include optical identification of interstellar molecules, radio molecular lines, interstellar clouds, isotopic abundances, formation and disappearance of interstellar molecules, and interstellar probing techniques. Diagrams are plotted for the distribution of galactic sources exhibiting molecular lines, for hydrogen molecule, hydrogen atom and electron abundances due to ionization, for the densities, velocities and temperature of NH3 in the direction of Sagitarius B2, for the lower rotational energy levels of H2CO, and for temporal spectral variations in masing H2O clouds of the radio source W49. Future applications of the maser and of molecular microscopy in this field are visualized.

The Study of Spherical Cores with a Toroidal Magnetic Field Configuration

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gholipour, Mahmoud

Observational studies of the magnetic fields in molecular clouds have significantly improved the theoretical models developed for the structure and evolution of dense clouds and for the star formation process as well. The recent observational analyses on some cores indicate that there is a power-law relationship between magnetic field and density in the molecular clouds. In this study, we consider the stability of spherical cores with a toroidal magnetic field configuration in the molecular clouds. For this purpose, we model a spherical core that is in magnetostatic equilibrium. Herein, we propose an equation of density structure, which is a modifiedmore » form of the isothermal Lane–Emden equation in the presence of the toroidal magnetic field. The proposed equation describes the effect of the toroidal magnetic field on the cloud structure and the mass cloud. Furthermore, we found an upper limit for this configuration of magnetic field in the molecular clouds. Then, the virial theorem is used to consider the cloud evolution leading to an equation in order to obtain the lower limit of the field strength in the molecular cloud. However, the results show that the field strength of the toroidal configuration has an important effect on the cloud structure, whose upper limit is related to the central density and field gradient. The obtained results address some regions of clouds where the cloud decomposition or star formation can be seen.« less

GIANT MOLECULAR CLOUD FORMATION IN DISK GALAXIES: CHARACTERIZING SIMULATED VERSUS OBSERVED CLOUD CATALOGS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Benincasa, Samantha M.; Pudritz, Ralph E.; Wadsley, James

We present the results of a study of simulated giant molecular clouds (GMCs) formed in a Milky Way-type galactic disk with a flat rotation curve. This simulation, which does not include star formation or feedback, produces clouds with masses ranging between 10{sup 4} M{sub ☉} and 10{sup 7} M{sub ☉}. We compare our simulated cloud population to two observational surveys: the Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Ring Survey and the BIMA All-Disk Survey of M33. An analysis of the global cloud properties as well as a comparison of Larson's scaling relations is carried out. We find that simulatedmore » cloud properties agree well with the observed cloud properties, with the closest agreement occurring between the clouds at comparable resolution in M33. Our clouds are highly filamentary—a property that derives both from their formation due to gravitational instability in the sheared galactic environment, as well as to cloud-cloud gravitational encounters. We also find that the rate at which potentially star-forming gas accumulates within dense regions—wherein n{sub thresh} ≥ 10{sup 4} cm{sup –3}—is 3% per 10 Myr, in clouds of roughly 10{sup 6} M{sub ☉}. This suggests that star formation rates in observed clouds are related to the rates at which gas can be accumulated into dense subregions within GMCs via filamentary flows. The most internally well-resolved clouds are chosen for listing in a catalog of simulated GMCs—the first of its kind. The cataloged clouds are available as an extracted data set from the global simulation.« less

Boundary conditions for the paleoenvironment: Chemical and Physical Processes in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, W. M.; Schloerb, F. P.; Ziurys, L. M.

1986-01-01

The present research includes searches for important new interstellar constituents; observations relevant to differentiating between different models for the chemical processes that are important in the interstellar environment; and coordinated studies of the chemistry, physics, and dynamics of molecular clouds which are the sites or possible future sites of star formation. Recent research has included the detection and study of four new interstellar molecules; searches which have placed upper limits on the abundance of several other potential constituents of interstellar clouds; quantitative studies of comparative molecular abundances in different types of interstellar clouds; investigation of reaction pathways for astrochemistry from a comparison of theory and the observed abundance of related species such as isomers and isotopic variants; studies of possible tracers of energenic events related to star formation, including silicon and sulfur containing molecules; and mapping of physical, chemical, and dynamical properties over extended regions of nearby cold molecular clouds.

Widespread SiO and CH3OH emission in filamentary infrared dark clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cosentino, G.; Jiménez-Serra, I.; Henshaw, J. D.; Caselli, P.; Viti, S.; Barnes, A. T.; Fontani, F.; Tan, J. C.; Pon, A.

2018-03-01

Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are cold, dense regions of high (optical and infrared) extinction, believed to be the birthplace of high-mass stars and stellar clusters. The physical mechanisms leading to the formation of these IRDCs are not completely understood and it is thus important to study their molecular gas kinematics and chemical content to search for any signature of the IRDCs formation process. Using the 30-m-diameter antenna at the Instituto de Radioastronomía Milimétrica (IRAM), we have obtained emission maps of dense gas tracers (H13CO+ and HN13C) and typical shock tracers (SiO and CH3OH) towards three IRDCs, G028.37+00.07, G034.43+00.24, and G034.77-00.55 (clouds C, F, and G, respectively). We have studied the molecular gas kinematics in these clouds and, consistent with previous works towards other IRDCs, the clouds show complex gas kinematics with several velocity-coherent substructures separated in velocity space by a few km s-1. Correlated with these complex kinematic structures, widespread (parsec-scale) emission of SiO and CH3OH is present in all the three clouds. For clouds C and F, known to be actively forming stars, widespread SiO and CH3OH is likely associated with on-going star formation activity. However, for cloud G, which lacks either 8 or 24 μm sources and 4.5 μm H2 shock-excited emission, the detected widespread SiO and CH3OH emission may have originated in a large-scale shock interaction, although a scenario involving a population of low-mass stars driving molecular outflows cannot be fully ruled out.

Nonequilibrium chemistry in shocked molecular clouds. [interstellar gases

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iglesias, E. R.; Silk, J.

1978-01-01

The gas-phase chemistry is studied behind a 10-km/s shock propagating into a dense molecular cloud. The principal conclusions are that: the concentrations of certain molecules (CO, NH3, HCN, N2) are unperturbed by the shock; other molecules (H2CO, CN, HCO(+)) are greatly decreased in abundance; and substantial amounts of H2O, HCO, and CH4 are produced. Approximately 1 million yr (independent of the density) must elapse after shock passage before chemical equilibrium is attained.

Cold Atomic Hydrogen, Narrow Self-Absorption, and the Age of Molecular Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Goldsmith, Paul F.

2006-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the history, and current work on HI and its importance in star formation. Through many observations of HI Narrow Self Absorption (HINSA) the conclusions are drawn and presented. Local molecular clouds have HI well-mixed with molecular constituents This HI is cold, quiescent, and must be well-shielded from the UV radiation field The density and fractional abundance (wrt H2) of the cold HI are close to steady state values The time required to convert these starless clouds from purely HI initial state to observed present composition is a few to ten million years This timescale is a lower limit - if dense clouds being swept up from lower density regions by shocks, the time to accumulate material to get A(sub v) is approximately 1 and provide required shielding may be comparable or longer

ISM gas studies towards the TeV PWN HESS J1825-137 and northern region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Voisin, F.; Rowell, G.; Burton, M. G.; Walsh, A.; Fukui, Y.; Aharonian, F.

2016-05-01

HESS J1825-137 is a pulsar wind nebula (PWN) whose TeV emission extends across ˜1 . Its large asymmetric shape indicates that its progenitor supernova interacted with a molecular cloud located in the north of the PWN as detected by previous CO Galactic survey (e.g. Lemiere, Terrier & Djannati-Ataï). Here, we provide a detailed picture of the interstellar medium (ISM) towards the region north of HESS J1825-137, with the analysis of the dense molecular gas from our 7 and 12 mm Mopra survey and the more diffuse molecular gas from the Nanten CO(1-0) and GRS 13CO(1-0) surveys. Our focus is the possible association between HESS J1825-137 and the unidentified TeV source to the north, HESS J1826-130. We report several dense molecular regions whose kinematic distance matched the dispersion measured distance of the pulsar. Among them, the dense molecular gas located at (RA, Dec.) = (18h421h,-13.282°) shows enhanced turbulence and we suggest that the velocity structure in this region may be explained by a cloud-cloud collision scenario. Furthermore, the presence of a H α rim may be the first evidence of the progenitor supernova remnant (SNR) of the pulsar PSR J1826-1334 as the distance between the H α rim and the TeV source matched with the predicted SNR radius RSNR ˜ 120 pc. From our ISM study, we identify a few plausible origins of the HESS J1826-130 emission, including the progenitor SNR of PSR J1826-1334 and the PWN G018.5-0.4 powered by PSR J1826-1256. A deeper TeV study however, is required to fully identify the origin of this mysterious TeV source.

Prebiotic chemical evolution in the astrophysical context.

PubMed

Ziurys, L M; Adande, G R; Edwards, J L; Schmidt, D R; Halfen, D T; Woolf, N J

2015-06-01

An ever increasing amount of molecular material is being discovered in the interstellar medium, associated with the birth and death of stars and planetary systems. Radio and millimeter-wave astronomical observations, made possible by high-resolution laboratory spectroscopy, uniquely trace the history of gas-phase molecules with biogenic elements. Using a combination of both disciplines, the full extent of the cycling of molecular matter, from circumstellar ejecta of dying stars - objects which expel large amounts of carbon - to nascent solar systems, has been investigated. Such stellar ejecta have been found to exhibit a rich and varied chemical content. Observations demonstrate that this molecular material is passed onto planetary nebulae, the final phase of stellar evolution. Here the star sheds almost its entire original mass, becoming an ultraviolet-emitting white dwarf. Molecules such as H2CO, HCN, HCO(+), and CCH are present in significant concentrations across the entire age span of such nebulae. These data suggest that gas-phase polyatomic, carbon-containing molecules survive the planetary nebula phase and subsequently are transported into the interstellar medium, seeding the chemistry of diffuse and then dense clouds. The extent of the chemical complexity in dense clouds is unknown, hindered by the high spectral line density. Organic species such as acetamide and methyl amine are present in such objects, and NH2CHO has a wide Galactic distribution. However, organophosphorus compounds have not yet been detected in dense clouds. Based on carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios, molecular material from the ISM appears to become incorporated into solar system planetesimals. It is therefore likely that interstellar synthesis influences prebiotic chemistry on planet surfaces.

Dense cloud cores revealed by CO in the low metallicity dwarf galaxy WLM.

PubMed

Rubio, Monica; Elmegreen, Bruce G; Hunter, Deidre A; Brinks, Elias; Cortés, Juan R; Cigan, Phil

2015-09-10

Understanding stellar birth requires observations of the clouds in which they form. These clouds are dense and self-gravitating, and in all existing observations they are molecular, with H2 the dominant species and carbon monoxide (CO) the best available tracer. When the abundances of carbon and oxygen are low compared with that of hydrogen, and the opacity from dust is also low, as in primeval galaxies and local dwarf irregular galaxies, CO forms slowly and is easily destroyed, so it is difficult for it to accumulate inside dense clouds. Here we report interferometric observations of CO clouds in the local group dwarf irregular galaxy Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte (WLM), which has a metallicity that is 13 per cent of the solar value and 50 per cent lower than the previous CO detection threshold. The clouds are tiny compared to the surrounding atomic and H2 envelopes, but they have typical densities and column densities for CO clouds in the Milky Way. The normal CO density explains why star clusters forming in dwarf irregulars have similar densities to star clusters in giant spiral galaxies. The low cloud masses suggest that these clusters will also be low mass, unless some galaxy-scale compression occurs, such as an impact from a cosmic cloud or other galaxy. If the massive metal-poor globular clusters in the halo of the Milky Way formed in dwarf galaxies, as is commonly believed, then they were probably triggered by such an impact.

Molecular Line Studies of Ballistic Stellar Interlopers Burrowing through Dense Interstellar Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosen, Anna; Sahai, R.; Claussen, M.; Morris, M.

2010-01-01

When an intermediate-mass star speeds through a dense interstellar cloud at a high velocity, it can produce a cometary or bow shock structure due to the cloud being impacted by the intense stellar wind. This class of objects, recently discovered in an HST imaging survey, has been dubbed "ballistic stellar interlopers" (Sahai et al. 2009). Using the ARO's 12m and SMT 10m millimeter-wave dishes, we have obtained molecular line emission data towards 10 stellar interloper sources, in order to identify and characterize the dense clouds with which the interlopers are interacting. We have made small "on-the-fly" maps in the 12CO (J=2-1) and 13CO (J=2-1) lines for each cloud, and obtained spectra of high-density tracers such as N2H+ (J=3-2), HCO+ (J=3-2), CN(N=2-1), and SO(J=5-4), which probe a range of physical conditions in the interstellar clouds being impacted by the interlopers. The data have been reduced and analyzed, and preliminary estimates of the cloud temperatures (9-22 K) and 13CO optical depths (0.18-0.37) have been made. The maps, which show the emission as a function of radial velocity and spatial offset from the location of the interlopers, have helped us distinguish between the clouds interacting with the interlopers, and those which are unrelated but happen to lie along the line of sight. These data will now enable us to carry out high-resolution mm-wave interferometric observations of the interlopers in the future. This research was performed at JPL under the Minority Education Initiatives program. RS and MM were funded by a Long Term Space Astrophysics award from NASA for this work. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Special thanks goes to John Bieging and Bill Peters of the Arizona Radio Observatory.

Isomerization and fragmentation of acetonitrile upon interaction with N(4S) atoms: the chemistry of nitrogen in dense molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mencos, Alejandro; Krim, Lahouari

2016-08-01

We experimentally show that the reaction between ground state nitrogen atoms N(4S) and acetonitrile CH3CN can lead to two distinct chemical pathways that are both thermally activated at very low temperatures. First is CH3CN isomerization which produces CH3NC and H2CCNH. Second is CH3CN decomposition which produces HNC and CH3CNH+CN- fragments, with the possible release of H2. Our results reveal that the mobility of N(4S)-atoms is stimulated in the 3-11 K temperature range, and that its subsequent encounter with one acetonitrile molecule is sufficient for the aforementioned reactions to occur without the need for additional energy to be supplied to the CH3CN + N(4S) system. These findings shed more light on the nitrogen chemistry that can possibly take place in dense molecular clouds, which until now was thought to only involve high-energy processes and therefore be unlikely to occur in such cold and dark interstellar regions. The reaction pathways we propose in this study have very important astrochemical implications, as it was shown recently that the atomic nitrogen might be more abundant, in many interstellar icy grain mantles, than previously thought. Also, these reaction pathways can now be considered within dense molecular clouds, and possibly affect the branching ratios for N-bearing molecules computed in astrochemical modelling.

Kinematics of the Ultra-High-Velocity Gas in the Expanding Molecular Shell Adjacent to the W44 Supernova Remnant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamada, Masaya; Oka, Tomoharu; Tanaka, Kunihiko; Nomura, Mariko; Takekawa, Shunya; Iwata, Yuhei; Tokuyama, Sekito; Tanabe, Keisuke; Tsujimoto, Shiho; Furusawa, Maiko

2017-01-01

High-velocity compact cloud (HVCC) is a peculiar category of molecular clouds detected in the central molecular zone of our Galaxy (Oka et al. 1998, 2007, and 2012). They are characterized by compact appearances (d < 5 pc) and very large velocity widths (Δ V > 50 km s-1). Some of them show high CO J=3-2/J=1-0 intensity ratios (>= 1.5), indicating that they consist of dense and warm molecular gas. Dispite a number of efforts, we have not reached a comprehensive interpretation of HVCCs. Recently, we detected an extraordinaly broad velocity width feature, the `Bullet', in the molecular cloud interacting with the W44 supernova remnant. The Bullet shares essential properties with HVCCs. Because of its proximity, a close inspection of the Bullet must contribute to the understanding of HVCCs.

Boundary Conditions for the Paleoenvironment: Chemical and Physical Processes in Dense Interstellar Clouds: Summary of Research

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, William M.

1999-01-01

The basic theme of this program was the study of molecular complexity and evolution for the biogenic elements and compounds in interstellar clouds and in primitive solar system objects. Research included the detection and study of new interstellar and cometary molecules and investigation of reaction pathways for astrochemistry from a comparison of theory and observed molecular abundances. The latter includes studies of cold, dark clouds in which ion-molecule chemistry should predominate, searches for the effects of interchange of material between the gas and solid phases in interstellar clouds, unbiased spectral surveys of particular sources, and systematic investigation of the interlinked chemistry and physics of dense interstellar clouds. In addition, the study of comets has allowed a comparison between the chemistry of such minimally thermally processed objects and that of interstellar clouds, shedding light on the evolution of the biogenic elements during the process of solar system formation. One PhD dissertation on this research was completed by a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts. An additional 4 graduate students at the University of Massachusetts and 5 graduate students from other institutions participated in research supported by this grant, with 6 of these thus far receiving PhD degrees from the University of Massachusetts or their home institutions. Four postdoctoral research associates at the University of Massachusetts also participated in research supported by this grant, receiving valuable training.

Molecules in interstellar clouds. [physical and chemical conditions of star formation and biological evolution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, W. M.; Hjalmarson, A.; Rydbeck, O. E. H.

1981-01-01

The physical conditions and chemical compositions of the gas in interstellar clouds are reviewed in light of the importance of interstellar clouds for star formation and the origin of life. The Orion A region is discussed as an example of a giant molecular cloud where massive stars are being formed, and it is pointed out that conditions in the core of the cloud, with a kinetic temperature of about 75 K and a density of 100,000-1,000,000 molecules/cu cm, may support gas phase ion-molecule chemistry. The Taurus Molecular Clouds are then considered as examples of cold, dark, relatively dense interstellar clouds which may be the birthplaces of solar-type stars and which have been found to contain the heaviest interstellar molecules yet discovered. The molecular species identified in each of these regions are tabulated, including such building blocks of biological monomers as H2O, NH3, H2CO, CO, H2S, CH3CN and H2, and more complex species such as HCOOCH3 and CH3CH2CN.

Dispersal of Giant Molecular Clouds by Photoionization and Radiation Pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Jeong-Gyu; Kim, Woong-Tae; Ostriker, Eve C.

2018-01-01

UV radiation feedback from young massive stars plays a key role in the evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) by forming HII regions and driving their expansion. We present the results of radiation hydrodynamic simulations of star cluster formation in turbulent GMCs, focusing on the effects of photoionization and radiation pressure on regulating the net star formation efficiency (SFE) and lifetime of clouds. We find that the net SFE depends primarily on the initial gas surface density, $\\Sigma_0$, such that the net SFE increases from 4% to 50% as $\\Sigma_0$ increases from $20\\,M_{\\odot}\\,{\\rm pc}^{-2}$ to $1300\\,M_{\\odot}\\,{\\rm pc}^{-2}$. Cloud dispersal occurs within $10\\,{\\rm Myr}$ after the onset of radiation feedback, or within 0.7--4.0 free-fall times that increases with $\\Sigma_0$. Photoionization plays a dominant role in destroying molecular clouds typical of the Milky Way, while radiation pressure takes over in massive, dense clouds. Based on the analysis of mass loss processes by photoevaporation or momentum injection, we develop a semi-analytic model for cloud dispersal and compare it with the numerical results.

Ion-molecule calculation of the abundance ratio of CCD to CCH in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herbst, Eric; Adams, Nigel G.; Smith, David; Defrees, D. J.

1987-01-01

Laboratory measurements and calculations have been performed to determine the abundance ratio of the deuterated ethynyl radical (CCD) to the normal radical (CCH) which can be achieved in dense interstellar clouds via isotopic fractionation in the C2H2(+) (HD)=C2HD(+)(H2) system of reactions. According to this limited treatment, the CCD/CCH abundance ratio which can be attained is in the range 0.02-0.03 for the Orion molecular cloud and 0.0l-0.02 for TMC-1. These ranges of numbers are in reasonable agreement with the observed values in Orion and TMC-1. However, the analysis of the CCD/CCH abundance ratio is complicated via the presence of competing fractionation mechanisms, especially in the low-temperature source TMC-1.

Testing the universality of the star-formation efficiency in dense molecular gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shimajiri, Y.; André, Ph.; Braine, J.; Könyves, V.; Schneider, N.; Bontemps, S.; Ladjelate, B.; Roy, A.; Gao, Y.; Chen, H.

2017-08-01

Context. Recent studies with, for example, Spitzer and Herschel have suggested that star formation in dense molecular gas may be governed by essentially the same "law" in Galactic clouds and external galaxies. This conclusion remains controversial, however, in large part because different tracers have been used to probe the mass of dense molecular gas in Galactic and extragalactic studies. Aims: We aimed to calibrate the HCN and HCO+ lines commonly used as dense gas tracers in extragalactic studies and to test the possible universality of the star-formation efficiency in dense gas (≳104 cm-3), SFEdense. Methods: We conducted wide-field mapping of the Aquila, Ophiuchus, and Orion B clouds at 0.04 pc resolution in the J = 1 - 0 transition of HCN, HCO+, and their isotopomers. For each cloud, we derived a reference estimate of the dense gas mass MHerschelAV > 8, as well as the strength of the local far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation field, using Herschel Gould Belt survey data products, and estimated the star-formation rate from direct counting of the number of Spitzer young stellar objects. Results: The H13CO+(1-0) and H13CN(1-0) lines were observed to be good tracers of the dense star-forming filaments detected with Herschel. Comparing the luminosities LHCN and LHCO+ measured in the HCN and HCO+ lines with the reference masses MHerschelAV > 8, the empirical conversion factors αHerschel - HCN (=MHerschelAV > 8/LHCN) and αHerschel - HCO+ (=MHerschelAV > 8/LHCO+) were found to be significantly anti-correlated with the local FUV strength. In agreement with a recent independent study of Orion B by Pety et al., the HCN and HCO+ lines were found to trace gas down to AV ≳ 2. As a result, published extragalactic HCN studies must be tracing all of the moderate density gas down to nH2 ≲ 103 cm-3. Estimating the contribution of this moderate density gas from the typical column density probability distribution functions in nearby clouds, we obtained the following G0-dependent HCN conversion factor for external galaxies: αHerschel - HCNfit' = 64 × G0-0.34. Re-estimating the dense gas masses in external galaxies with αHerschel - HCNfit'(G0), we found that SFEdense is remarkably constant, with a scatter of less than 1.5 orders of magnitude around 4.5 × 10-8 yr-1, over eight orders of magnitude in dense gas mass. Conclusions: Our results confirm that SFEdense of galaxies is quasi-universal on a wide range of scales from 1-10 pc to > 10 kpc. Based on the tight link between star formation and filamentary structure found in Herschel studies of nearby clouds, we argue that SFEdense is primarily set by the "microphysics" of core and star formation along filaments. Partly based on observations carried out with the IRAM 30 m Telescope under project numbers 150-14 and 032-15. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain).

Gravity, turbulence and the scaling ``laws'' in molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ballesteros-Paredes, Javier

The so-called Larson (1981) scaling laws found empirically in molecular clouds have been generally interpreted as evidence that the clouds are turbulent and fractal. In the present contribution we discussed how recent observations and models of cloud formation suggest that: (a) these relations are the result of strong observational biases due to the cloud definition itself: since the filling factor of the dense structures is small, by thresholding the column density the computed mean density between clouds is nearly constant, and nearly the same as the threshold (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2012). (b) When accounting for column density variations, the velocity dispersion-size relation does not appears anymore. Instead, dense cores populate the upper-left corner of the δ v-R diagram (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011a). (c) Instead of a δ v-R relation, a more appropriate relation seems to be δ v 2 / R = 2 GMΣ, which suggest that clouds are in collapse, rather than supported by turbulence (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011a). (d) These results, along with the shapes of the star formation histories (Hartmann, Ballesteros-Paredes & Heitsch 2012), line profiles of collapsing clouds in numerical simulations (Heitsch, Ballesteros-Paredes & Hartmann 2009), core-to-core velocity dispersions (Heitsch, Ballesteros-Paredes & Hartmann 2009), time-evolution of the column density PDFs (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011b), etc., strongly suggest that the actual source of the non-thermal motions is gravitational collapse of the clouds, so that the turbulent, chaotic component of the motions is only a by-product of the collapse, with no significant ``support" role for the clouds. This result calls into question if the scale-free nature of the motions has a turbulent, origin (Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011a; Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2011b, Ballesteros-Paredes et al. 2012).

How Does Dense Molecular Gas Contribute to Star Formation in the Starburst Galaxy NGC 2146?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wofford, Alia

2017-01-01

The starburst galaxy NGC 2146 is believed to have been formed approximately 800 Myr ago, when two galaxies collided with each other possibly leading to a burst of star formation. NGC 2146 is known as a starburst galaxy for the high frequency of star formation going on in its molecular clouds. These clouds serve as nurseries for star formation to occur. Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) and Carbon monoxide (CO) are molecules found in molecular gas clouds. HCN molecules are tracers for high density star forming gas. Whereas, CO molecules are tracers for low density star forming gas. In this project, we are observing these two molecules and their proximity to where the stars are forming in the galaxy to determine if the star formation is occurring in the same area as the high and low density molecular gas areas in starburst galaxy NGC 2146.

On the Ubiquity of Molecular Anions in the Dense Interstellar Medium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cordiner, M. A.; Buckle, J. V.; Wirstroem, E. S.; Olofsson, A. O. H.; Charnley, S. B.

2013-01-01

Results are presented from a survey for molecular anions in seven nearby Galactic star-forming cores and molecular clouds. The hydrocarbon anion C6H(-) is detected in all seven target sources, including four sources where no anions have been previously detected: L1172, L1389, L1495B, and TMC-1C. The C6H(-) /C6H column density ratio is approx. > 1.0% in every source, with a mean value of 3.0% (and standard deviation 0.92%). Combined with previous detections, our results show that anions are ubiquitous in dense clouds wherever C6H is present. The C6H(-)/C6H ratio is found to show a positive correlation with molecular hydrogen number density, and with the apparent age of the cloud.We also report the first detection of C4H(-) in TMC-1 (at 4.8 sigma confidence), and derive an anion-to-neutral ratio C4H(-) /C4H = (1.2 +/- 0.4)×10(exp -5)(= 0.0012% +/- 0.0004%). Such a low value compared with C6H(-) highlights the need for a revised radiative electron attachment rate for C4H. Chemical model calculations show that the observed C4H(-) could be produced as a result of reactions of oxygen atoms with C5H(-) and C6H(-).

DEEPLY EMBEDDED PROTOSTELLAR POPULATION IN THE 20 km s{sup −1} CLOUD OF THE CENTRAL MOLECULAR ZONE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lu, Xing; Gu, Qiusheng; Zhang, Qizhou

2015-12-01

We report the discovery of a population of deeply embedded protostellar candidates in the 20 km s{sup −1} cloud, one of the massive molecular clouds in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way, using interferometric submillimeter continuum and H{sub 2}O maser observations. The submillimeter continuum emission shows five 1 pc scale clumps, each of which further fragments into several 0.1 pc scale cores. We identify 17 dense cores, among which 12 are gravitationally bound. Among the 18 H{sub 2}O masers detected, 13 coincide with the cores and probably trace outflows emanating from the protostars. There are also 5more » gravitationally bound dense cores without H{sub 2}O maser detection. In total, the 13 masers and 5 cores may represent 18 protostars with spectral types later than B1 or potentially growing more massive stars at earlier evolutionary stages, given the non-detection in the centimeter radio continuum. In combination with previous studies of CH{sub 3}OH masers, we conclude that the star formation in this cloud is at an early evolutionary phase, before the presence of any significant ionizing or heating sources. Our findings indicate that star formation in this cloud may be triggered by a tidal compression as it approaches pericenter, similar to the case of G0.253+0.016 but with a higher star formation rate, and demonstrate that high angular resolution, high-sensitivity maser, and submillimeter observations are promising techniques to unveil deeply embedded star formation in the CMZ.« less

The velocity characteristics of dusty filaments in the JCMT GBS clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buckle, J. V.; Salji, C.; Richer, J. S.

2013-07-01

Large scale, high resolution spectral and continuum imaging maps have revealed, to an unprecedented extent, the characteristics of filamentary structure in star-forming molecular clouds, and their close association with star-forming cores. The filaments are associated with the formation of dense molecular cores where star formation occurs, and recent models highlight the important relationship between filaments and star-forming clusters. Velocity-coherent filaments have been proposed as the parent structures of star forming cores in Taurus. In Serpens, accretion flows along filaments have been proposed as the continuous source of mass for the star forming cluster. An evolutionary scenario for filaments based on velocity dispersion and column density measurements has recently been proposed, which we test with large scale molecular line and dust continuum maps. The JCMT Gould Belt Survey with SCUBA-2 and HARP provides dust continuum observations at 850 and 450 micron, and 12CO/13CO/C18O J=3-2 spectral line mapping of several nearby molecular clouds, covering large angular scales at high resolution. Velocities and linewidths of optically thin species, such as C18O which traces the warm, dense gas associated with star formation, are critical for an estimate of the virial stability of filamentary structures. The data and analyses that we present provide robust statistics over a large range of starless and protostellar evolutionary states. We present the velocity characteristics of dusty filaments in Orion, probing the physics at the boundary of filamentary structure and star formation. Using C18O, we investigate the internal structure of filaments, based on fragmentation and velocity coherence in the molecular line data. Through velocity dispersion measurements, we determine whether the filamentary structures are bound, and compare results between clouds of different star formation characteristics.

Boundary Conditions for the Paleoenvironment: Chemical and Physical Processes in the Pre-Solar Nebula

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, William M.; Schloerb, F. Peter

1997-01-01

The basic theme of this program is the study of molecular complexity and evolution in interstellar clouds and in primitive solar system objects. Research has included the detection and study of a number of new interstellar molecules and investigation of reaction pathways for astrochemistry from a comparison of theory and observed molecular abundances. The latter includes studies of cold, dark clouds in which ion-molecule chemistry should predominate, searches for the effects of interchange of material between the gas and solid phases in interstellar clouds, unbiased spectral surveys of particular sources, and systematic investigation of the interlinked chemistry and physics of dense interstellar clouds. In addition, the study of comets has allowed a comparison between the chemistry of such minimally thermally processed objects and that of interstellar clouds, shedding light on the evolution of the biogenic elements during the process of solar system formation.

CO abundance variations in the Orion Molecular Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ripple, F.; Heyer, M. H.; Gutermuth, R.; Snell, R. L.; Brunt, C. M.

2013-05-01

Infrared stellar photometry from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) and spectral line imaging observations of 12CO and 13CO J = 1-0 line emission from the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (FCRAO) 14-m telescope are analysed to assess the variation of the CO abundance with physical conditions throughout the Orion A and Orion B molecular clouds. Three distinct Av regimes are identified in which the ratio between the 13CO column density and visual extinction changes corresponding to the photon-dominated envelope, the strongly self-shielded interior, and the cold, dense volumes of the clouds. Within the strongly self-shielded interior of the Orion A cloud, the 13CO abundance varies by 100 per cent with a peak value located near regions of enhanced star formation activity. The effect of CO depletion on to the ice mantles of dust grains is limited to regions with Av > 10 mag and gas temperatures less than ˜20 K as predicted by chemical models that consider thermal evaporation to desorb molecules from grain surfaces. Values of the molecular mass of each cloud are independently derived from the distributions of Av and 13CO column densities with a constant 13CO-to-H2 abundance over various extinction ranges. Within the strongly self-shielded interior of the cloud (Av> 3 mag), 13CO provides a reliable tracer of H2 mass with the exception of the cold, dense volumes where depletion is important. However, owing to its reduced abundance, 13CO does not trace the H2 mass that resides in the extended cloud envelope, which comprises 40-50 per cent of the molecular mass of each cloud. The implied CO luminosity to mass ratios, M/LCO, are 3.2 and 2.9 for Orion A and Orion B, respectively, which are comparable to the value (2.9), derived from γ-ray observations of the Orion region. Our results emphasize the need to consider local conditions when applying CO observations to derive H2 column densities.

Sequential Star Formation in RCW 34: A Spectroscopic Census of the Stellar Content of High-Mass Star-Forming Regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bik, A.; Puga, E.; Waters, L. B. F. M.; Horrobin, M.; Henning, Th.; Vasyunina, T.; Beuther, H.; Linz, H.; Kaper, L.; van den Ancker, M.; Lenorzer, A.; Churchwell, E.; Kurtz, S.; Kouwenhoven, M. B. N.; Stolte, A.; de Koter, A.; Thi, W. F.; Comerón, F.; Waelkens, Ch.

2010-04-01

In this paper, we present VLT/SINFONI integral field spectroscopy of RCW 34 along with Spitzer/IRAC photometry of the surroundings. RCW 34 consists of three different regions. A large bubble has been detected in the IRAC images in which a cluster of intermediate- and low-mass class II objects is found. At the northern edge of this bubble, an H II region is located, ionized by 3 OB stars, of which the most massive star has spectral type O8.5V. Intermediate-mass stars (2-3 M sun) are detected of G- and K-spectral type. These stars are still in the pre-main-sequence (PMS) phase. North of the H II region, a photon-dominated region is present, marking the edge of a dense molecular cloud traced by H2 emission. Several class 0/I objects are associated with this cloud, indicating that star formation is still taking place. The distance to RCW 34 is revised to 2.5 ± 0.2 kpc and an age estimate of 2 ± 1 Myr is derived from the properties of the PMS stars inside the H II region. Between the class II sources in the bubble and the PMS stars in the H II region, no age difference could be detected with the present data. The presence of the class 0/I sources in the molecular cloud, however, suggests that the objects inside the molecular cloud are significantly younger. The most likely scenario for the formation of the three regions is that star formation propagated from south to north. First the bubble is formed, produced by intermediate- and low-mass stars only, after that, the H II region is formed from a dense core at the edge of the molecular cloud, resulting in the expansion similar to a champagne flow. More recently, star formation occurred in the rest of the molecular cloud. Two different formation scenarios are possible. (1) The bubble with the cluster of low- and intermediate-mass stars triggered the formation of the O star at the edge of the molecular cloud, which in its turn induces the current star formation in the molecular cloud. (2) An external triggering is responsible for the star formation propagating from south to north. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory at Paranal, Chile (ESO program 078.C-0780).

Magnetic seismology of interstellar gas clouds: Unveiling a hidden dimension

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tritsis, Aris; Tassis, Konstantinos

2018-05-01

Stars and planets are formed inside dense interstellar molecular clouds by processes imprinted on the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the clouds. Determining the 3D structure of interstellar clouds remains challenging because of projection effects and difficulties measuring the extent of the clouds along the line of sight. We report the detection of normal vibrational modes in the isolated interstellar cloud Musca, allowing determination of the 3D physical dimensions of the cloud. We found that Musca is vibrating globally, with the characteristic modes of a sheet viewed edge on, not the characteristics of a filament as previously supposed. We reconstructed the physical properties of Musca through 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, reproducing the observed normal modes and confirming a sheetlike morphology.

Herschel HIFI GOT C+ Survey: CII, HI, and CO Emissions in a Sample of Transition Clouds and Star-Forming regions in the Inner Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pineda, Jorge; Velusamy, Thangasamy; Langer, William D.; Goldsmith, Paul; Li, Di; Yorke, Harold

The GOT C+ a HIFI Herschel Key Project, studies the diffuse ISM throughout the Galactic Plane, using C+ as cloud tracer. The C+ line at 1.9 THz traces a so-far poorly studied stage in ISM cloud evolution -the transitional clouds going from atomic HI to molecular H2. This transition cloud phase, which is difficult to observe in HI and CO alone, may be best characterized via CII emission or absorption. The C+ line is also an excellent tracer of the warm diffuse gas and the warm, dense gas in the Photon Dominated Regions (PDRs). We can, therefore, use the CII emission as a probe to understand the effects of star formation on their interstellar environment. We present our first results on the transition between dense and hot gas (traced by CII) and dense and cold gas (traced by 12CO and 13CO) along a few representative lines of sight in the inner Galaxy from longitude 325 degrees to 25 degrees, taken during the HIFI Priority Science Phase. Comparisons of the high spectral resolution ( 1 km/s) HIFI data on C+ with HI, 12CO, and 13CO spectra allow us to separate out the different ISM components along each line of sight. Our results provide detailed information about the transition of diffuse atomic to molecular gas clouds needed to understand star formation and the lifecycle of the interstellar gas. These observations are being carried out with the Herschel Space Observatory, which is an ESA cornerstone mission, with contributions from NASA. This research was conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. JLP was supported under the NASA Postdoctoral Program at JPL, Caltech, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities through a contract with NASA, and is currently supported as a Caltech-JPL Postdoctoral associate.

STAR FORMATION RELATIONS IN THE MILKY WAY

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vutisalchavakul, Nalin; Evans II, Neal J.; Heyer, Mark, E-mail: nje@astro.as.utexas.edu

2016-11-01

The relations between star formation and properties of molecular clouds (MCs) are studied based on a sample of star-forming regions in the Galactic Plane. Sources were selected by having radio recombination lines to provide identification of associated MCs and dense clumps. Radio continuum emission and mid-infrared emission were used to determine star formation rates (SFRs), while {sup 13}CO and submillimeter dust continuum emission were used to obtain the masses of molecular and dense gas, respectively. We test whether total molecular gas or dense gas provides the best predictor of SFR. We also test two specific theoretical models, one relying onmore » the molecular mass divided by the free-fall time, the other using the free-fall time divided by the crossing time. Neither is supported by the data. The data are also compared to those from nearby star-forming regions and extragalactic data. The star formation “efficiency,” defined as SFR divided by mass, spreads over a large range when the mass refers to molecular gas; the standard deviation of the log of the efficiency decreases by a factor of three when the mass of relatively dense molecular gas is used rather than the mass of all of the molecular gas.« less

Infrared spectroscopy of dense clouds in the C-H stretch region - Methanol and 'diamonds'

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, L. J.; Sandford, S. A.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.; Herbst, T. M.

1992-01-01

The paper presents high spectral resolution studies in the 3100-2600/cm range of the protostars NGC 7538 IRS9, W33A, W3 IRS 5, and S140 IRS 1. Well-resolved absorption bands at about 2825/cm and 2880/cm were found superposed on the LF wing of the strong O-H stretch feature. The 2880/cm band, previously detected toward W33A, is also in the spectrum of NGC 7538 IRS 9. The relative strength of these two bands varies, showing that they are associated with two different carriers. The new band at about 2880/cm falls near the position of C-H stretching vibrations in tertiary carbon atoms. The strength of this feature, in combination with the lack of strong features associated with primary and secondary carbon atoms, suggests that the carrier of the new feature has a diamondlike structure. This new feature is tentatively attributed to interstellar 'diamonds'. The detection of this band in the spectra of all four dense molecular clouds suggests that the carrier is ubiquitous in dense clouds.

OT1_dlis_2: Ammonia as a Tracer of the Earliest Stages of Star Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lis, D.

2010-07-01

Stars form in molecular cloud cores, cold and dense regions enshrouded by dust. The initiation of this process is among the least understood steps of star formation. Highresolution heterodyne spectroscopy provides invaluable information about the physical conditions (density, temperature), kinematics (infall, outflows), and chemistry of these regions. Classical molecular tracers, such CO, CS, and many other abundant gasphase species, have been shown to freeze out onto dust grain mantles in prestellar cores. However, Nbearing species, in particular ammonia, are much less affected by depletion and are observed to stay in the gas phase at densities in excess of 1e6 cm3. The molecular freezeout has important consequences for the chemistry of dense gas. In particular, the depletion of abundant gasphase species with heavy atoms drives up abundances of deuterated H3+ isotopologues, which in turn results in spectacular deuteration levels of molecules that do remain in the gas phase. Consequently, lines of deuterated Nbearing species, in particular the fundamental lines of ammonia isotopologues, having very high critical densities, are optimum tracers of innermost regions of dense cores. We propose to study the morphology, density structure and kinematics of cold and dense cloud cores, by mapping the spatial distribution of ammonia isotopologues in isolated dense prestellar cores using Herschel/HIFI. These observations provide optimum probes of the onset of star formation, as well as the physical processes that control gasgrain interaction, freezeout, mantle ejection and deuteration. The sensitive, highresolution spectra acquired within this program will be analyzed using sophisticated radiative transfer models and compared with outputs of stateoftheart 3D MHD simulations and chemical models developed by the members of our team.

OT2_dlis_3: Ammonia as a Tracer of the Earliest Stages of Star Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lis, D.

2011-09-01

Stars form in molecular cloud cores, cold and dense regions enshrouded by dust. The initiation of this process is among the least understood steps of star formation. High!resolution heterodyne spectroscopy provides invaluable information about the physical conditions (density, temperature), kinematics (infall, outflows), and chemistry of these regions. Classical molecular tracers, such CO, CS, and many other abundant gas!phase species, have been shown to freeze out onto dust grain mantles in pre!stellar cores. However, N!bearing species, in particular ammonia, are much less affected by depletion and are observed to stay in the gas phase at densities in excess of 1e6 cm!3. The molecular freeze!out has important consequences for the chemistry of dense gas. In particular, the depletion of abundant gas!phase species with heavy atoms drives up abundances of deuterated H3+ isotopologues, which in turn results in spectacular deuteration levels of molecules that do remain in the gas phase. Consequently, lines of deuterated N!bearing species, in particular the fundamental lines of ammonia isotopologues, having very high critical densities, are optimum tracers of innermost regions of dense cores. We propose to study the morphology, density structure and kinematics of cold and dense cloud cores, by mapping the spatial distribution of ammonia isotopologues in isolated dense pre!stellar cores using Herschel/HIFI. These observations provide optimum probes of the onset of star formation, as well as the physical processes that control gas!grain interaction, freeze!out, mantle ejection and deuteration. The sensitive, high!resolution spectra acquired within this program will be analyzed using sophisticated radiative transfer models and compared with outputs of state!of!the!art 3D MHD simulations and chemical models developed by the members of our team.

Isotope Fractionation in the Interstellar Medium

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Charnley, Steven

2011-01-01

Anomalously fractionated isotopic material is found in many primitive Solar System objects, such as meteorites and comets. It is thought, in some cases, to trace interstellar matter that was incorporated into the Solar Nebula without undergoing significant processing. We will present the results of models of the nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon fractionation chemistry in dense molecular clouds, particularly in cores where substantial freeze-out of molecules on to dust has occurred. The range of fractionation ratios expected in different interstellar molecules will be discussed and compared to the ratios measured in molecular clouds, comets and meteoritic material. These models make several predictions that can be tested in the near future by molecular line observations, particularly with ALMA.

Cosmic Star–Forming Gas as seen from the Milky Way

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kauffmann, Jens

2018-01-01

We still struggle to understand the star formation properties of galaxies throughout the cosmos. Is star formation driven by the structure of galaxies? Or is it plainly controlled by the mass of dense gas that can be found in a galaxy?This poster presents results from several recent projects that deliver important insights on the global star formation activity of galaxies, based on detailed studies of star-forming regions in the Milky Way. First, the proberties of dense clouds in the Galactic Center are discussed, using data from interferometers likw ALMA. Second, the kinematics of Milky Way molecular clouds are discussed based on a variety of data sets. Third, the LEGO survey (Line Emission in Galaxy Observations) is discussed. This latter study challenges concepts of how dense gas in galaxies can be traced. In combination these studies deliver a fresh look at the various factors controlling how galaxies form stars.

THE BOLOCAM GALACTIC PLANE SURVEY. XII. DISTANCE CATALOG EXPANSION USING KINEMATIC ISOLATION OF DENSE MOLECULAR CLOUD STRUCTURES WITH {sup 13}CO(1-0)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ellsworth-Bowers, Timothy P.; Glenn, Jason; Rosolowsky, Erik

2015-01-20

We present an expanded distance catalog for 1710 molecular cloud structures identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) version 2, representing a nearly threefold increase over the previous BGPS distance catalog. We additionally present a new method for incorporating extant data sets into our Bayesian distance probability density function (DPDF) methodology. To augment the dense-gas tracers (e.g., HCO{sup +}(3-2), NH{sub 3}(1,1)) used to derive line-of-sight velocities for kinematic distances, we utilize the Galactic Ring Survey (GRS) {sup 13}CO(1-0) data to morphologically extract velocities for BGPS sources. The outline of a BGPS source is used to select a region ofmore » the GRS {sup 13}CO data, along with a reference region to subtract enveloping diffuse emission, to produce a line profile of {sup 13}CO matched to the BGPS source. For objects with a HCO{sup +}(3-2) velocity, ≈95% of the new {sup 13}CO(1-0) velocities agree with that of the dense gas. A new prior DPDF for kinematic distance ambiguity (KDA) resolution, based on a validated formalism for associating molecular cloud structures with known objects from the literature, is presented. We demonstrate this prior using catalogs of masers with trigonometric parallaxes and H II regions with robust KDA resolutions. The distance catalog presented here contains well-constrained distance estimates for 20% of BGPS V2 sources, with typical distance uncertainties ≲ 0.5 kpc. Approximately 75% of the well-constrained sources lie within 6 kpc of the Sun, concentrated in the Scutum-Centaurus arm. Galactocentric positions of objects additionally trace out portions of the Sagittarius, Perseus, and Outer arms in the first and second Galactic quadrants, and we also find evidence for significant regions of interarm dense gas.« less

H II Region G46.5-0.2: The Interplay between Ionizing Radiation, Molecular Gas, and Star Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Paron, S.; Ortega, M. E.; Dubner, G.; Yuan, Jing-Hua; Petriella, A.; Giacani, E.; Zeng Li, Jin; Wu, Yuefang; Liu, Hongli; Huang, Ya Fang; Zhang, Si-Ju

2015-06-01

H ii regions are particularly interesting because they can generate dense layers of gas and dust, elongated columns or pillars of gas pointing toward the ionizing sources, and cometary globules of dense gas where triggered star formation can occur. Understanding the interplay between the ionizing radiation and the dense surrounding gas is very important to explain the origin of these peculiar structures, and hence to characterize triggered star formation. G46.5-0.2 (G46), a poorly studied galactic H ii region located at about 4 kpc, is an excellent target for performing this kind of study. Using public molecular data extracted from the Galactic Ring Survey (13CO J = 1-0) and from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope data archive (12CO, 13CO, C18O J = 3-2, HCO+, and HCN J = 4-3), and infrared data from the GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL surveys, we perform a complete study of G46, its molecular environment, and the young stellar objects (YSOs) placed around it. We found that G46, probably excited by an O7V star, is located close to the edge of the GRSMC G046.34-00.21 molecular cloud. It presents a horse-shoe morphology opening in the direction of the cloud. We observed a filamentary structure in the molecular gas likely related to G46 and not considerable molecular emission toward its open border. We found that about 10‧ to the southwest of G46 there are some pillar-like features, shining at 8 μm and pointing toward the H ii region open border. We propose that the pillar-like features were carved and sculpted by the ionizing flux from G46. We found several YSOs likely embedded in the molecular cloud grouped in two main concentrations: one, closer to the G46 open border consisting of Class II type sources, and another mostly composed of Class I type YSOs located just ahead of the pillar-like features, strongly suggesting an age gradient in the YSO distribution.

H ii REGION G46.5-0.2: THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN IONIZING RADIATION, MOLECULAR GAS, AND STAR FORMATION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Paron, S.; Ortega, M. E.; Dubner, G.

2015-06-15

H ii regions are particularly interesting because they can generate dense layers of gas and dust, elongated columns or pillars of gas pointing toward the ionizing sources, and cometary globules of dense gas where triggered star formation can occur. Understanding the interplay between the ionizing radiation and the dense surrounding gas is very important to explain the origin of these peculiar structures, and hence to characterize triggered star formation. G46.5-0.2 (G46), a poorly studied galactic H ii region located at about 4 kpc, is an excellent target for performing this kind of study. Using public molecular data extracted from themore » Galactic Ring Survey ({sup 13}CO J = 1–0) and from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope data archive ({sup 12}CO, {sup 13}CO, C{sup 18}O J = 3–2, HCO{sup +}, and HCN J = 4–3), and infrared data from the GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL surveys, we perform a complete study of G46, its molecular environment, and the young stellar objects (YSOs) placed around it. We found that G46, probably excited by an O7V star, is located close to the edge of the GRSMC G046.34-00.21 molecular cloud. It presents a horse-shoe morphology opening in the direction of the cloud. We observed a filamentary structure in the molecular gas likely related to G46 and not considerable molecular emission toward its open border. We found that about 10′ to the southwest of G46 there are some pillar-like features, shining at 8 μm and pointing toward the H ii region open border. We propose that the pillar-like features were carved and sculpted by the ionizing flux from G46. We found several YSOs likely embedded in the molecular cloud grouped in two main concentrations: one, closer to the G46 open border consisting of Class II type sources, and another mostly composed of Class I type YSOs located just ahead of the pillar-like features, strongly suggesting an age gradient in the YSO distribution.« less

Compression and ablation of the photo-irradiated molecular cloud the Orion Bar.

PubMed

Goicoechea, Javier R; Pety, Jérôme; Cuadrado, Sara; Cernicharo, José; Chapillon, Edwige; Fuente, Asunción; Gerin, Maryvonne; Joblin, Christine; Marcelino, Nuria; Pilleri, Paolo

2016-09-08

The Orion Bar is the archetypal edge-on molecular cloud surface illuminated by strong ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars. Our relative closeness to the Orion nebula (about 1,350 light years away from Earth) means that we can study the effects of stellar feedback on the parental cloud in detail. Visible-light observations of the Orion Bar show that the transition between the hot ionized gas and the warm neutral atomic gas (the ionization front) is spatially well separated from the transition between atomic and molecular gas (the dissociation front), by about 15 arcseconds or 6,200 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the Earth-Sun distance). Static equilibrium models used to interpret previous far-infrared and radio observations of the neutral gas in the Orion Bar (typically at 10-20 arcsecond resolution) predict an inhomogeneous cloud structure comprised of dense clumps embedded in a lower-density extended gas component. Here we report one-arcsecond-resolution millimetre-wave images that allow us to resolve the molecular cloud surface. In contrast to stationary model predictions, there is no appreciable offset between the peak of the H 2 vibrational emission (delineating the H/H 2 transition) and the edge of the observed CO and HCO + emission. This implies that the H/H 2 and C + /C/CO transition zones are very close. We find a fragmented ridge of high-density substructures, photoablative gas flows and instabilities at the molecular cloud surface. The results suggest that the cloud edge has been compressed by a high-pressure wave that is moving into the molecular cloud, demonstrating that dynamical and non-equilibrium effects are important for the cloud evolution.

Compression and ablation of the photo-irradiated molecular cloud the Orion Bar

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goicoechea, Javier R.; Pety, Jérôme; Cuadrado, Sara; Cernicharo, José; Chapillon, Edwige; Fuente, Asunción; Gerin, Maryvonne; Joblin, Christine; Marcelino, Nuria; Pilleri, Paolo

2016-09-01

The Orion Bar is the archetypal edge-on molecular cloud surface illuminated by strong ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars. Our relative closeness to the Orion nebula (about 1,350 light years away from Earth) means that we can study the effects of stellar feedback on the parental cloud in detail. Visible-light observations of the Orion Bar show that the transition between the hot ionized gas and the warm neutral atomic gas (the ionization front) is spatially well separated from the transition between atomic and molecular gas (the dissociation front), by about 15 arcseconds or 6,200 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the Earth-Sun distance). Static equilibrium models used to interpret previous far-infrared and radio observations of the neutral gas in the Orion Bar (typically at 10-20 arcsecond resolution) predict an inhomogeneous cloud structure comprised of dense clumps embedded in a lower-density extended gas component. Here we report one-arcsecond-resolution millimetre-wave images that allow us to resolve the molecular cloud surface. In contrast to stationary model predictions, there is no appreciable offset between the peak of the H2 vibrational emission (delineating the H/H2 transition) and the edge of the observed CO and HCO+ emission. This implies that the H/H2 and C+/C/CO transition zones are very close. We find a fragmented ridge of high-density substructures, photoablative gas flows and instabilities at the molecular cloud surface. The results suggest that the cloud edge has been compressed by a high-pressure wave that is moving into the molecular cloud, demonstrating that dynamical and non-equilibrium effects are important for the cloud evolution.

The sensitivity of gas-phase models of dense interstellar clouds to changes in dissociative recombination branching ratios

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Millar, T. J.; Defrees, D. J.; Mclean, A. D.; Herbst, E.

1988-01-01

The approach of Bates to the determination of neutral product branching ratios in ion-electron dissociative recombination reactions has been utilized in conjunction with quantum chemical techniques to redetermine branching ratios for a wide variety of important reactions of this class in dense interstellar clouds. The branching ratios have then been used in a pseudo time-dependent model calculation of the gas phase chemistry of a dark cloud resembling TMC-1 and the results compared with an analogous model containing previously used branching ratios. In general, the changes in branching ratios lead to stronger effects on calculated molecular abundances at steady state than at earlier times and often lead to reductions in the calculated abundances of complex molecules. However, at the so-called 'early time' when complex molecule synthesis is most efficient, the abundances of complex molecules are hardly affected by the newly used branching ratios.

XMM-Newton observation of the supernova remnant Kes 78 (G32.8-0.1): Evidence of shock-cloud interaction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miceli, M.; Bamba, A.; Orlando, S.; Zhou, P.; Safi-Harb, S.; Chen, Y.; Bocchino, F.

2017-03-01

Context. The Galactic supernova remnant Kes 78 is surrounded by dense molecular clouds, whose projected position overlaps with the extended HESS γ-ray source HESS J1852-000. The X-ray emission from the remnant has recently been revealed by Suzaku observations, which have shown indications for a hard X-ray component in the spectra that might be associated with synchrotron radiation. Aims: We describe the spatial distribution of the physical properties of the X-ray emitting plasma and reveal the effects of the interaction of the remnant with the inhomogeneous ambient medium. We also investigate the origin of the γ-ray emission, which may be inverse-Compton radiation associated with X-ray synchrotron-emitting electrons or hadronic emission originating from the impact of high-energy protons on the nearby clouds. Methods: We analyzed an XMM-Newton EPIC observation of Kes 78 by performing image analysis and spatially resolved spectral analysis on a set of three regions. We tested our findings against the observations of the 12CO and 13CO emission in the environment of the remnant. Results: We reveal the complex X-ray morphology of Kes 78 and find variations in the spectral properties of the plasma, with significantly denser and cooler material at the eastern edge of the remnant, which we interpret as a signature of interaction with a molecular cloud. We also exclude that narrow filaments emit the X-ray synchrotron radiation. Conclusions: Assuming that the very high energy γ-ray emission is associated with Kes 78, the lack of synchrotron emission rules out a leptonic origin. A hadronic origin is further supported by evidence of interaction of the remnant with a dense molecular cloud in its eastern limb.

Interpreting the sub-linear Kennicutt-Schmidt relationship: the case for diffuse molecular gas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shetty, Rahul; Clark, Paul C.; Klessen, Ralf S.

2014-08-01

Recent statistical analysis of two extragalactic observational surveys strongly indicate a sub-linear Kennicutt-Schmidt (KS) relationship between the star formation rate (ΣSFR) and molecular gas surface density (Σmol). Here, we consider the consequences of these results in the context of common assumptions, as well as observational support for a linear relationship between ΣSFR and the surface density of dense gas. If the CO traced gas depletion time (τ_dep^CO) is constant, and if CO only traces star-forming giant molecular clouds (GMCs), then the physical properties of each GMC must vary, such as the volume densities or star formation rates. Another possibility is that the conversion between CO luminosity and Σmol, the XCO factor, differs from cloud-to-cloud. A more straightforward explanation is that CO permeates the hierarchical interstellar medium, including the filaments and lower density regions within which GMCs are embedded. A number of independent observational results support this description, with the diffuse gas comprising at least 30 per cent of the total molecular content. The CO bright diffuse gas can explain the sub-linear KS relationship, and consequently leads to an increasing τ_dep^CO with Σmol. If ΣSFR linearly correlates with the dense gas surface density, a sub-linear KS relationship indicates that the fraction of diffuse gas fdiff grows with Σmol. In galaxies where Σmol falls towards the outer disc, this description suggests that fdiff also decreases radially.

Time dependent chemistry in dense molecular clouds. I - Grain surface reactions, gas/grain interactions and infrared spectroscopy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dhendecourt, L. B.; Allamandola, L. J.; Greenberg, J. M.

1985-01-01

For the fist time, a time-dependent model is described which includes the role of grains in the production of molecules in dense clouds including ion-molecule gas phase chemistry. The approach provides information regarding the coupling between the two phases. Although the coupling between the two chemistries is extremely strong, the two domains maintain their own identities. While H2O, CH4, and NH3 are made efficiently, with a high production rate on grains and released back to the gas phase, the gas phase is essentially responsible for the formation of CO, a very stable molecule which may or may not react on grains with atomic oxygen and may or may not form CO2.

Interstellar clouds - From a dynamical perspective on their chemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prasad, S. S.

1985-01-01

The possibility is examined that in the course of its dynamical evolution, a single mass of interstellar gas would exhibit properties of diffuse clouds, dense clouds and finally also of clouds perturbed by shocks or intense UV or X-ray radiation generated by a star of its own creation. This concept provides a common thread through the bewildering diversity of physical and chemical compositional properties shown by interstellar clouds. From this perspective, instead of being static objects, interstellar clouds are possibly incessantly evolving from initially diffuse to later dense state and then to star formation which ultimately restructures or disperses the remaining cloud material to begin the whole evolutionary process once again. Based on a simplified study of interstellar chemistry from a dynamical perspective, the ideas are presented as an heuristic: to encourage thought on the future direction of molecular astrophysics and the need to consider the chemical behavior of interstellar clouds in conjunction with, rather than in isolation from, their dynamical behavior. A physical basis must be sought for the semiempirical temperature formula which has been given a critical role in the collapse of diffuse clouds. Self-shielding effects in the chemistry of CO were neglected and this drawback should be removed; the ability of the model to explain the fractional abundances of more complex molecules, such as cyanopolyynes, should be examined.

Composition, structure and chemistry of interstellar dust

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tielens, Alexander G. G. M.; Allamandola, Louis J.

1986-01-01

The observational constraints on the composition of the interstellar dust are analyzed. The dust in the diffuse interstellar medium consists of a mixture of stardust (amorphous silicates, amorphous carbon, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and graphite) and interstellar medium dust (organic refractory material). Stardust seems to dominate in the local diffuse interstellar medium. Inside molecular clouds, however, icy grain mantles are also important. The structural differences between crystalline and amorphous materials, which lead to differences in the optical properties, are discussed. The astrophysical consequences are briefly examined. The physical principles of grain surface chemistry are discussed and applied to the formation of molecular hydrogen and icy grain mantles inside dense molecular clouds. Transformation of these icy grain mantles into the organic refractory dust component observed in the diffuse interstellar medium requires ultraviolet sources inside molecular clouds as well as radical diffusion promoted by transient heating of the mantle. The latter process also returns a considerable fraction of the molecules in the grain mantle to the gas phase.

Atomic Oxygen Abundance in Molecular Clouds: Absorption Toward Sagittarius B2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lis, D. C.; Keene, Jocelyn; Phillips, T. G.; Schilke, P.; Werner, M. W.; Zmuidzinas, J.

2001-01-01

We have obtained high-resolution (approximately 35 km/s) spectra toward the molecular cloud Sgr B2 at 63 micrometers, the wavelength of the ground-state fine-structure line of atomic oxygen (O(I)), using the ISO-LWS instrument. Four separate velocity components are seen in the deconvolved spectrum, in absorption against the dust continuum emission of Sgr B2. Three of these components, corresponding to foreground clouds, are used to study the O(I) content of the cool molecular gas along the line of sight. In principle, the atomic oxygen that produces a particular velocity component could exist in any, or all, of three physically distinct regions: inside a dense molecular cloud, in the UV illuminated surface layer (PDR) of a cloud, and in an atomic (H(I)) gas halo. For each of the three foreground clouds, we estimate, and subtract from the observed O(I) column density, the oxygen content of the H(I) halo gas, by scaling from a published high-resolution 21 cm spectrum. We find that the remaining O(I) column density is correlated with the observed (13)CO column density. From the slope of this correlation, an average [O(I)]/[(13)CO] ratio of 270 +/- 120 (3-sigma) is derived, which corresponds to [O(I)]/[(13)CO] = 9 for a CO to (13)CO abundance ratio of 30. Assuming a (13)CO abundance of 1x10(exp -6) with respect to H nuclei, we derive an atomic oxygen abundance of 2.7x10(exp -4) in the dense gas phase, corresponding to a 15% oxygen depletion compared to the diffuse ISM in our Galactic neighborhood. The presence of multiple, spectrally resolved velocity components in the Sgr B2 absorption spectrum allows, for the first time, a direct determination of the PDR contribution to the O(I) column density. The PDR regions should contain O(I) but not (13)CO, and would thus be expected to produce an offset in the O(I)-(13)CO correlation. Our data do not show such an offset, suggesting that within our beam O(I) is spatially coexistent with the molecular gas, as traced by (13)CO. This may be a result of the inhomogeneous nature of the clouds.

THE JCMT GOULD BELT SURVEY: A FIRST LOOK AT DENSE CORES IN ORION B

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kirk, H.; Francesco, J. Di; Johnstone, D.

2016-02-01

We present a first look at the SCUBA-2 observations of three sub-regions of the Orion B molecular cloud: LDN 1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071, from the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey. We identify 29, 564, and 322 dense cores in L1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071 respectively, using the SCUBA-2 850 μm map, and present their basic properties, including their peak fluxes, total fluxes, and sizes, and an estimate of the corresponding 450 μm peak fluxes and total fluxes, using the FellWalker source extraction algorithm. Assuming a constant temperature of 20 K, the starless dense cores have a mass function similar to that found inmore » previous dense core analyses, with a Salpeter-like slope at the high-mass end. The majority of cores appear stable to gravitational collapse when considering only thermal pressure; indeed, most of the cores which have masses above the thermal Jeans mass are already associated with at least one protostar. At higher cloud column densities, above 1–2 × 10{sup 23} cm{sup −2}, most of the mass is found within dense cores, while at lower cloud column densities, below 1 × 10{sup 23} cm{sup −2}, this fraction drops to 10% or lower. Overall, the fraction of dense cores associated with a protostar is quite small (<8%), but becomes larger for the densest and most centrally concentrated cores. NGC 2023/2024 and NGC 2068/2071 appear to be on the path to forming a significant number of stars in the future, while L1622 has little additional mass in dense cores to form many new stars.« less

The JCMT Gould Belt Survey: A First Look at Dense Cores in Orion B

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirk, H.; Di Francesco, J.; Johnstone, D.; Duarte-Cabral, A.; Sadavoy, S.; Hatchell, J.; Mottram, J. C.; Buckle, J.; Berry, D. S.; Broekhoven-Fiene, H.; Currie, M. J.; Fich, M.; Jenness, T.; Nutter, D.; Pattle, K.; Pineda, J. E.; Quinn, C.; Salji, C.; Tisi, S.; Hogerheijde, M. R.; Ward-Thompson, D.; Bastien, P.; Bresnahan, D.; Butner, H.; Chen, M.; Chrysostomou, A.; Coude, S.; Davis, C. J.; Drabek-Maunder, E.; Fiege, J.; Friberg, P.; Friesen, R.; Fuller, G. A.; Graves, S.; Greaves, J.; Gregson, J.; Holland, W.; Joncas, G.; Kirk, J. M.; Knee, L. B. G.; Mairs, S.; Marsh, K.; Matthews, B. C.; Moriarty-Schieven, G.; Mowat, C.; Rawlings, J.; Richer, J.; Robertson, D.; Rosolowsky, E.; Rumble, D.; Thomas, H.; Tothill, N.; Viti, S.; White, G. J.; Wouterloot, J.; Yates, J.; Zhu, M.

2016-02-01

We present a first look at the SCUBA-2 observations of three sub-regions of the Orion B molecular cloud: LDN 1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071, from the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey. We identify 29, 564, and 322 dense cores in L1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071 respectively, using the SCUBA-2 850 μm map, and present their basic properties, including their peak fluxes, total fluxes, and sizes, and an estimate of the corresponding 450 μm peak fluxes and total fluxes, using the FellWalker source extraction algorithm. Assuming a constant temperature of 20 K, the starless dense cores have a mass function similar to that found in previous dense core analyses, with a Salpeter-like slope at the high-mass end. The majority of cores appear stable to gravitational collapse when considering only thermal pressure; indeed, most of the cores which have masses above the thermal Jeans mass are already associated with at least one protostar. At higher cloud column densities, above 1-2 × 1023 cm-2, most of the mass is found within dense cores, while at lower cloud column densities, below 1 × 1023 cm-2, this fraction drops to 10% or lower. Overall, the fraction of dense cores associated with a protostar is quite small (<8%), but becomes larger for the densest and most centrally concentrated cores. NGC 2023/2024 and NGC 2068/2071 appear to be on the path to forming a significant number of stars in the future, while L1622 has little additional mass in dense cores to form many new stars.

Core Emergence in a Massive Infrared Dark Cloud: A Comparison between Mid-IR Extinction and 1.3 mm Emission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kong, Shuo; Tan, Jonathan C.; Arce, Héctor G.; Caselli, Paola; Fontani, Francesco; Butler, Michael J.

2018-03-01

Stars are born from dense cores in molecular clouds. Observationally, it is crucial to capture the formation of cores in order to understand the necessary conditions and rate of the star formation process. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is extremely powerful for identifying dense gas structures, including cores, at millimeter wavelengths via their dust continuum emission. Here, we use ALMA to carry out a survey of dense gas and cores in the central region of the massive (∼105 M ⊙) infrared dark cloud (IRDC) G28.37+0.07. The observation consists of a mosaic of 86 pointings of the 12 m array and produces an unprecedented view of the densest structures of this IRDC. In this first Letter about this data set, we focus on a comparison between the 1.3 mm continuum emission and a mid-infrared (MIR) extinction map of the IRDC. This allows estimation of the “dense gas” detection probability function (DPF), i.e., as a function of the local mass surface density, Σ, for various choices of thresholds of millimeter continuum emission to define “dense gas.” We then estimate the dense gas mass fraction, f dg, in the central region of the IRDC and, via extrapolation with the DPF and the known Σ probability distribution function, to the larger-scale surrounding regions, finding values of about 5% to 15% for the fiducial choice of threshold. We argue that this observed dense gas is a good tracer of the protostellar core population and, in this context, estimate a star formation efficiency per free-fall time in the central IRDC region of ɛ ff ∼ 10%, with approximately a factor of two systematic uncertainties.

Isotopic Fractionation in Primitive Material: Quantifying the Contribution of Interstellar Chemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Charnley, Steven

2010-01-01

Anomalously fractionated isotopic material is found in many primitive Solar System objects, such as meteorites and comets. It is thought, in some cases, to trace interstellar matter that was incorporated into the Solar Nebula without undergoing significant processing. We will present the results of models of the nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon fractionation chemistry in dense molecular clouds, particularly in cores where substantial freeze-out of molecules on to dust has occurred. The range of fractionation ratios expected in different interstellar molecules will be discussed and compared to the ratios measured in molecular clouds, comets and meteoritic material. These models make several predictions that can be tested in the near future by molecular line observations, particularly with ALMA.

An origin of arc structures deeply embedded in dense molecular cloud cores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsumoto, Tomoaki; Onishi, Toshikazu; Tokuda, Kazuki; Inutsuka, Shu-ichiro

2015-04-01

We investigated the formation of arc-like structures in the infalling envelope around protostars, motivated by the recent Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the high-density molecular cloud core, MC27/L1521F. We performed self-gravitational hydrodynamical numerical simulations with an adaptive mesh refinement code. A filamentary cloud with a 0.1 pc width fragments into cloud cores because of perturbations due to weak turbulence. The cloud core undergoes gravitational collapse to form multiple protostars, and gravitational torque from the orbiting protostars produces arc structures extending up to a 1000 au scale. As well as on a spatial extent, the velocity ranges of the arc structures, ˜0.5 km s-1, are in agreement with the ALMA observations. We also found that circumstellar discs are often misaligned in triple system. The misalignment is caused by the tidal interaction between the protostars when they undergo close encounters because of a highly eccentric orbit of the tight binary pair.

Laboratory experiments on interstellar ice analogs: The sticking and desorption of small physisorbed molecules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fuchs, G. W.; Acharyya, K.; Bisschop, S. E.; Oberg, K. I.; vanBroekhuizen, F. A.; Fraser, H. J.; Schlemmer, S.; vanDishoeck, E. F.; Linnartz, H.

2006-01-01

Molecular oxygen and nitrogen are difficult to observe since they are infrared inactive and radio quiet. The low O2 abundances found so far combined with general considerations of dense cloud conditions suggest molecular oxygen is frozen out at low temperatures (< 20 K) in the shielded inner regions of cloud cores. In solid form O2 and N2 can only be observed as adjuncts within other ice constituents, like CO. In this work we focus on fundamental properties of N2 and O2 in CO ice-gas systems, e.g. desorption characteristics and sticking probabilities at low temperatures for different ice morphologies.

The star-forming content of the W3 giant molecular cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moore, T. J. T.; Bretherton, D. E.; Fujiyoshi, T.; Ridge, N. A.; Allsopp, J.; Hoare, M. G.; Lumsden, S. L.; Richer, J. S.

2007-08-01

We have surveyed a ˜0.9 square degree area of the W3 giant molecular cloud (GMC) and star-forming region in the 850-μm continuum, using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. A complete sample of 316 dense clumps were detected with a mass range from around 13 to 2500 M⊙. Part of the W3 GMC is subject to an interaction with the H ii region and fast stellar winds generated by the nearby W4 OB association. We find that the fraction of total gas mass in dense, 850-μm traced structures is significantly altered by this interaction, being around 5-13 per cent in the undisturbed cloud but ˜25-37 per cent in the feedback-affected region. The mass distribution in the detected clump sample depends somewhat on assumptions of dust temperature and is not a simple, single power law but contains significant structure at intermediate masses. This structure is likely to be due to crowding of sources near or below the spatial resolution of the observations. There is little evidence of any difference between the index of the high-mass end of the clump mass function in the compressed region and in the unaffected cloud. The consequences of these results are discussed in terms of current models of triggered star formation.

The violent interstellar medium in Milky-Way like disk galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karoline Walch, Stefanie

2015-08-01

Molecular clouds are cold, dense, and turbulent filamentary structures that condense out of the multi-phase interstellar medium. They are also the sites of star formation. The minority of new-born stars is massive, but these stars are particularly important for the fate of their parental molecular clouds as their feedback drives turbulence and regulates star formation.I will present results from the SILCC project (SImulating the Life Cycle of molecular Clouds), in which we study the formation and dispersal of molecular clouds within the multi-phase ISM using high-performance, three-dimensional simulations of representative pieces of disk galaxies. Apart from stellar feedback, self-gravity, an external stellar potential, and magnetic fields, we employ an accurate description of gas heating and cooling as well as a small chemical network including molecule formation and (self-)shielding from the interstellar radiation field. We study the impact of the supernova rate and the positioning of the supernova explosions with respect to the molecular gas in a well defined set of simulations. This allows us to draw conclusions on structure of the multi-phase ISM, the amount of molecular gas formed, and the onset of galactic outflows. Furthermore, we show how important stellar wind feedback is for regulating star formation in these disks.

From Interstellar PAHs and Ices to the Origin of Life

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, Louis J.; DeVincenzi, Donald L. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

Tremendous strides have been made in our understanding of interstellar material over the past twenty years thanks to significant, parallel developments in observational astronomy and laboratory astrophysics. Twenty years ago the composition of interstellar dust was largely guessed at, the concept of ices in dense molecular clouds ignored, and the notion of large, abundant, gas phase, carbon rich molecules widespread throughout the interstellar medium (ISM) considered impossible. Today the composition of dust in the diffuse ISM is reasonably well constrained to micron-sized cold refractory materials comprised of amorphous and crystalline silicates mixed with an amorphous carbonaceous material containing aromatic structural units and short, branched aliphatic chains. In dense molecular clouds, the birthplace of stars and planets, these cold dust particles are coated with mixed molecular ices whose composition is very well constrained. Lastly, the signature of carbon-rich polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), shockingly large molecules by earlier interstellar chemistry standards, is widespread throughout the Universe. The first part of this lecture will describe how infrared studies of interstellar space, combined with laboratory simulations, have revealed the composition of interstellar ices (the building blocks of comets) and the high abundance and nature of interstellar PAHs. The laboratory database has now enabled us to gain insight into the identities, concentrations, and physical state of many interstellar materials. Within a dense molecular cloud, and especially in the solar nebula during the star and planet formation stage, the materials frozen into interstellar/precometary ices are photoprocessed by ultraviolet light, producing more complex molecules. The remainder of the presentation will focus on the photochemical evolution of these materials and the possible role of these compounds on the early Earth. As these materials are thought to be the building blocks of comets and related to the carbonaceous components of micrometeorites, they are likely to have been important sources of complex organic materials on the early Earth and their composition may be related to the origin of life.

Formation of young massive clusters from turbulent molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fujii, Michiko; Portegies Zwart, Simon

2015-08-01

We simulate the formation and evolution of young star clusters using smoothed-particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and direct N-body methods. We start by performing SPH simulations of the giant molecular cloud with a turbulent velocity field, a mass of 10^4 to 10^6 M_sun, and a density between 17 and 1700 cm^-3. We continue the SPH simulations for a free-fall time scale, and analyze the resulting structure of the collapsed cloud. We subsequently replace a density-selected subset of SPH particles with stars. As a consequence, the local star formation efficiency exceeds 30 per cent, whereas globally only a few per cent of the gas is converted to stars. The stellar distribution is very clumpy with typically a dozen bound conglomerates that consist of 100 to 10000 stars. We continue to evolve the stars dynamically using the collisional N-body method, which accurately treats all pairwise interactions, stellar collisions and stellar evolution. We analyze the results of the N-body simulations at 2 Myr and 10 Myr. From dense massive molecular clouds, massive clusters grow via hierarchical merging of smaller clusters. The shape of the cluster mass function that originates from an individual molecular cloud is consistent with a Schechter function with a power-law slope of beta = -1.73 at 2 Myr and beta = -1.67 at 10 Myr, which fits to observed cluster mass function of the Carina region. The superposition of mass functions have a power-law slope of < -2, which fits the observed mass function of star clusters in the Milky Way, M31 and M83. We further find that the mass of the most massive cluster formed in a single molecular cloud with a mass of M_g scales with 6.1 M_g^0.51 which also agrees with recent observation in M51. The molecular clouds which can form massive clusters are much denser than those typical in the Milky Way. The velocity dispersion of such molecular clouds reaches 20 km/s and it is consistent with the relative velocity of the molecular clouds observed near NGC 3603 and Westerlund 2, for which a triggered star formation by cloud-cloud collisions is suggested.

The Lambda Orionis association. [star cluster anomalies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Murdin, P.; Penston, M. V.

1977-01-01

The Lambda Orionis association has the photometric properties of a typical young cluster with an age of about 4 million yr. Its distance is 400 + or - 40 pc. Attention is drawn to the lack of a dense molecular cloud and associated infrared sources in this young grouping

High Spectral Resolution Lidar Measurements of Multiple Scattering

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eloranta, E. W.; Piironen, P.

1996-01-01

The University of Wisconsin High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) provides unambiguous measurements of backscatter cross section, backscatter phase function, depolarization, and optical depth. This is accomplished by dividing the lidar return into separate particulate and molecular contributions. The molecular return is then used as a calibration target. We have modified the HSRL to use an I2 molecular absorption filter to separate aerosol and molecular signals. This allows measurement in dense clouds. Useful profiles extend above the cloud base until the two way optical depth reaches values between 5 and 6; beyond this, photon counting errors become large. In order to observe multiple scattering, the HSRL includes a channel which records the combined aerosol and molecular lidar return simultaneously with the spectrometer channel measurements of optical properties. This paper describes HSRL multiple scattering measurements from both water and ice clouds. These include signal strengths and depolarizations as a function of receiver field of view. All observations include profiles of extinction and backscatter cross sections. Measurements are also compared to predictions of a multiple scattering model based on small angle approximations.

Infrared Extinction and the Initial Conditions for Star and Planet Formation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lada, Charles J.

2005-01-01

This grant funded a research program to use infrared extinction measurements to probe the detailed structure of dark molecular clouds and investigate the physical conditions which give rise to star and planet formation. The goals of the this program were to: 1) acquire deep infrared and molecular-line observations of a carefully selected sample of nearby dark clouds, 2) reduce and analyze the data obtained in order to produce detailed extinction maps of the clouds, 3) use the results to measure and quantitatively describe the physical conditions of the dense gas and dust that produce stars and their accompanying planetary systems in molecular clouds. The goals of this project were met and exceeded as described below. 1) The infrared data for the project were obtained in a number of observing runs using the 3.5-meter NTT and 8-meter VLT telescopes of the European Southern Observatory in Chile and the 1.2-meter telescope of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Arizona, the 1 0-meter Keck telescope in Hawaii, the 6.5-meter MMT of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Arizona, and the NASA Hubble Space Telescope. The molecular-line data was obtained in three runs using the IRAM 30-meter telescope in Spain and one run with the ESO-15 meter millimeter-wave telescope in Chile. Millimeter-wave continuum measurements were obtained with the 15-meter JCMT in Hawaii. 2) Considerable effort was expended to reduce the infrared imaging observations including the development of custom software to produce high quality photometry and source astrometry. All the millimeter-line data was reduced using standard reduction routines. The highlights of the infrared analysis were the production of detailed extinction maps and the construction of profiles of the density structure of the B68, Coalsack, B335 and Lupus clouds. 3) The principal scientific accomplishments of this research program include the following: We were able to use our infrared observations to determine the density structure of the B68 cloud to an unprecedented level of precision. This lead to a major breakthrough in the study of molecular cloud structure. For the first time we have been able to characterize the structure of a dark cloud in a detail only exceeded by that known for a star. We determined that the cloud's structure is exquisitely well described by the equations of a Bonner-Ebert sphere (a pressure confined isothermal sphere). We were able to show that the cloud is very nearly in equilibrium with the internal thermal pressure of the cloud balancing gravity and the external pressure of the surrounding interstellar medium. We were able to determine for the first time the gas-to-dust ratio in a dense cloud core. We also demonstrated a new method to determine extremely precise distances to such clouds by combining knowledge of the properties of Bonner-Ebert Spheres with our infrared and millimeter-wave observations.

The Formation and Early Evolution of Embedded Massive Star Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnes, Peter

We propose to combine Spitzer, WISE, Herschel, and other archival spacecraft data with an existing ground- and space-based mm-wave to near-IR survey of molecular clouds over a large portion of the Milky Way, in order to systematically study the formation and early evolution of massive stars and star clusters, and provide new observational calibrations for a theoretical paradigm of this key astrophysical problem. Central Objectives: The Galactic Census of High- and Medium-mass Protostars (CHaMP) is a large, unbiased, uniform, and panchromatic survey of massive star and cluster formation and early evolution, covering 20°x6° of the Galactic Plane. Its uniqueness lies in the comprehensive molecular spectroscopy of 303 massive dense clumps, which have also been included in several archival spacecraft surveys. Our objective is a systematic demographic analysis of massive star and cluster formation, one which has not been possible without knowledge of our CHaMP cloud sample, including all clouds with embedded clusters as well as those that have not yet formed massive stars. For proto-clusters deeply embedded within dense molecular clouds, analysis of these space-based data will: 1. Yield a complete census of Young Stellar Objects in each cluster. 2. Allow systematic measurements of embedded cluster properties: spectral energy distributions, luminosity functions, protostellar and disk fractions, and how these vary with cluster mass, age, and density. Combined with other, similarly complete and unbiased infrared and mm data, CHaMP's goals include: 3. A detailed comparison of the embedded stellar populations with their natal dense gas to derive extinction maps, star formation efficiencies and feedback effects, and the kinematics, physics, and chemistry of the gas in and around the clusters. 4. Tying the demographics, age spreads, and timescales of the clusters, based on pre-Main Sequence evolution, to that of the dense gas clumps and Giant Molecular Clouds. 5. A measurement of the local star formation rate per gas mass surface density in the Milky Way, as well as examining arm versus interarm dependencies. Methods and Techniques: We will primarily use archival cryogenic-Spitzer, WISE, and Herschel data, and support this with existing data from ground- and space-based facilities, to conduct a comprehensive assay of critical metrics (as above) and provide observational calibration of theoretical models over the entire massive star formation process. The mm-wave molecular maps of 303 dense gas clumps in multiple species, comprising all the gas above a column density limit of 100 Msun/pc^2, are already inhand. We have also surveyed the embedded stellar content of these clumps, down to subsolar masses, in the near-infrared J, H, and K bands and with deep Warm Spitzer data. Relevance to NASA programs: Analysis to date of the space- and ground-based data has yielded several new insights into evolutionary timescales and the chemical & energy evolution of clumps during the cluster formation process. Investigations as described in this proposal will yield new demographic insights on how the properties and evolution of molecular clouds relate to the properties of massive stars and clusters that form within them, and significantly enhance the science return from these spacecraft missions. The large number of resulting data products are already being made publicly available to the astronomical community, providing crucial information for future NASA science targets. This research will be performed within the framework of a broad international collaboration spanning four continents. This ambitious but practical program will therefore maximise the science payoff from these archival data sets, provide enhanced legacy data for more advanced studies with the next generation of ground- and space-based instruments such as JWST, and open up several new windows into the discovery space of Galactic star formation & interstellar medium studies.

H2D(+) observations give an age of at least one million years for a cloud core forming Sun-like stars.

PubMed

Brünken, Sandra; Sipilä, Olli; Chambers, Edward T; Harju, Jorma; Caselli, Paola; Asvany, Oskar; Honingh, Cornelia E; Kamiński, Tomasz; Menten, Karl M; Stutzki, Jürgen; Schlemmer, Stephan

2014-12-11

The age of dense interstellar cloud cores, where stars and planets form, is a crucial parameter in star formation and difficult to measure. Some models predict rapid collapse, whereas others predict timescales of more than one million years (ref. 3). One possible approach to determining the age is through chemical changes as cloud contraction occurs, in particular through indirect measurements of the ratio of the two spin isomers (ortho/para) of molecular hydrogen, H2, which decreases monotonically with age. This has been done for the dense cloud core L183, for which the deuterium fractionation of diazenylium (N2H(+)) was used as a chemical clock to infer that the core has contracted rapidly (on a timescale of less than 700,000 years). Among astronomically observable molecules, the spin isomers of the deuterated trihydrogen cation, ortho-H2D(+) and para-H2D(+), have the most direct chemical connections to H2 (refs 8, 9, 10, 11, 12) and their abundance ratio provides a chemical clock that is sensitive to greater cloud core ages. So far this ratio has not been determined because para-H2D(+) is very difficult to observe. The detection of its rotational ground-state line has only now become possible thanks to accurate measurements of its transition frequency in the laboratory, and recent progress in instrumentation technology. Here we report observations of ortho- and para-H2D(+) emission and absorption, respectively, from the dense cloud core hosting IRAS 16293-2422 A/B, a group of nascent solar-type stars (with ages of less than 100,000 years). Using the ortho/para ratio in conjunction with chemical models, we find that the dense core has been chemically processed for at least one million years. The apparent discrepancy with the earlier N2H(+) work arises because that chemical clock turns off sooner than the H2D(+) clock, but both results imply that star-forming dense cores have ages of about one million years, rather than 100,000 years.

The Dense Gas Fraction in the Central Molecular Zone in the Milky Way

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vargas-Salazar, Irene; Battersby, Cara; Walker, Daniel; Zhang, Qizhou; CMZoom

2017-01-01

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), a large reservoir of dense molecular gas occupying the central 500pc of the Milky Way, is an extreme star-formation environment where the validity of star formation prescriptions can be tested. The star formation rate (SFR) in the CMZ is about an order of magnitude lower than predicted by the currently accepted prescriptions. An international team lead by PIs Battersby and Keto conducted a survey from 2013-2016 called CMZoom using the Submillimeter Array (SMA) to characterize star formation within resolved molecular clouds in this extreme region. One of the main goals of this survey is to further quantify and understand the low SFR found in this region of the Galaxy. Here, we use the CASA software package to run synthetic observations of hydrodynamical simulations of molecular clouds and vary the observation parameters in such a way that we explore the real parameter space that was probed during the survey. The purpose of this is to investigate how the different observational parameters affect the resultant data. Afterwards, we estimate the “dense gas fraction” (DGF) found in regions across the CMZ. This estimate was found by using the interferometric flux from SMA and the single-dish flux from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. We analyzed the effects that different locations of the CMZ had on these approximate DGF. With these simulations and DGF estimates, we are able to generate improved methods to analyze the data from this survey that will help understand star formation in an extreme environment.The SAO REU program is funded in part by the National Science Foundation REU and Department of Defense ASSURE programs under NSF Grant no.1262851, and by the Smithsonian Institution.

The essential signature of a massive starburst in a distant quasar.

PubMed

Solomon, P; Vanden Bout, P; Carilli, C; Guelin, M

2003-12-11

Observations of carbon monoxide emission in high-redshift (zeta > 2) galaxies indicate the presence of large amounts of molecular gas. Many of these galaxies contain an active galactic nucleus powered by accretion of gas onto a supermassive black hole, and a key question is whether their extremely high infrared luminosities result from the active galactic nucleus, from bursts of massive star formation (associated with the molecular gas), or both. In the Milky Way, high-mass stars form in the dense cores of interstellar molecular clouds, where gas densities are n(H2) > 10(5) cm(-3) (refs 1, 2). Recent surveys show that virtually all galactic sites of high-mass star formation have similarly high densities. The bulk of the cloud material traced by CO observations, however, is at a much lower density. For galaxies in the local Universe, the HCN molecule is an effective tracer of high-density molecular gas. Here we report observations of HCN emission from the infrared-luminous 'Cloverleaf' quasar (at a redshift zeta = 2.5579). The HCN line luminosity indicates the presence of 10 billion solar masses of very dense gas, an essential feature of an immense starburst, which contributes, together with the active galactic nucleus it harbours, to its high infrared luminosity.

A Model for Atomic and Molecular Interstellar Gas: The Meudon PDR Code

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Petit, Franck; Nehmé, Cyrine; Le Bourlot, Jacques; Roueff, Evelyne

2006-06-01

We present the revised ``Meudon'' model of photon-dominated region (PDR) code, available on the Web under the GNU Public License. General organization of the code is described down to a level that should allow most observers to use it as an interpretation tool with minimal help from our part. Two grids of models, one for low-excitation diffuse clouds and one for dense highly illuminated clouds, are discussed, and some new results on PDR modelization highlighted.

Formaldehyde in the Diffuse Interstellar Cloud MBM40

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Joy, Mackenzie; Magnani, Loris A.

2018-06-01

MBM40, a high-latitude molecular cloud, has been extensively studied using different molecular tracers. It appears that MBM40 is composed of a relatively dense, helical filament embedded in a more diffuse substrate of low density molecular gas. In order to study the transition between the two regimes, this project presents the first high-resolution mapping of MBM40 using the 110-111 hyperfine transition of formaldehyde (H2CO) at 4.83 GHz. We used H2CO spectra obtained with the Arecibo telescope more than a decade ago to construct this map. The results can be compared to previous maps made from the CO(1-0) transition to gain further understanding of the structure of the cloud. The intensity of the H2CO emission was compared to the CO emission. Although a correlation exists between the H2CO and CO emissivity, there seems to be a saturation of H2CO line strength for stronger CO emissivity. This is probably a radiative transfer effect of the CO emission. We have also found that the velocity dispersion of H2CO in the lower ridge of the cloud is significantly lower than in the rest of the cloud. This may indicate that this portion of the cloud is a coherent structure (analogous to an eddy) in a turbulent flow.

The chemistry of dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Irvine, W. M.

1991-01-01

The basic theme of this program is the study of molecular complexity and evolution in interstellar and circumstellar clouds incorporating the biogenic elements. Recent results include the identification of a new astronomical carbon-chain molecule, C4Si. This species was detected in the envelope expelled from the evolved star IRC+10216 in observations at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory in Japan. C4Si is the carrier of six unidentified lines which had previously been observed. This detection reveals the existence of a new series of carbon-chain molecules, C sub n Si (n equals 1, 2, 4). Such molecules may well be formed from the reaction of Si(+) with acetylene and acetylene derivatives. Other recent research has concentrated on the chemical composition of the cold, dark interstellar clouds, the nearest dense molecular clouds to the solar system. Such regions have very low kinetic temperatures, on the order of 10 K, and are known to be formation sites for solar-type stars. We have recently identified for the first time in such regions the species of H2S, NO, HCOOH (formic acid). The H2S abundance appears to exceed that predicted by gas-phase models of ion-molecule chemistry, perhaps suggesting the importance of synthesis on grain surfaces. Additional observations in dark clouds have studied the ratio of ortho- to para-thioformaldehyde. Since this ratio is expected to be unaffected by both radiative and ordinary collisional processes in the cloud, it may well reflect the formation conditions for this molecule. The ratio is observed to depart from that expected under conditions of chemical equilibrium at formation, perhaps reflecting efficient interchange between cold dust grains in the gas phase.

IRAS Colors of the Pleiades

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carey, Sean J.; Shipman, R. F.; Clark, F. O.

1996-01-01

We present large scale images of the infrared emission of the region around the Pleiades using the ISSA data product from the IRAS mission. Residual Zodiacal background and a discontinuity in the image due to the scanning strategy of the satellite necessitated special background subtraction methods. The 60/100 color image clearly shows the heating of the ambient interstellar medium by the cluster. The 12/100 and 25/100 images peak on the cluster as expected for exposure of small dust grains to an enhanced UV radiation field; however, the 25/100 color declines to below the average interstellar value at the periphery of the cluster. Potential causes of the color deficit are discussed. A new method of identifying dense molecular material through infrared emission properties is presented. The difference between the 100 micron flux density and the 60 micron flux density scaled by the average interstellar 60/100 color ratio (Delta I(sub 100) is a sensitive diagnostic of material with embedded heating sources (Delta I(sub 100) less than 0) and cold, dense cores (Delta I(sub 100) greater than 0). The dense cores of the Taurus cloud complex as well as Lynds 1457 are clearly identified by this method, while the IR bright but diffuse Pleiades molecular cloud is virtually indistinguishable from the nearby infrared cirrus.

A Search for O2 in CO-Depleted Molecular Cloud Cores With Herschel

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wirstroem, Eva S.; Charnley, Steven B.; Cordiner, Martin; Ceccarelli, Cecilia

2016-01-01

The general lack of molecular oxygen in molecular clouds is an outstanding problem in astrochemistry. Extensive searches with the Submillimeter Astronomical Satellite, Odin, and Herschel have only produced two detections; upper limits to the O2 abundance in the remaining sources observed are about 1000 times lower than predicted by chemical models. Previous atomic oxygen observations and inferences from observations of other molecules indicated that high abundances of O atoms might be present in dense cores exhibiting large amounts of CO depletion. Theoretical arguments concerning the oxygen gas-grain interaction in cold dense cores suggested that, if O atoms could survive in the gas after most of the rest of the heavy molecular material has frozen out onto dust, then O2 could be formed efficiently in the gas. Using Herschel HIFI, we searched a small sample of four depletion cores-L1544, L694-2, L429, and Oph D-for emission in the low excitation O2 N(sub J)?=?3(sub 3)-1(sub 2) line at 487.249 GHz. Molecular oxygen was not detected and we derive upper limits to its abundance in the range of N(O2)/N (H2) approx. = (0.6-1.6) x10(exp -7). We discuss the absence of O2 in the light of recent laboratory and observational studies.

The molecular composition of dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allen, M.; Robinson, G. W.

1977-01-01

Presented in this paper is an ab initio chemical model for dense interstellar clouds that incorporates 598 grain surface reactions, with small grains providing the reaction area. Gas-phase molecules are depleted through collisions with grains. The abundances of 372 chemical species are calculated as a function of time and are found to be of sufficient magnitude to explain most observations. Peak abundances are achieved on time scales of the order of 100,000 to 1 million years, depending on cloud density and kinetic temperature. The reaction rates for ion-molecule chemistry are approximately the same, indicating that surface and gas-phase chemistry may be coupled in certain regions. The composition of grain mantles is shown to be a function of grain radius. In certain grain-size ranges, large molecules containing two or more heavy atoms are more predominant than lighter 'ices' - H2O, NH3, and CH4. It is possible that absorption due to these large molecules in the mantle may contribute to the observed 3-micron band in astronomical spectra.

Experimental evidence for glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol formation by surface hydrogenation of CO molecules under dense molecular cloud conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fedoseev, G.; Cuppen, H. M.; Ioppolo, S.; Lamberts, T.; Linnartz, H.

2015-04-01

This study focuses on the formation of two molecules of astrobiological importance - glycolaldehyde (HC(O)CH2OH) and ethylene glycol (H2C(OH)CH2OH) - by surface hydrogenation of CO molecules. Our experiments aim at simulating the CO freeze-out stage in interstellar dark cloud regions, well before thermal and energetic processing become dominant. It is shown that along with the formation of H2CO and CH3OH - two well-established products of CO hydrogenation - also molecules with more than one carbon atom form. The key step in this process is believed to be the recombination of two HCO radicals followed by the formation of a C-C bond. The experimentally established reaction pathways are implemented into a continuous-time random-walk Monte Carlo model, previously used to model the formation of CH3OH on astrochemical time-scales, to study their impact on the solid-state abundances in dense interstellar clouds of glycolaldehyde and ethylene glycol.

Interstellar Isotopes: Prospects with ALMA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Charnley Steven B.

2010-01-01

Cold molecular clouds are natural environments for the enrichment of interstellar molecules in the heavy isotopes of H, C, N and O. Anomalously fractionated isotopic material is found in many primitive Solar System objects, such as meteorites and comets, that may trace interstellar matter that was incorporated into the Solar Nebula without undergoing significant processing. Models of the fractionation chemistry of H, C, N and O in dense molecular clouds, particularly in cores where substantial freeze-out of molecules on to dust has occurred, make several predictions that can be tested in the near future by molecular line observations. The range of fractionation ratios expected in different interstellar molecules will be discussed and the capabilities of ALMA for testing these models (e.g. in observing doubly-substituted isotopologues) will be outlined.

Molecular clouds toward three Spitzer bubbles S116, S117, and S118: Evidence for a cloud-cloud collision which formed the three H II regions and a 10 pc scale molecular cavity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fukui, Yasuo; Ohama, Akio; Kohno, Mikito; Torii, Kazufumi; Fujita, Shinji; Hattori, Yusuke; Nishimura, Atsushi; Yamamoto, Hiroaki; Tachihara, Kengo

2018-05-01

We carried out a molecular-line study toward the three Spitzer bubbles S116, S117, and S118, which show active formation of high-mass stars. We found molecular gas consisting of two components with a velocity difference of ˜5 km s-1. One of them, the small cloud, has a typical velocity of -63 km s-1 and the other, the large cloud, has one of -58 km s-1. The large cloud has a nearly circular intensity depression, the size of which is similar to that of the small cloud. We present an interpretation that its cavity was created by a collision between the two clouds and that this collision compressed the gas into a dense layer elongating along the western rim of the small cloud. In this scenario, the O stars including those in the three Spitzer bubbles were formed in the interface layer compressed by the collision. Assuming that the relative motion of the clouds has a tilt of 45° to the line of sight, we estimate that the collision continued for the last 1 Myr at a relative velocity of ˜10 km s-1. In the S116-S117-S118 system the H II regions are located outside of the cavity. This morphology is ascribed to the density-bound distribution of the large cloud which caused the H II regions to expand more easily toward the outer part of the large cloud than towards the inside of the cavity. The present case proves that a cloud-cloud collision creates a cavity without the action of O-star feedback, and suggests that the collision-compressed layer is highly filamentary.

Cosmic rays, gas and dust in nearby anticentre clouds. I. CO-to-H2 conversion factors and dust opacities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Remy, Q.; Grenier, I. A.; Marshall, D. J.; Casandjian, J. M.

2017-05-01

Aims: We aim to explore the capabilities of dust emission and γ rays for probing the properties of the interstellar medium in the nearby anti-centre region, using γ-ray observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT), and the thermal dust optical depth inferred from Planck and IRAS observations. We also aim to study massive star-forming clouds including the well known Taurus, Auriga, Perseus, and California molecular clouds, as well as a more diffuse structure which we refer to as Cetus. In particular, we aim at quantifying potential variations in cosmic-ray density and dust properties per gas nucleon across the different gas phases and different clouds, and at measuring the CO-to-H2 conversion factor, XCO, in different environments. Methods: We have separated six nearby anti-centre clouds that are coherent in velocities and distances, from the Galactic-disc background in H I 21-cm and 12CO 2.6-mm line emission. We have jointly modelled the γ-ray intensity recorded between 0.4 and 100 GeV, and the dust optical depth τ353 at 353 GHz as a combination of H I-bright, CO-bright, and ionised gas components. The complementary information from dust emission and γ rays was used to reveal the gas not seen, or poorly traced, by H I, free-free, and 12CO emissions, namely (I) the opaque H iand diffuse H2 present in the Dark Neutral Medium at the atomic-molecular transition, and (II) the dense H2 to be added where 12CO lines saturate. Results: The measured interstellar γ-ray spectra support a uniform penetration of the cosmic rays with energies above a few GeV through the clouds, from the atomic envelopes to the 12CO-bright cores, and with a small ± 9% cloud-to-cloud dispersion in particle flux. We detect the ionised gas from the H iiregion NGC 1499 in the dust and γ-ray emissions and measure its mean electron density and temperature. We find a gradual increase in grain opacity as the gas (atomic or molecular) becomes more dense. The increase reaches a factor of four to six in the cold molecular regions that are well shielded from stellar radiation. Consequently, the XCO factor derived from dust is systematically larger by 30% to 130% than the γ-ray estimate. We also evaluate the average γ-ray XCO factor for each cloud, and find that XCO tends to decrease from diffuse to more compact molecular clouds, as expected from theory. We find XCO factors in the anti-centre clouds close to or below 1020 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s, in agreement with other estimates in the solar neighbourhood. Together, they confirm the long-standing unexplained discrepancy, by a factor of two, between the mean XCO values measured at parsec scales in nearby clouds and those obtained at kiloparsec scale in the Galaxy. Our results also highlight large quantitative discrepancies in 12CO intensities between simulations and observations at low molecular gas densities.

The nature, origin and evolution of embedded star clusters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lada, Charles J.; Lada, Elizabeth A.

1991-01-01

The recent development of imaging infrared array cameras has enabled the first systematic studies of embedded protoclusters in the galaxy. Initial investigations suggest that rich embedded clusters are quite numerous and that a significant fraction of all stars formed in the galaxy may begin their lives in such stellar systems. These clusters contain extremely young stellar objects and are important laboratories for star formation research. However, observational and theoretical considerations suggest that most embedded clusters do not survive emergence from molecular clouds as bound clusters. Understanding the origin, nature, and evolution of embedded clusters requires understanding the intimate physical relation between embedded clusters and the dense molecular cloud cores from which they form.

THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE SURVEY OF THE ORION A AND B MOLECULAR CLOUDS. II. THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION AND DEMOGRAPHICS OF DUSTY YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Megeath, S. T.; Kryukova, E.; Gutermuth, R.

2016-01-15

We analyze the spatial distribution of dusty young stellar objects (YSOs) identified in the Spitzer Survey of the Orion Molecular clouds, augmenting these data with Chandra X-ray observations to correct for incompleteness in dense clustered regions. We also devise a scheme to correct for spatially varying incompleteness when X-ray data are not available. The local surface densities of the YSOs range from 1 pc{sup −2} to over 10,000 pc{sup −2}, with protostars tending to be in higher density regions. This range of densities is similar to other surveyed molecular clouds with clusters, but broader than clouds without clusters. By identifyingmore » clusters and groups as continuous regions with surface densities ≥10 pc{sup −2}, we find that 59% of the YSOs are in the largest cluster, the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), while 13% of the YSOs are found in a distributed population. A lower fraction of protostars in the distributed population is evidence that it is somewhat older than the groups and clusters. An examination of the structural properties of the clusters and groups shows that the peak surface densities of the clusters increase approximately linearly with the number of members. Furthermore, all clusters with more than 70 members exhibit asymmetric and/or highly elongated structures. The ONC becomes azimuthally symmetric in the inner 0.1 pc, suggesting that the cluster is only ∼2 Myr in age. We find that the star formation efficiency (SFE) of the Orion B cloud is unusually low, and that the SFEs of individual groups and clusters are an order of magnitude higher than those of the clouds. Finally, we discuss the relationship between the young low mass stars in the Orion clouds and the Orion OB 1 association, and we determine upper limits to the fraction of disks that may be affected by UV radiation from OB stars or dynamical interactions in dense, clustered regions.« less

The rate and latency of star formation in dense, massive clumps in the Milky Way

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heyer, M.; Gutermuth, R.; Urquhart, J. S.; Csengeri, T.; Wienen, M.; Leurini, S.; Menten, K.; Wyrowski, F.

2016-04-01

Context. Newborn stars form within the localized, high density regions of molecular clouds. The sequence and rate at which stars form in dense clumps and the dependence on local and global environments are key factors in developing descriptions of stellar production in galaxies. Aims: We seek to observationally constrain the rate and latency of star formation in dense massive clumps that are distributed throughout the Galaxy and to compare these results to proposed prescriptions for stellar production. Methods: A sample of 24 μm-based Class I protostars are linked to dust clumps that are embedded within molecular clouds selected from the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy. We determine the fraction of star-forming clumps, f∗, that imposes a constraint on the latency of star formation in units of a clump's lifetime. Protostellar masses are estimated from models of circumstellar environments of young stellar objects from which star formation rates are derived. Physical properties of the clumps are calculated from 870 μm dust continuum emission and NH3 line emission. Results: Linear correlations are identified between the star formation rate surface density, ΣSFR, and the quantities ΣH2/τff and ΣH2/τcross, suggesting that star formation is regulated at the local scales of molecular clouds. The measured fraction of star forming clumps is 23%. Accounting for star formation within clumps that are excluded from our sample due to 24 μm saturation, this fraction can be as high as 31%, which is similar to previous results. Dense, massive clumps form primarily low mass (<1-2 M⊙) stars with emergent 24 μm fluxes below our sensitivity limit or are incapable of forming any stars for the initial 70% of their lifetimes. The low fraction of star forming clumps in the Galactic center relative to those located in the disk of the Milky Way is verified. Full Tables 2-4 are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/588/A29

A role for self-gravity at multiple length scales in the process of star formation.

PubMed

Goodman, Alyssa A; Rosolowsky, Erik W; Borkin, Michelle A; Foster, Jonathan B; Halle, Michael; Kauffmann, Jens; Pineda, Jaime E

2009-01-01

Self-gravity plays a decisive role in the final stages of star formation, where dense cores (size approximately 0.1 parsecs) inside molecular clouds collapse to form star-plus-disk systems. But self-gravity's role at earlier times (and on larger length scales, such as approximately 1 parsec) is unclear; some molecular cloud simulations that do not include self-gravity suggest that 'turbulent fragmentation' alone is sufficient to create a mass distribution of dense cores that resembles, and sets, the stellar initial mass function. Here we report a 'dendrogram' (hierarchical tree-diagram) analysis that reveals that self-gravity plays a significant role over the full range of possible scales traced by (13)CO observations in the L1448 molecular cloud, but not everywhere in the observed region. In particular, more than 90 per cent of the compact 'pre-stellar cores' traced by peaks of dust emission are projected on the sky within one of the dendrogram's self-gravitating 'leaves'. As these peaks mark the locations of already-forming stars, or of those probably about to form, a self-gravitating cocoon seems a critical condition for their existence. Turbulent fragmentation simulations without self-gravity-even of unmagnetized isothermal material-can yield mass and velocity power spectra very similar to what is observed in clouds like L1448. But a dendrogram of such a simulation shows that nearly all the gas in it (much more than in the observations) appears to be self-gravitating. A potentially significant role for gravity in 'non-self-gravitating' simulations suggests inconsistency in simulation assumptions and output, and that it is necessary to include self-gravity in any realistic simulation of the star-formation process on subparsec scales.

NGVLA Observations of Dense Gas Filaments in Star-Forming Regions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Di Francesco, James; Chen, Mike; Keown, Jared; GAS Team, KEYSTONE Team

2018-01-01

Recent observations of continuum emission from nearby star-forming regions with Herschel and JCMT have revealed that filaments are ubiquitous structures within molecular clouds. Such filaments appear to be intimately connected to star formation, with those having column densities of AV > 8 hosting the majority of prestellar cores and young protostars in clouds. Indeed, this “threshold” can be explained simply as the result of supercritical cylinder fragmentation. How specifically star-forming filaments form in molecular clouds, however, remains unclear, though gravity and turbulence are likely involved. Observations of their kinematics are needed to understand how mass flows both onto and through these filaments. We show here results from two recent surveys, the Green Bank Ammonia Survey (GAS) and the K-band Examinations of Young Stellar Object Natal Environments (KEYSTONE) that have used the Green Bank Telescope’s K-band Focal Plane Array instrument to map NH3 (1,1) emission from dense gas in nearby star-forming regions. Data from both surveys show that NH3 emission traces extremely well the high column density gas across these star-forming regions. In particular, the GAS results for NGC 1333 show NH3-based velocity gradients either predominantly parallel or perpendicular to the filament spines. Though the GAS and KEYSTONE data are vital for probing filaments, higher resolutions than possible with the GBT alone are needed to examine the kinematic patterns on the 0.1-pc scales of star-forming cores within filaments. We describe how the Next Generation Very Large Array (NGVLA) will uniquely provide the key wide-field data of high sensitivity needed to explore how ambient gas in molecular clouds forms filaments that evolve toward star formation.

Magnetic seismology of interstellar gas clouds: Unveiling a hidden dimension.

PubMed

Tritsis, Aris; Tassis, Konstantinos

2018-05-11

Stars and planets are formed inside dense interstellar molecular clouds by processes imprinted on the three-dimensional (3D) morphology of the clouds. Determining the 3D structure of interstellar clouds remains challenging because of projection effects and difficulties measuring the extent of the clouds along the line of sight. We report the detection of normal vibrational modes in the isolated interstellar cloud Musca, allowing determination of the 3D physical dimensions of the cloud. We found that Musca is vibrating globally, with the characteristic modes of a sheet viewed edge on, not the characteristics of a filament as previously supposed. We reconstructed the physical properties of Musca through 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations, reproducing the observed normal modes and confirming a sheetlike morphology. Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Ortho- and para-hydrogen in dense clouds, protoplanets, and planetary atmospheres

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Decampli, W. M.; Cameron, A. G. W.; Bodenheimer, P.; Black, D. C.

1978-01-01

If ortho- and para-hydrogen achieve a thermal ratio on dynamical time scales in a molecular hydrogen cloud, then the specific heat is high enough in the temperature range 35-70 K to possibly induce hydrodynamic collapse. The ortho-para ratio in many interstellar cloud fragments is expected to meet this condition. The same may have been true for the primitive solar nebula. Detailed hydrodynamic and hydrostatic calculations are presented that show the effects of the assumed ortho-para ratio on the evolution of Jupiter during its protoplanetary phase. Some possible consequences of a thermalized ortho-para ratio in the atmospheres of the giant planets are also discussed.

A flattened cloud core in NGC 2024

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ho, Paul T. P.; Peng, Yun-Lou; Torrelles, Jose M.; Gomez, Jose F.; Rodriguez, Luis F.; Canto, Jorge

1993-01-01

The (J, K) (1, 1) and (2, 2) NH3 lines were mapped toward a molecular cloud core in NGC 2024 using the VLA in its C/D-configuration. This region is associated with one of the most highly collimated molecular outflows. We find that the molecular condensations associated with the far-infrared sources FIR 5, FIR 6, and FIR 7 have kinetic temperatures of about 40 K. We also find line broadening toward FIR 6 and FIR 7. This suggests that these condensations may not be protostars heated by gravitational energy released during collapse but that they have an internal heating source. A flattened structure of ammonia emission is found extending parallel to the unipolar CO outflow structure, but displaced systematically to the east. If the NH3 emission traces the denser gas environment, there is no evidence that a dense gas structure is confining the molecular outflow. Instead, the location of the high-velocity outflow along the surface of the NH3 structure suggests that a wind is sweeping material from the surface of this elongated cloud core.

HOW GALACTIC ENVIRONMENT REGULATES STAR FORMATION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Meidt, Sharon E.

2016-02-10

In a new simple model I reconcile two contradictory views on the factors that determine the rate at which molecular clouds form stars—internal structure versus external, environmental influences—providing a unified picture for the regulation of star formation in galaxies. In the presence of external pressure, the pressure gradient set up within a self-gravitating turbulent (isothermal) cloud leads to a non-uniform density distribution. Thus the local environment of a cloud influences its internal structure. In the simple equilibrium model, the fraction of gas at high density in the cloud interior is determined simply by the cloud surface density, which is itselfmore » inherited from the pressure in the immediate surroundings. This idea is tested using measurements of the properties of local clouds, which are found to show remarkable agreement with the simple equilibrium model. The model also naturally predicts the star formation relation observed on cloud scales and at the same time provides a mapping between this relation and the closer-to-linear molecular star formation relation measured on larger scales in galaxies. The key is that pressure regulates not only the molecular content of the ISM but also the cloud surface density. I provide a straightforward prescription for the pressure regulation of star formation that can be directly implemented in numerical models. Predictions for the dense gas fraction and star formation efficiency measured on large-scales within galaxies are also presented, establishing the basis for a new picture of star formation regulated by galactic environment.« less

Formaldehyde in Absorption: Tracing Molecular Gas in Early-Type Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dollhopf, Niklaus M.; Donovan Meyer, Jennifer

2016-01-01

Early-Type Galaxies (ETGs) have been long-classified as the red, ellipsoidal branch of the classic Hubble tuning fork diagram of galactic structure. In part with this classification, ETGs are thought to be molecular and atomic gas-poor with little to no recent star formation. However, recent efforts have questioned this ingrained classification. Most notably, the ATLAS3D survey of 260 ETGs within ~40 Mpc found 22% contain CO, a common tracer for molecular gas. The presence of cold molecular gas also implies the possibility for current star formation within these galaxies. Simulations do not accurately predict the recent observations and further studies are necessary to understand the mechanisms of ETGs.CO traces molecular gas starting at densities of ~102 cm-3, which makes it a good tracer of bulk molecular gas, but does little to constrain the possible locations of star formation within the cores of dense molecular gas clouds. Formaldehyde (H2CO) traces molecular gas on the order of ~104 cm-3, providing a further constraint on the location of star-forming gas, while being simple enough to possibly be abundant in gas-poor ETGs. In cold molecular clouds at or above ~104 cm-3 densities, the structure of formaldehyde enables a phenomenon in which rotational transitions have excitation temperatures driven below the temperature of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), ~2.7 K. Because the CMB radiates isotropically, formaldehyde can be observed in absorption, independent of distance, as a tracer of moderately-dense molecular clouds and star formation.This novel observation technique of formaldehyde was incorporated for observations of twelve CO-detected ETGs from the ATLAS3D sample, including NGC 4710 and PGC 8815, to investigate the presence of cold molecular gas, and possible star formation, in ETGs. We present images from the Very Large Array, used in its C-array configuration, of the J = 11,0 - 11,1 transition of formaldehyde towards these sources. We report our preliminary results here.Niklaus M. Dollhopf gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Summer Student REU Program sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Formation of structures around HII regions: ionization feedback from massive stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tremblin, P.; Audit, E.; Minier, V.; Schmidt, W.; Schneider, N.

2015-03-01

We present a new model for the formation of dense clumps and pillars around HII regions based on shocks curvature at the interface between a HII region and a molecular cloud. UV radiation leads to the formation of an ionization front and of a shock ahead. The gas is compressed between them forming a dense shell at the interface. This shell may be curved due to initial interface or density modulation caused by the turbulence of the molecular cloud. Low curvature leads to instabilities in the shell that form dense clumps while sufficiently curved shells collapse on itself to form pillars. When turbulence is high compared to the ionized-gas pressure, bubbles of cold gas have sufficient kinetic energy to penetrate into the HII region and detach themselves from the parent cloud, forming cometary globules. Using computational simulations, we show that these new models are extremely efficient to form dense clumps and stable and growing elongated structures, pillars, in which star formation might occur (see Tremblin et al. 2012a). The inclusion of turbulence in the model shows its importance in the formation of cometary globules (see Tremblin et al. 2012b). Globally, the density enhancement in the simulations is of one or two orders of magnitude higher than the density enhancement of the classical ``collect and collapse`` scenario. The code used for the simulation is the HERACLES code, that comprises hydrodynamics with various equation of state, radiative transfer, gravity, cooling and heating. Our recent observations with Herschel (see Schneider et al. 2012a) and SOFIA (see Schneider et al. 2012b) and additional Spitzer data archives revealed many more of these structures in regions where OB stars have already formed such as the Rosette Nebula, Cygnus X, M16 and Vela, suggesting that the UV radiation from massive stars plays an important role in their formation. We present a first comparison between the simulations described above and recent observations of these regions.

Fermi LAT Observations of the Supernova Remnant W28 (G6.4-0.1)

DOE PAGES

Abdo, A. A.; Ackermann, M.; Ajello, M.; ...

2010-06-30

Here, we present detailed analysis of two gamma-ray sources, 1FGL J1801.3–2322c and 1FGL J1800.5–2359c, that have been found toward the supernova remnant (SNR) W28 with the Large Area Telescope (LAT) on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. 1FGL J1801.3–2322c is found to be an extended source within the boundary of SNR W28, and to extensively overlap with the TeV gamma-ray source HESS J1801–233, which is associated with a dense molecular cloud interacting with the SNR. The gamma-ray spectrum measured with the LAT from 0.2 to 100 GeV can be described by a broken power-law function with a break at ~1more » GeV and photon indices of 2.09 ± 0.08 (stat) ± 0.28 (sys) below the break and 2.74 ± 0.06 (stat) ± 0.09 (sys) above the break. Given the clear association between HESS J1801–233 and the shocked molecular cloud and a smoothly connected spectrum in the GeV-TeV band, we consider the origin of the gamma-ray emission in both GeV and TeV ranges to be the interaction between particles accelerated in the SNR and the molecular cloud. The decay of neutral pions produced in interactions between accelerated hadrons and dense molecular gas provides a reasonable explanation for the broadband gamma-ray spectrum. 1FGL J1800.5–2359c, located outside the southern boundary of SNR W28, cannot be resolved. An upper limit on the size of the gamma-ray emission was estimated to be ~16' using events above ~2 GeV under the assumption of a circular shape with uniform surface brightness. It appears to coincide with the TeV source HESS J1800–240B, which is considered to be associated with a dense molecular cloud that contains the ultra compact H II region W28A2 (G5.89–0.39). In conclusion, we found no significant gamma-ray emission in the LAT energy band at the positions of TeV sources HESS J1800–230A and HESS J1800–230C. The LAT data for HESS J1800–230A combined with the TeV data points indicate a spectral break between 10 GeV and 100 GeV.« less

OT2_jhewitt_2: Understanding Shock Oxygen Chemistry in Interacting Supernova Remnants

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hewitt, J.

2011-09-01

Supernova remnants interacting with dense moelcular clouds provide astrochemical laboratories to study heating and cooling of the dense ISM, shock chemistry, destruction and sputtering of dust, and the reformation of molecules. Water is expected to be a major coolant for shocks into dense gas, yet the number of remnants in which IR lines of hydroxyl and water are detected is very limited. We propose Herschel PACS, SPIRE and HIFI observations of three remnants with particularly high shocked gas densities, high dust and IR line luinosities, and extreme ionization environments. The scientific objectives of this proposal are: (1) to determine the abundance and excitation of oxygen-bearing molecules, and (2) to study the effects of variable ionization sources on oxygen chemistry in dense molecular gas shocked by powerful supernova remnant blast waves.

ALMA RESOLVES 30 DORADUS: SUB-PARSEC MOLECULAR CLOUD STRUCTURE NEAR THE CLOSEST SUPER STAR CLUSTER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Indebetouw, Remy; Brogan, Crystal; Leroy, Adam

2013-09-01

We present Atacama Large (sub)Millimeter Array observations of 30 Doradus-the highest resolution view of molecular gas in an extragalactic star formation region to date ({approx}0.4 pc Multiplication-Sign 0.6 pc). The 30Dor-10 cloud north of R136 was mapped in {sup 12}CO 2-1, {sup 13}CO 2-1, C{sup 18}O 2-1, 1.3 mm continuum, the H30{alpha} recombination line, and two H{sub 2}CO 3-2 transitions. Most {sup 12}CO emission is associated with small filaments and clumps ({approx}<1 pc, {approx}10{sup 3} M{sub Sun} at the current resolution). Some clumps are associated with protostars, including ''pillars of creation'' photoablated by intense radiation from R136. Emission from molecularmore » clouds is often analyzed by decomposition into approximately beam-sized clumps. Such clumps in 30 Doradus follow similar trends in size, linewidth, and surface density to Milky Way clumps. The 30 Doradus clumps have somewhat larger linewidths for a given size than predicted by Larson's scaling relation, consistent with pressure confinement. They extend to a higher surface density at a given size and linewidth compared to clouds studied at 10 pc resolution. These trends are also true of clumps in Galactic infrared-dark clouds; higher resolution observations of both environments are required. Consistency of clump masses calculated from dust continuum, CO, and the virial theorem reveals that the CO abundance in 30 Doradus clumps is not significantly different from the Large Magellanic Cloud mean, but the dust abundance may be reduced by {approx}2. There are no strong trends in clump properties with distance from R136; dense clumps are not strongly affected by the external radiation field, but there is a modest trend toward lower dense clump filling fraction deeper in the cloud.« less

Radiative Feedback of Forming Star Clusters on Their GMC Environments: Theory and Simulation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Howard, C. S.; Pudritz, R. E.; Harris, W. E.

2013-07-01

Star clusters form from dense clumps within a molecular cloud. Radiation from these newly formed clusters feeds back on their natal molecular cloud through heating and ionization which ultimately stops gas accretion into the cluster. Recent studies suggest that radiative feedback effects from a single cluster may be sufficient to disrupt an entire cloud over a short timescale. Simulating cluster formation on a large scale, however, is computationally demanding due to the high number of stars involved. For this reason, we present a model for representing the radiative output of an entire cluster which involves randomly sampling an initial mass function (IMF) as the cluster accretes mass. We show that this model is able to reproduce the star formation histories of observed clusters. To examine the degree to which radiative feedback shapes the evolution of a molecular cloud, we use the FLASH adaptive-mesh refinement hydrodynamics code to simulate cluster formation in a turbulent cloud. Unlike previous studies, sink particles are used to represent a forming cluster rather than individual stars. Our cluster model is then coupled with a raytracing scheme to treat radiative transfer as the clusters grow in mass. This poster will outline the details of our model and present preliminary results from our 3D hydrodynamical simulations.

Large-Scale CO Maps of the Lupus Molecular Cloud Complex

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tothill, N. F. H.; Löhr, A.; Parshley, S. C.; Stark, A. A.; Lane, A. P.; Harnett, J. I.; Wright, G. A.; Walker, C. K.; Bourke, T. L.; Myers, P. C.

2009-11-01

Fully sampled degree-scale maps of the 13CO 2-1 and CO 4-3 transitions toward three members of the Lupus Molecular Cloud Complex—Lupus I, III, and IV—trace the column density and temperature of the molecular gas. Comparison with IR extinction maps from the c2d project requires most of the gas to have a temperature of 8-10 K. Estimates of the cloud mass from 13CO emission are roughly consistent with most previous estimates, while the line widths are higher, around 2 km s-1. CO 4-3 emission is found throughout Lupus I, indicating widespread dense gas, and toward Lupus III and IV. Enhanced line widths at the NW end and along the edge of the B 228 ridge in Lupus I, and a coherent velocity gradient across the ridge, are consistent with interaction between the molecular cloud and an expanding H I shell from the Upper-Scorpius subgroup of the Sco-Cen OB Association. Lupus III is dominated by the effects of two HAe/Be stars, and shows no sign of external influence. Slightly warmer gas around the core of Lupus IV and a low line width suggest heating by the Upper-Centaurus-Lupus subgroup of Sco-Cen, without the effects of an H I shell.

Star formation induced by cloud-cloud collisions and galactic giant molecular cloud evolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kobayashi, Masato I. N.; Kobayashi, Hiroshi; Inutsuka, Shu-ichiro; Fukui, Yasuo

2018-05-01

Recent millimeter/submillimeter observations towards nearby galaxies have started to map the whole disk and to identify giant molecular clouds (GMCs) even in the regions between galactic spiral structures. Observed variations of GMC mass functions in different galactic environments indicates that massive GMCs preferentially reside along galactic spiral structures whereas inter-arm regions have many small GMCs. Based on the phase transition dynamics from magnetized warm neutral medium to molecular clouds, Kobayashi et al. (2017, ApJ, 836, 175) proposes a semi-analytical evolutionary description for GMC mass functions including a cloud-cloud collision (CCC) process. Their results show that CCC is less dominant in shaping the mass function of GMCs than the accretion of dense H I gas driven by the propagation of supersonic shock waves. However, their formulation does not take into account the possible enhancement of star formation by CCC. Millimeter/submillimeter observations within the Milky Way indicate the importance of CCC in the formation of star clusters and massive stars. In this article, we reformulate the time-evolution equation largely modified from Kobayashi et al. (2017, ApJ, 836, 175) so that we additionally compute star formation subsequently taking place in CCC clouds. Our results suggest that, although CCC events between smaller clouds are more frequent than the ones between massive GMCs, CCC-driven star formation is mostly driven by massive GMCs ≳ 10^{5.5} M_{⊙} (where M⊙ is the solar mass). The resultant cumulative CCC-driven star formation may amount to a few 10 percent of the total star formation in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies.

Star formation in massive Milky Way molecular clouds: Building a bridge to distant galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willis, Sarah Elizabeth

The Kennicutt-Schmidt relation is an empirical power-law linking the surface density of the star formation rate (SigmaSFR) to the surface density of gas (Sigmagas ) averaged over the observed face of a starforming galaxy Kennicutt (1998). The original presentation used observations of CO to measure gas density and H alpha emission to measure the population of hot, massive young stars (and infer the star formation rate). Observations of Sigma SFR from a census of young stellar objects in nearby molecular clouds in our Galaxy are up to 17 times higher than the extragalactic relation would predict given their Sigmagas. These clouds primarily form low-mass stars that are essentially invisible to star formation rate tracers. A sample of six giant molecular cloud (GMC) complexes with signposts of massive star formation was identified in our galaxy. The regions selected have a range of total luminosity and morphology. Deep ground-based observations in the near-infrared with NEWFIRM and IRAC observations with the Spitzer Space Telescope were used to conduct a census of the young stellar content associated with each of these clouds. The star formation rates from the stellar census in each of these regions was compared with the star formation rates measured by extragalactic star formation rate tracers based on monochromatic mid-infrared luminosities. Far-infrared Herschel observations from 160 through 500 mum were used to determine the column density and temperature in each region. The region NGC 6334 served as a test case to compare the Herschel column density measurements with the measurements for near-infrared extinction. The combination of the column density maps and the stellar census lets us examine SigmaSFR vs. Sigma gas for the massive GMCs. These regions are consistent with the results for the low-mass molecular clouds, indicating Sigma SFR levels that are higher than predicted based on Sigma gas. The overall Sigmagas levels are higher for the massive star forming regions, indicating that they have a higher fraction of dense gas than the clouds that are forming primarily low mass stars. There is still significant spread at a given average gas density, indicating that the star formation history and dense gas fraction play important roles in determining an individual molecular cloud's place in a Sigma SFR vs. Sigmagas diagram. Zooming in, SigmaSFR vs. Sigma gas was examined within the individual clouds, revealing a decrease relative to the spread that is observed for the average over whole clouds. The dependence of SigmaSFR on Sigma gas increases significantly above AV ˜ 5 - 10 which is consistent with previous measurements of a threshold for star formation around AV = 8 or Sigma gas = 0.04 g cm-2. NGC 6334 was found to be consistent with a threshold for massive star formation at Sigmagas = 1 g cm-2.

Carbon monoxide in clouds at low metallicity in the dwarf irregular galaxy WLM.

PubMed

Elmegreen, Bruce G; Rubio, Monica; Hunter, Deidre A; Verdugo, Celia; Brinks, Elias; Schruba, Andreas

2013-03-28

Carbon monoxide (CO) is the primary tracer for interstellar clouds where stars form, but it has never been detected in galaxies in which the oxygen abundance relative to hydrogen is less than 20 per cent of that of the Sun, even though such 'low-metallicity' galaxies often form stars. This raises the question of whether stars can form in dense gas without molecules, cooling to the required near-zero temperatures by atomic transitions and dust radiation rather than by molecular line emission; and it highlights uncertainties about star formation in the early Universe, when the metallicity was generally low. Here we report the detection of CO in two regions of a local dwarf irregular galaxy, WLM, where the metallicity is 13 per cent of the solar value. We use new submillimetre observations and archival far-infrared observations to estimate the cloud masses, which are both slightly greater than 100,000 solar masses. The clouds have produced stars at a rate per molecule equal to 10 per cent of that in the local Orion nebula cloud. The CO fraction of the molecular gas is also low, about 3 per cent of the Milky Way value. These results suggest that in small galaxies both star-forming cores and CO molecules become increasingly rare in molecular hydrogen clouds as the metallicity decreases.

Star formation and extinct radioactivities

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cameron, A. G. W.

1984-01-01

An assessment is made of the evidence for the existence of now-extinct radioactivities in primitive solar system material, giving attention to implications for the early stages of sun and solar system formation. The characteristics of possible disturbances in dense molecular clouds which can initiate the formation of cloud cores is discussed, with emphasis on these disturbances able to generate fresh radioactivities. A one-solar mass red giant star on the asymptotic giant branch appears to have been the best candidate to account for the short-lived extinct radioactivities in the early solar system.

The nature of the dense obscuring material in the nucleus of NGC 1068

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tacconi, L. J.; Genzel, R.; Blietz, M.; Cameron, M.; Harris, A. I.; Madden, S.

1994-01-01

High spatial and spectral resolution observations of the distribution, physical parameters, and kinematics of the molecular interstellar medium toward the nucleus of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 1068 are reported. The data consist of 2.4 by 3.4 arcseconds resolution interferometry of the 88.6 GHz HCN J = 1 towards 0 line at 17 km/s spectral resolution, single dish observations of several mm/submm isotopic lines of CO and HCN, and 0.85 arcseconds imaging spectroscopy of the 2.12 micron H2 S(1) line at a velocity resolution of 110 km/s. The central few hundred parsecs of NGC 1068 contain a system of dense (N(H2) approximately 10(exp 5) cm(exp -3)), warm (T greater than or equal to 70 K) molecular cloud cores. The low density molecular envelopes have probably been stripped by the nuclear wind and radiation. The molecular gas layer is located in the plane of NGC 1068's large scale disk (inclination approximately 35 deg) and orbits in elliptical streamlines in response to the central stellar bar. The spatial distribution of the 2 micron H2 emission suggests that gas is shocked at the leading edge of the bar, probably resulting in gas influx into the central 100 pc at a rate of a few solar mass per year. In addition to large scale streaming (with a solid body rotation curve), the HCN velocity field requires the presence of random motions of order 100 km/s. We interpret these large random motions as implying the nuclear gas disk to be very thick (scale height/radius approximately 1), probably as the result of the impact of nuclear radiation and wind on orbiting molecular clouds. Geometry and column density of the molecular cloud layer between approximately 30 pc to 300 pc from the nucleus can plausibly account for the nuclear obscuration and anisotropy of the radiation field in the visible and UV.

Million-degree plasma pervading the extended Orion Nebula.

PubMed

Güdel, Manuel; Briggs, Kevin R; Montmerle, Thierry; Audard, Marc; Rebull, Luisa; Skinner, Stephen L

2008-01-18

Most stars form as members of large associations within dense, very cold (10 to 100 kelvin) molecular clouds. The nearby giant molecular cloud in Orion hosts several thousand stars of ages less than a few million years, many of which are located in or around the famous Orion Nebula, a prominent gas structure illuminated and ionized by a small group of massive stars (the Trapezium). We present x-ray observations obtained with the X-ray Multi-Mirror satellite XMM-Newton, revealing that a hot plasma with a temperature of 1.7 to 2.1 million kelvin pervades the southwest extension of the nebula. The plasma flows into the adjacent interstellar medium. This x-ray outflow phenomenon must be widespread throughout our Galaxy.

The CO Transition from Diffuse Molecular Gas to Dense Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rice, Johnathan S.; Federman, Steven

2017-06-01

The atomic to molecular transitions occurring in diffuse interstellar gas surrounding molecular clouds are affected by the local physical conditions (density and temperature) and the radiation field penetrating the material. Our optical observations of CH, CH^{+}, and CN absorption from McDonald Observatory and the European Southern Observatory are useful tracers of this gas and provide the velocity structure needed for analyzing lower resolution ultraviolet observations of CO and H_{2} absorption from Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer. We explore the changing environment between diffuse and dense gas by using the column densities and excitation temperatures from CO and H_{2} to determine the gas density. The resulting gas densities from this method are compared to densities inferred from other methods such as C_{2} and CN chemistry. The densities allow us to interpret the trends from the combined set of tracers. Groupings of sight lines, such as those toward h and χ Persei or Chameleon provide a chance for further characterization of the environment. The Chameleon region in particular helps illuminate CO-dark gas, which is not associated with emission from H I at 21 cm or from CO at 2.6 mm. Expanding this analysis to include emission data from the GOT C+ survey allows the further characterization of neutral diffuse gas, including CO-dark gas.

FOREST unbiased Galactic plane imaging survey with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope (FUGIN). I. Project overview and initial results

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Umemoto, Tomofumi; Minamidani, Tetsuhiro; Kuno, Nario; Fujita, Shinji; Matsuo, Mitsuhiro; Nishimura, Atsushi; Torii, Kazufumi; Tosaki, Tomoka; Kohno, Mikito; Kuriki, Mika; Tsuda, Yuya; Hirota, Akihiko; Ohashi, Satoshi; Yamagishi, Mitsuyoshi; Handa, Toshihiro; Nakanishi, Hiroyuki; Omodaka, Toshihiro; Koide, Nagito; Matsumoto, Naoko; Onishi, Toshikazu; Tokuda, Kazuki; Seta, Masumichi; Kobayashi, Yukinori; Tachihara, Kengo; Sano, Hidetoshi; Hattori, Yusuke; Onodera, Sachiko; Oasa, Yumiko; Kamegai, Kazuhisa; Tsuboi, Masato; Sofue, Yoshiaki; Higuchi, Aya E.; Chibueze, James O.; Mizuno, Norikazu; Honma, Mareki; Muller, Erik; Inoue, Tsuyoshi; Morokuma-Matsui, Kana; Shinnaga, Hiroko; Ozawa, Takeaki; Takahashi, Ryo; Yoshiike, Satoshi; Costes, Jean; Kuwahara, Sho

2017-10-01

The FUGIN project is one of legacy projects using a new multi-beam FOREST (four-beam receiver system on the 45 m telescope). This project aims to simultaneously investigate the distribution, kinematics, and physical properties of both diffuse and dense molecular gases in the Galaxy by observing 12CO, 13CO, and C18O J = 1-0 lines simultaneously. Mapping regions are parts of the first quadrant (10° ≤ l ≤ 50°, |b| ≤ 1°) and the third quadrant (198° ≤ l ≤ 236°, |b| ≤ 1°) of the Galaxy, where spiral arms, bar structure, and the molecular gas ring are included. This survey achieves the highest angular resolution to date (˜20″) for the Galactic plane survey in the CO J = 1-0 lines, which makes it possible to find dense clumps located farther away than the previous surveys. FUGIN will provide us an invaluable dataset for investigating the physics of the Galactic interstellar medium (ISM), particularly the evolution of interstellar gas covering galactic-scale structures to the internal structures of giant molecular clouds, such as small filaments/clumps/cores. We present an overview of the FUGIN project, the observation plan and initial results. These results reveal wide-field and detailed structures of molecular clouds, such as entangled filaments that have not been obvious in previous surveys, and large-scale kinematics of molecular gas, such as spiral arms.

The formation of high-mass stars and stellar clusters in the extreme environment of the Central Molecular Zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walker, Daniel Lewis

2017-08-01

The process of converting gas into stars underpins much of astrophysics, yet many fundamental questions surrounding this process remain unanswered. For example - how sensitive is star formation to the local environmental conditions? How do massive and dense stellar clusters form, and how does this crowded environment influence the stars that form within it? How do the most massive stars form and is there an upper limit to the stellar initial mass function (IMF)? Answering questions such as these is crucial if we are to construct an end-to-end model of how stars form across the full range of conditions found throughout the Universe. The research described in this thesis presents a study that utilises a multi-scale approach to identifying and characterising the early precursors to young massive clusters and high-mass proto-stars, with a specific focus on the extreme environment in the inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way - the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). The primary sources of interest that are studied in detail belong to the Galactic centre dust ridge - a group of six high-mass (M 10^(4-5) Msun), dense (R 1-3 pc, n > 10^(4) cm^(-3)), and quiescent molecular clouds. These properties make these clouds ideal candidates for representing the earliest stages of high-mass star and cluster formation. The research presented makes use of single-dish and interferometric far-infrared and (sub-)millimetre observations to study their global and small-scale properties. A comparison of the known young massive clusters (YMCs) and their likely progenitors (the dust ridge clouds) in the CMZ shows that the stellar content of YMCs is much more dense and centrally concentrated than the gas in the clouds. If these clouds are truly precursors to massive clusters, the resultant stellar population would have to undergo significant dynamical evolution to reach central densities that are typical of YMCs. This suggests that YMCs in the CMZ are unlikely to form monolithically. Extending this study to include YMCs in the Galactic disc again shows that the known population of YMC precursor clouds throughout the Galaxy are not sufficiently dense or central concentrated that they could form a cluster that then expands due to gas expulsion. The data also reveal an evolutionary trend, in which clouds contract and accrete gas towards their central regions along with concurrent star formation. This is argued to favour a conveyor-belt mode of YMC formation and is again not consistent with a monolithic formation event. High angular resolution observations of the dust ridge clouds with the Submillimeter Array are presented. They reveal an embedded population of compact and massive cores, ranging from 50 - 2150 Msun within radii of 0.1 - 0.25 pc. These are likely formation sites of high-mass stars and clusters, and are strong candidates for representing the initial conditions of extremely massive stars. Two of these cores are found to be young, high-mass proto-stars, while the remaining 13 are quiescent. Comparing these cores with high-mass proto-stars in the Galactic disc, along with models in which star formation is regulated by turbulence, shows that these cores are consistent with the idea that the critical density threshold for star formation is greater in the turbulent environment at the Galactic centre.

Cloud photogrammetry with dense stereo for fisheye cameras

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beekmans, Christoph; Schneider, Johannes; Läbe, Thomas; Lennefer, Martin; Stachniss, Cyrill; Simmer, Clemens

2016-11-01

We present a novel approach for dense 3-D cloud reconstruction above an area of 10 × 10 km2 using two hemispheric sky imagers with fisheye lenses in a stereo setup. We examine an epipolar rectification model designed for fisheye cameras, which allows the use of efficient out-of-the-box dense matching algorithms designed for classical pinhole-type cameras to search for correspondence information at every pixel. The resulting dense point cloud allows to recover a detailed and more complete cloud morphology compared to previous approaches that employed sparse feature-based stereo or assumed geometric constraints on the cloud field. Our approach is very efficient and can be fully automated. From the obtained 3-D shapes, cloud dynamics, size, motion, type and spacing can be derived, and used for radiation closure under cloudy conditions, for example. Fisheye lenses follow a different projection function than classical pinhole-type cameras and provide a large field of view with a single image. However, the computation of dense 3-D information is more complicated and standard implementations for dense 3-D stereo reconstruction cannot be easily applied. Together with an appropriate camera calibration, which includes internal camera geometry, global position and orientation of the stereo camera pair, we use the correspondence information from the stereo matching for dense 3-D stereo reconstruction of clouds located around the cameras. We implement and evaluate the proposed approach using real world data and present two case studies. In the first case, we validate the quality and accuracy of the method by comparing the stereo reconstruction of a stratocumulus layer with reflectivity observations measured by a cloud radar and the cloud-base height estimated from a Lidar-ceilometer. The second case analyzes a rapid cumulus evolution in the presence of strong wind shear.

CO excitation in four IR luminous galaxies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Radford, Simon J. E.; Solomon, P. M.; Downes, Dennis

1990-01-01

The correlation between the CO and far infrared luminosities of spiral galaxies is well established. The luminosity ration, L sub FIR/L sub CO in IR luminous active galaxies is, however, systematically five to ten times higher than in ordinary spirals and molecular clouds in our Galaxy. Furthermore, the masses of molecular hydrogen in luminous galaxies are large, M (H2) approx. equals 10(exp 10) solar magnitude, which indicates the observed luminosity ratios are due to an excess of infrared output, rather than a deficiency of molecular gas. These large amounts of molecular gas may fuel luminous galaxies through either star formation or nuclear activity. This interpretation rests on applying the M (H2)/L sub CO ratio calibrated in our Galaxy to galaxies with strikingly different luminosity ratios. But are the physical conditions of the molecular gas different in galaxies with different luminosity ratios. And, if so, does the proportionality between CO and H2 also vary among galaxies. To investigate these questions researchers observed CO (2 to 1) and (1 to 0) emission from four luminous galaxies with the Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Millimeter range (IRAM) 30 m telescope. Researchers conclude that most of the CO emission from these Arp 193, Arp 220, and Mrk 231 arises in regions with moderate ambient densities similar to the clouds in the Milky Way molecular ring. The emission is neither from dense hot cloud cores nor from the cold low density gas characteristic of the envelopes of dark clouds.

ON THE INTERACTION OF ADENINE WITH IONIZING RADIATION: MECHANISTICAL STUDIES AND ASTROBIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Evans, Nicholas L.; Ullrich, Susanne; Bennett, Chris J.

2011-04-01

The molecular inventory available on the prebiotic Earth was likely derived from both terrestrial and extraterrestrial sources. A complete description of which extraterrestrial molecules may have seeded early Earth is therefore necessary to fully understand the prebiotic evolution which led to life. Galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) are expected to cause both the formation and destruction of important biomolecules-including nucleic acid bases such as adenine-in the interstellar medium within the ices condensed on interstellar grains. The interstellar ultraviolet (UV) component is expected to photochemically degrade gas-phase adenine on a short timescale of only several years. However, the destruction rate is expectedmore » to be significantly reduced when adenine is shielded in dense molecular clouds or even within the ices of interstellar grains. Here, biomolecule destruction by the energetic charged particle component of the GCR becomes important as it is not fully attenuated. Presented here are results on the destruction rate of the nucleobase adenine in the solid state at 10 K by energetic electrons, as generated in the track of cosmic ray particles as they penetrate ices. When both UV and energetic charged particle destructive processes are taken into account, the half-life of adenine within dense interstellar clouds is found to be {approx}6 Myr, which is on the order of a star-forming molecular cloud. We also discuss chemical reaction pathways within the ices to explain the production of observed species, including the formation of nitriles (R-C{identical_to}N), epoxides (C-O-C), and carbonyl functions (R-C=O).« less

Observations of molecular and atomic gas in photodissociation regions. [interstellar chemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jaffe, D. T.; Howe, J. E.

1989-01-01

Dense gas at the ionized/neutral boundaries of molecular clouds illuminated by far-UV photons plays an important role in the appearance of the neutral interstellar medium. It also is a laboratory for the study of UV-photochemistry and of a number of heating and cooling phenomena not seen elsewhere. Fine structure lines of neutral and low ionization potential species dominate the cooling in the outer part of the photodissociation regions. Observations of these lines show that the regions are dense and highly clumped. Observations of H2 and CO show that heating by UV photons plays a significant role in the excitation of molecular lines near the H II/neutral boundary. Warm CO is more abundant in these regions than predicted by the standard theoretical models. Optical reflection nebulas provide an ideal laboratory for the study of photodissocciation region phenomena.

Explosive desorption of icy grain mantles in dense clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schutte, W. A.; Greenberg, J. M.

1991-01-01

The cycling of the condensible material in dense clouds between the gas phase and the icy grain mantles is investigated. In the model studied, desorption of the ice occurs due to grain mantle explosions when photochemically stored energy is released after transient heating by a cosmic ray particle. It is shown that, depending on the grain size distribution in dense clouds, explosive desorption can maintain up to about eight percent of the carbon in the form of CO in the gas phase at typical cloud densities.

Revised models of interstellar nitrogen isotopic fractionation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wirström, E. S.; Charnley, S. B.

2018-03-01

Nitrogen-bearing molecules in cold molecular clouds exhibit a range of isotopic fractionation ratios and these molecules may be the precursors of 15N enrichments found in comets and meteorites. Chemical model calculations indicate that atom-molecular ion and ion-molecule reactions could account for most of the fractionation patterns observed. However, recent quantum-chemical computations demonstrate that several of the key processes are unlikely to occur in dense clouds. Related model calculations of dense cloud chemistry show that the revised 15N enrichments fail to match observed values. We have investigated the effects of these reaction rate modifications on the chemical model of Wirström et al. (2012) for which there are significant physical and chemical differences with respect to other models. We have included 15N fractionation of CN in neutral-neutral reactions and also updated rate coefficients for key reactions in the nitrogen chemistry. We find that the revised fractionation rates have the effect of suppressing 15N enrichment in ammonia at all times, while the depletion is even more pronounced, reaching 14N/15N ratios of >2000. Taking the updated nitrogen chemistry into account, no significant enrichment occurs in HCN or HNC, contrary to observational evidence in dark clouds and comets, although the 14N/15N ratio can still be below 100 in CN itself. However, such low CN abundances are predicted that the updated model falls short of explaining the bulk 15N enhancements observed in primitive materials. It is clear that alternative fractionating reactions are necessary to reproduce observations, so further laboratory and theoretical studies are urgently needed.

ALMA view of the massive dense clump in the Galactic center 50 km s-1 molecular cloud .

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uehara, K.; Tsuboi, M.; Kitamura, Y.; Miyawaki, R.; Miyazaki, A.

We observed the 50 km s-1 molecular cloud with a high angular resolution (˜1.5 arcsec) using ALMA in the H13CO+ J=1-0, C34S J=2-1, CS J=2-1 and SiO v=0 J=2-1 emission lines. This cloud is a candidate for the massive star forming region induced by cloud-cloud collision (CCC). We newly found a massive dense clump (DC1) with a size of ˜0.3 pc in the CCC region of the cloud in the H13CO+ J=1-0 map. The DC1 seems to be located on a line where the four HII regions line up. Furthermore, the DC1 has a broad velocity width covering ˜30 km s-1 and ˜60 km s-1 components in the CS J=2-1 map; the 30 km s-1 component has filamentary structures and the 60 km s-1 one a sheet-like structure. From the position-velocity diagrams of the H13CO+ J=1-0 and CS J=2-1 lines and the intensity ratio of T(SiO v=0 J=2-1)/T(H13CO+ J=1-0), i.e., a shock tracer, we consider that the DC1 has formed by the CCC between the filaments and the sheet-like gas. The LTE mass and virial parameter of the DC1 is estimated to be ˜1.3×104 M_ȯ and ˜5, respectively. These facts suggest that the DC1 is likely in a gravitationally bound state and may start massive star formation. We propose a scenario that the CCC induced the massive star formation in the HII region A ˜105 years ago and now causes the formation and collapse of the DC1; the clump would evolve to an HII region within ˜105 years.

The Infrared Reflection Nebula Around the Protostellar System in S140

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harker, D.; Bregman, J.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.; Temi, P.; Rank, D.; Morrison, David (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

We have studied the protostellar system in S140 at 2.2, 3.1 and 3.45 microns using a 128x128 InSb array at the Lick Observatory 3m telescope. Besides the protostellar sources, the data reveal a bright infrared reflection nebula. We have developed a simple model of this region and derived the physical conditions. IRSI is surrounded by a dense dusty disk viewed almost edge-on. Photons leaking out through the poles illuminate almost directly north and south the inner edge of a surrounding shell of molecular gas, Analysis of the observed colors and intensities of the NIR light, using Mie scattering theory, reveal that the dust grains in the molecular cloud are somewhat larger than in the general diffuse interstellar medium. Moreover, the incident light has a "cool" color temperature, approximately equals 800K, and likely originates from a dust photosphere close to the protostar. Finally, we find little H2O ice associated with the dusty disk around IRSI. Most of the 3.1 micron ice extinction arises instead from cool intervening molecular cloud material. We have compared our infrared dust observations with millimeter and radio observations of molecular gas associated with this region. The large scale structure observable in the molecular gas is indicative of the interaction between the protostellar wind and the surrounding molecular cloud rather than the geometry of the protostellar disk. We conclude that S140 is a young blister formed by this outflow on the side of a molecular cloud and viewed edge-on.

Interactions of stars and interstellar matter in Scorpio Centaurus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

De Geus, E. J.

1992-01-01

The interaction of the stars in the Scorpio-Centaurus OB association with the ambient interstellar medium is investigated. Large H I loops in the fourth galactic quadrant are parts of expanding shells surrounding the subgroups of the association. The energy output of the original stellar population of the subgroups is calculated. Comparison with the kinetic energy of the shells shows that the energy output of the stars in the subgroups is sufficient to form the shells. The masses of the shells are consistent with those of giant molecular clouds GMCs, suggesting that the shells consist of swept-up, original GMC material. The influence of the expanding shell around the young Upper-Scorpius subgroup on the morphology of the Ophiuchus molecular clouds is investigated. The interaction of the shell with the Ophiuchus clouds accounts for the presence of a slow shock and for the shape of the elongated dark clouds connected to the Rho Oph dense cloud. The close passage of the trajectory of the runaway star Zeta Oph by the center of the Upper-Scorpius shell, combined with the time scale of formation of the shell, strongly suggests that the star has originated in the Upper-Scorpius subgroup.

ALMA CO(3-2) Observations of Star-forming Filaments in a Gas-poor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Consiglio, S. Michelle; Turner, Jean L.; Beck, Sara; Meier, David S.; Silich, Sergiy; Zhao, Jun-Hui

2017-11-01

We report ALMA observations of 12CO(3-2) and 13CO(3-2) in the gas-poor dwarf galaxy NGC 5253. These 0.″3(5.5 pc) resolution images reveal small, dense molecular gas clouds that are located in kinematically distinct extended filaments. Some of the filaments appear to be falling into the galaxy and may be fueling its current star formation. The most intense CO(3-2) emission comes from the central ˜100 pc region centered on the luminous radio-infrared H II region known as the supernebula. The CO(3-2) clumps within the starburst region are anti-correlated with Hα on ˜5 pc scales, but are well-correlated with radio free-free emission. Cloud D1, which enshrouds the supernebula, has a high 12CO/13CO ratio, as does another cloud within the central 100 pc starburst region, possibly because the clouds are hot. CO(3-2) emission alone does not allow determination of cloud masses as molecular gas temperature and column density are degenerate at the observed brightness, unless combined with other lines such as 13CO.

Streaming motions and kinematic distances to molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ramón-Fox, F. G.; Bonnell, Ian A.

2018-02-01

We present high-resolution smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations of a region of gas flowing in a spiral arm and identify dense gas clouds to investigate their kinematics with respect to a Milky Way model. We find that, on average, the gas in the arms can have a net radial streaming motion of vR ≈ -9 km s-1 and rotate ≈ 6 km s-1 slower than the circular velocity. This translates to average peculiar motions towards the Galaxy centre and opposite to Galactic rotation. These results may be sensitive to the assumed spiral arm perturbation, which is ≈ 3 per cent of the disc potential in our model. We compare the actual distance and the kinematic estimate and we find that streaming motions introduce systematic offsets of ≈1 kpc. We find that the distance error can be as large as ±2 kpc, and the recovered cloud positions have distributions that can extend significantly into the inter-arm regions. We conclude that this poses a difficulty in tracing spiral arm structure in molecular cloud surveys.

Interstellar Matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Savage, B.; Murdin, P.

2000-11-01

The enormous volume of space between the stars in the Milky Way Galaxy is filled with interstellar matter (ISM). The ISM plays a central role in the processes of STAR FORMATION and GALAXY EVOLUTION. Stars form from the ISM in dense molecular clouds. The radiant and mechanical energy produced by stars heats, ionizes, and produces structures in the ISM. Gradual or catastrophic mass loss from stars ...

LARGE-SCALE CO MAPS OF THE LUPUS MOLECULAR CLOUD COMPLEX

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tothill, N. F. H.; Loehr, A.; Stark, A. A.

2009-11-01

Fully sampled degree-scale maps of the {sup 13}CO 2-1 and CO 4-3 transitions toward three members of the Lupus Molecular Cloud Complex-Lupus I, III, and IV-trace the column density and temperature of the molecular gas. Comparison with IR extinction maps from the c2d project requires most of the gas to have a temperature of 8-10 K. Estimates of the cloud mass from {sup 13}CO emission are roughly consistent with most previous estimates, while the line widths are higher, around 2 km s{sup -1}. CO 4-3 emission is found throughout Lupus I, indicating widespread dense gas, and toward Lupus III andmore » IV. Enhanced line widths at the NW end and along the edge of the B 228 ridge in Lupus I, and a coherent velocity gradient across the ridge, are consistent with interaction between the molecular cloud and an expanding H I shell from the Upper-Scorpius subgroup of the Sco-Cen OB Association. Lupus III is dominated by the effects of two HAe/Be stars, and shows no sign of external influence. Slightly warmer gas around the core of Lupus IV and a low line width suggest heating by the Upper-Centaurus-Lupus subgroup of Sco-Cen, without the effects of an H I shell.« less

VISIONS - Vista Star Formation Atlas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meingast, Stefan; Alves, J.; Boui, H.; Ascenso, J.

2017-06-01

In this talk I will present the new ESO public survey VISIONS. Starting in early 2017 we will use the ESO VISTA survey telescope in a 550 h long programme to map the largest molecular cloud complexes within 500 pc in a multi-epoch program. The survey is optimized for measuring the proper motions of young stellar objects invisible to Gaia and mapping the cloud-structure with extinction. VISIONS will address a series of ISM topics ranging from the connection of dense cores to YSOs and the dynamical evolution of embedded clusters to variations in the reddening law on both small and large scales.

Search for the CO-dark Mass in the Central Molecular Zone by using the ASTE 10-m Telescope

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tanaka, Kunihiko

2017-01-01

Atomic carbon (C0) is one of the most abundant carbon-bearing species in the interstellar molecular gas, and its submillimeter lines are good tracers of low-density molecular clouds which are often dark in CO rotational lines. We present a new map of the central 150 pc region of the Milky Way in the 500 GHz [CI] line, which has been recently obtained with the ASTE 10-m telescope. The [CI] emission is brightest toward the central 5-pc region, where massive GMCs are absent. This [CI]-bright region is approximately centered toward Sgr A*, covering the entire circum-nuclear ring (CND) and the western part of the 50-km/s cloud. The C0/CO abundance ratio is 0.5-2 there, and the highest ratio is observed toward the CND but just outside of the 2-pc ring of dense gas. This discovery may suggest that the CO-dark component occupies a significant fraction of the molecular gas in the circumnuclear region.

Champagne flutes and brandy snifters: modelling protostellar outflow-cloud chemical interfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rollins, R. P.; Rawlings, J. M. C.; Williams, D. A.; Redman, M. P.

2014-10-01

A rich variety of molecular species has now been observed towards hot cores in star-forming regions and in the interstellar medium. An increasing body of evidence from millimetre interferometers suggests that many of these form at the interfaces between protostellar outflows and their natal molecular clouds. However, current models have remained unable to explain the origin of the observational bias towards wide-angled `brandy snifter' shaped outflows over narrower `champagne flute' shapes in carbon monoxide imaging. Furthermore, these wide-angled systems exhibit unusually high abundances of the molecular ion HCO+. We present results from a chemodynamic model of such regions where a rich chemistry arises naturally as a result of turbulent mixing between cold, dense molecular gas and the hot, ionized outflow material. The injecta drives a rich and rapid ion-neutral chemistry in qualitative and quantitative agreement with the observations. The observational bias towards wide-angled outflows is explained naturally by the geometry-dependent ion injection rate causing rapid dissociation of CO in the younger systems.

Scales of Star Formation: Does Local Environment Matter?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bittle, Lauren

2018-01-01

I will present my work on measuring molecular gas properties in local universe galaxies to assess the impact of local environment on the gas and thus star formation. I will also discuss the gas properties on spatial scales that span an order of magnitude to best understand the layers of star formation processes. Local environments within these galaxies include external mechanisms from starburst supernova shells, spiral arm structure, and superstar cluster radiation. Observations of CO giant molecular clouds (GMC) of ~150pc resolution in IC 10, the Local Group dwarf starburst, probe the large-scale diffuse gas, some of which are near supernova bubble ridges. We mapped CO clouds across the spiral NGC 7793 at intermediate scales of ~20pc resolution with ALMA. With the clouds, we can test theories of cloud formation and destruction in relation to the spiral arm pattern and cluster population from the HST LEGUS analysis. Addressing the smallest scales, I will show results of 30 Doradus ALMA observations of sub-parsec dense molecular gas clumps only 15pc away from a superstar cluster R136. Though star formation occurs directly from the collapse of densest molecular gas, we test theories of scale-free star formation, which suggests a constant slope of the mass function from ~150pc GMCs to sub-parsec clumps. Probing environments including starburst supernova shells, spiral arm structure, and superstar cluster radiation shed light on how these local external mechanisms affect the molecular gas at various scales of star formation.

Molecular clumps in the W51 giant molecular cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parsons, H.; Thompson, M. A.; Clark, J. S.; Chrysostomou, A.

2012-08-01

In this paper, we present a catalogue of dense molecular clumps located within the W51 giant molecular cloud (GMC). This work is based on Heterodyne Array Receiver Programme 13CO J = 3-2 observations of the W51 GMC and uses the automated CLUMPFIND algorithm to decompose the region into a total of 1575 clumps of which 1130 are associated with the W51 GMC. We clearly see the distinct structures of the W51 complex and the high-velocity stream previously reported. We find the clumps have characteristic diameters of 1.4 pc, excitation temperatures of 12 K, densities of 5.6 × 1021 cm-2, surface densities 0.02 g cm-2 and masses of 90 M⊙. We find a total mass of dense clumps within the GMC of 1.5 × 105 M⊙, with only 1 per cent of the clumps detected by number and 4 per cent by mass found to be supercritical. We find a clump-forming efficiency of 14 ± 1 per cent for the W51 GMC and a supercritical clump-forming efficiency of 0.5-0.5+2.3 per cent. Looking at the clump mass distribution, we find it is described by a single power law with a slope of α=2.4-0.1+0.2 above ˜100 M⊙. By comparing locations of supercritical clumps and young clusters, we see that any future star formation is likely to be located away from the currently active W51A region.

Crew Earth Observations (CEO) taken during Expedition Six

NASA Image and Video Library

2003-02-01

ISS006-E-28028 (February 2003) --- The Southern Cross (left center), the Coal Sack Nebula (bottom left), and the Carina Nebula (upper right) are visible in this view photographed by astronaut Donald R. Pettit, Expedition Six NASA ISS science officer, on board the International Space Station (ISS). The Carina Nebula is a molecular cloud about 9000 light years from Earth where young stars are forming. The Coal Sack Nebula is an inky-black dust cloud about 2000 light years from Earth. Stars are probably condensing deep inside the Coal Sack, but their light has not yet broken through the cloud’s dense exterior. The Southern Cross, also known as The Crux, is a constellation familiar to southern hemisphere stargazers.

Recent observations of interstellar molecules - Detection of CCO and a limit on H2C3O

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, R. D.; Cragg, D. M.; Godfrey, P. D.; Irvine, W. M.; Mcgonagle, D.; Ohishi, M.

1992-01-01

In order to test gas-phase reaction schemes for the production of small oxides of carbon in cold, dense interstellar clouds, we have searched for the radical CCO and for propadienone (H2C3O) in Taurus Molecular Cloud 1, a nearby cloud which exhibits a rich organic chemistry. The radical CCO has been detected with a fractional abundance some two orders of magnitude less than that of CCS, about one order of magnitude less than that of H2CCO, and slightly less than that of C3O. An upper limit has been obtained on the abundance of propadienone which is slightly less than that of its isomer propynal (HC2CHO).

The Potential Role Played by the Fullerene-Like Structures of Interstellar Carbon Dust in the Formation of Molecular Hydrogen in Space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cataldo, Franco; Iglesias-Groth, Susana

After a general introduction to the problem of formation of molecular hydrogen from atomic hydrogen in the interstellar medium and in the dense molecular clouds in particular, and after the explanation of the key role played by the surfaces on this process, it is proposed that the most suitable carbon surface for the formation of molecular hydrogen (from the radiative association process of atomic hydrogen) can be represented by carbon black rather than by graphite. Furthermore, it is proposed that the fullerene-like structures present in the carbon black graphene sheets are the reaction sites where molecular hydrogen may be formed.

From Interstellar Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Ice to the Origin of Life

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, Louis

2004-01-01

Tremendous strides have been made in our understanding of interstellar material over the past twenty years thanks to significant, parallel developments in observational astronomy and laboratory astrophysics. Twenty years ago the composition of interstellar dust was largely guessed at, the concept of ices in dense molecular clouds ignored, and the notion of large, abundant, gas phase, carbon rich molecules widespread throughout the interstellar medium (ISM) considered impossible. Today the composition of dust in the diffuse ISM is reasonably well constrained to cold refractory materials comprised of amorphous and crystalline silicates mixed with an amorphous carbonaceous material containing aromatic structural units and short, branched aliphatic chains. In the dense ISM, the birthplace of stars and planets, these cold dust particles are coated with mixed molecular ices whose composition is very well constrained. Lastly, the signature of carbon-rich polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), shockingly large molecules by early interstellar chemistry standards, is widespread throughout the Universe. The first part of this talk will describe how infrared studies of interstellar space, combined with laboratory simulations, have revealed the composition of interstellar ices (the building blocks of comets) and the high abundance and nature of interstellar PAHs. The laboratory database has now enabled us to gain insight into the identities, abundances, and physical state of many interstellar materials. Within a dense molecular cloud, and especially in the presolar nebula, the materials frozen into the interstellar/precometary ices are photoprocessed by ultraviolet light and produce more complex molecules. The remainder of the presentation will focus on the photochemical evolution of these materials and the possible role of these compounds on the to the carbonaceous components of micrometeorites, they are likely to have been important sources of complex materials on the early Earth and their composition may be related to the origin of life.

A Herschel [C ii] Galactic plane survey. I. The global distribution of ISM gas components

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pineda, J. L.; Langer, W. D.; Velusamy, T.; Goldsmith, P. F.

2013-06-01

Context. The [C ii] 158 μm line is an important tool for understanding the life cycle of interstellar matter. Ionized carbon is present in a variety of phases of the interstellar medium (ISM), including the diffuse ionized medium, warm and cold atomic clouds, clouds in transition from atomic to molecular, and dense and warm photon dominated regions. Aims: Velocity-resolved observations of [C ii] are the most powerful technique available to disentangle the emission produced by these components. These observations can also be used to trace CO-dark H2 gas and determine the total mass of the ISM. Methods: The Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+) project surveys the [C ii] 158 μm line over the entire Galactic disk with velocity-resolved observations using the Herschel/HIFI instrument. We present the first longitude-velocity maps of the [C ii] emission for Galactic latitudes b = 0°, ±0.5°, and ±1.0°. We combine these maps with those of H i, 12CO, and 13CO to separate the different phases of the ISM and study their properties and distribution in the Galactic plane. Results: [C ii] emission is mostly associated with spiral arms, mainly emerging from Galactocentric distances between 4 and 10 kpc. It traces the envelopes of evolved clouds as well as clouds that are in the transition between atomic and molecular. We estimate that most of the observed [C ii] emission is produced by dense photon dominated regions (~47%), with smaller contributions from CO-dark H2 gas (~28%), cold atomic gas (~21%), and ionized gas (~4%). Atomic gas inside the Solar radius is mostly in the form of cold neutral medium (CNM), while the warm neutral medium gas dominates the outer galaxy. The average fraction of CNM relative to total atomic gas is ~43%. We find that the warm and diffuse CO-dark H2 is distributed over a larger range of Galactocentric distances (4-11 kpc) than the cold and dense H2 gas traced by 12CO and 13CO (4-8 kpc). The fraction of CO-dark H2 to total H2 increases with Galactocentric distance, ranging from ~20% at 4 kpc to ~80% at 10 kpc. On average, CO-dark H2 accounts for ~30% of the molecular mass of the Milky Way. When the CO-dark H2 component is included, the radial distribution of the CO-to-H2 conversion factor is steeper than that when only molecular gas traced by CO is considered. Most of the observed [C ii] emission emerging from dense photon dominated regions is associated with modest far-ultraviolet fields in the range χ0 ≃ 1 - 30. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

Shocks in Dense Clouds in the Vela Supernova Remnant: FUSE

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nichols, Joy; Sonneborn, George (Technical Monitor)

2002-01-01

We have obtained 8 LWRS FUSE spectra to study a recently identified interaction of the Vela supernova remnant with a dense cloud region along its western edge. The goal is to quantify the temperature, ionization, density, and abundance characteristics associated with this shock/dense cloud interface by means of UV absorption line studies. Our detection of high-velocity absorption line C I at +90 to +130 km/s with IUE toward a narrow region interior to the Vela SNR strongly suggests the Vela supernova remnant is interacting with a dense ISM or molecular cloud. The shock/dense cloud interface is suggested by (1) the rarity of detection of high-velocity C I seen in IUE spectra, (2) its very limited spatial distribution in the remnant, and (3) a marked decrease in X-ray emission in the region immediately west of the position of these stars where one also finds a 100 micron emission ridge in IRAS images. We have investigated the shock physics and general properties of this interaction region through a focussed UV absorption line study using FUSE spectra. We have FUSE data on OVI absorption lines observed toward 8 stars behind the Vela supernova remnant (SNR). We compare the OVI observations with IUE observations of CIV absorption toward the same stars. Most of the stars, which are all B stars, have complex continua making the extraction of absorption lines difficult. Three of the stars, HD 72088, HD 72089 and HD 72350, however, are rapid rotators (v sin i less than 100 km/s) making the derivation of absorption column densities much easier. We have measured OVI and CIV column densities for the "main component" (i.e. the low velocity component) for these stars. In addition, by removing the H2 line at 1032.35A (121.6 km/s relative to OVI), we find high velocity components of OVI at approximately 150 km/s that we attribute to the shock in the Vela SNR. The column density ratios and magnitudes are compared to both steady shock models and results of hydrodynamical SNR modeling. We find that the models require the shock to be relatively slow (approximately 100 - 170 km/s) to match the FUSE data. We discuss the implications of our results for models of the evolution of the Vela SNR.

Can Sgr A* flares reveal the molecular gas density PDF?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Churazov, E.; Khabibullin, I.; Sunyaev, R.; Ponti, G.

2017-11-01

Illumination of dense gas in the Central Molecular Zone by powerful X-ray flares from Sgr A* leads to prominent structures in the reflected emission that can be observed long after the end of the flare. By studying this emission, we learn about past activity of the supermassive black hole in our Galactic Center and, at the same time, we obtain unique information on the structure of molecular clouds that is essentially impossible to get by other means. Here we discuss how X-ray data can improve our knowledge of both sides of the problem. Existing data already provide (I) an estimate of the flare age, (II) a model-independent lower limit on the luminosity of Sgr A* during the flare and (III) an estimate of the total emitted energy during Sgr A* flare. On the molecular clouds side, the data clearly show a voids-and-walls structure of the clouds and can provide an almost unbiased probe of the mass/density distribution of the molecular gas with the hydrogen column densities lower than few 1023 cm-2. For instance, the probability distribution function of the gas density PDF(ρ) can be measured this way. Future high energy resolution X-ray missions will provide the information on the gas velocities, allowing, for example, a reconstruction of the velocity field structure functions and cross-matching the X-ray and molecular data based on positions and velocities.

Extinction and Star Formation Study in Molecular Clouds with DENIS infrared data and USNO optical data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cambrésy, Laurent

1999-11-01

This thesis consists in a study of molecular clouds, essentially of the point of view of the interstellar environment, but also of the one of the star formation. The original method to estimate extinction presented here is based on adaptive star counts as well as on a wavelet decomposition. For the first time, an extinction map of the whole sky is proposed (USNO-PMM optical data). Access to very large field maps offers the opportunity to analyze the interstellar matter distribution in various environments. A first result is that the contained mass in regions for which AV > 1 would not exceed half of the total cloud mass. Using DENIS data, it becomes possible to probe dense regions of clouds. For instance, star counts in the Chamaeleon complex show cores which were not resolved before. Moreover, the selection of stars with a strong infrared excess yields about fifty T Tauri candidates. From their luminosity function, I derived the average lifetime of circumstellar disc of low--mass stars: ~4cdot 106 years. It is difficult to understand the relation between extinction and molecular emission, but it appears clearly that molecular emission is a bad estimator of the column density for low extinction area. Actually, thresholds exist in the CO detection and I conclude that photodissociation, density and cloud geometry have important consequences on the CO emission when AV < 2. Investigation of the relation between extinction and far--infrared emission in Polaris leads to a four times larger emissivity in cold areas than in hot areas. This result explains the low temperatures in this cloud and implies severe restrictions concerning the use of far--infrared fluxes as an extinction estimator.

Structure formation in a colliding flow: The Herschel view of the Draco nebula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Salomé, Q.; Martin, P. G.; Joncas, G.; Blagrave, K.; Dassas, K.; Abergel, A.; Beelen, A.; Boulanger, F.; Lagache, G.; Lockman, F. J.; Marshall, D. J.

2017-03-01

Context. The Draco nebula is a high Galactic latitude interstellar cloud observed at velocities corresponding to the intermediate velocity cloud regime. This nebula shows unusually strong CO emission and remarkably high-contrast small-scale structures for such a diffuse high Galactic latitude cloud. The 21 cm emission of the Draco nebula reveals that it is likely to have been formed by the collision of a cloud entering the disk of the Milky Way. Such physical conditions are ideal to study the formation of cold and dense gas in colliding flows of diffuse and warm gas. Aims: The objective of this study is to better understand the process of structure formation in a colliding flow and to describe the effects of matter entering the disk on the interstellar medium. Methods: We conducted Herschel-SPIRE observations of the Draco nebula. The clumpfind algorithm was used to identify and characterize the small-scale structures of the cloud. Results: The high-resolution SPIRE map reveals the fragmented structure of the interface between the infalling cloud and the Galactic layer. This front is characterized by a Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability structure. From the determination of the typical length of the periodic structure (2.2 pc) we estimated the gas kinematic viscosity. This allowed us to estimate the dissipation scale of the warm neutral medium (0.1 pc), which was found to be compatible with that expected if ambipolar diffusion were the main mechanism of turbulent energy dissipation. The statistical properties of the small-scale structures identified with clumpfind are found to be typical of that seen in molecular clouds and hydrodynamical turbulence in general. The density of the gas has a log-normal distribution with an average value of 103 cm-3. The typical size of the structures is 0.1-0.2 pc, but this estimate is limited by the resolution of the observations. The mass of these structures ranges from 0.2 to 20 M⊙ and the distribution of the more massive structures follows a power-law dN/ dlog (M) M-1.4. We identify a mass-size relation with the same exponent as that found in molecular clouds (M L2.3). On the other hand, we found that only 15% of the mass of the cloud is in gravitationally bound structures. Conclusions: We conclude that the collision of diffuse gas from the Galactic halo with the diffuse interstellar medium of the outer layer of the disk is an efficient mechanism for producing dense structures. The increase of pressure induced by the collision is strong enough to trigger the formation of cold neutral medium out of the warm gas. It is likely that ambipolar diffusion is the mechanism dominating the turbulent energy dissipation. In that case the cold structures are a few times larger than the energy dissipation scale. The dense structures of Draco are the result of the interplay between magnetohydrodynamical turbulence and thermal instability as self-gravity is not dominating the dynamics. Interestingly they have properties typical of those found in more classical molecular clouds. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.The reduced Herschel data (FITS files) are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/599/A109

The Milky Way as a Star Formation Engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molinari, S.; Bally, J.; Glover, S.; Moore, T.; Noriega-Crespo, A.; Plume, R.; Testi, L.; Vázquez-Semadeni, E.; Zavagno, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Martin, P.

The cycling of material from the interstellar medium (ISM) into stars and the return of stellar ejecta into the ISM is the engine that drives the galactic ecology in normal spirals. This ecology is a cornerstone in the formation and evolution of galaxies through cosmic time. There remain major observational and theoretical challenges in determining the processes responsible for converting the low-density, diffuse components of the ISM into dense molecular clouds, forming dense filaments and clumps, fragmenting them into stars, expanding OB associations and bound clusters, and characterizing the feedback that limits the rate and efficiency of star formation. This formidable task can be attacked effectively for the first time thanks to the synergistic combination of new global-scale surveys of the Milky Way from infrared (IR) to radio wavelengths, offering the possibility of bridging the gap between local and extragalactic star-formation studies. The Herschel Space Observatory Galactic Plane Survey (Hi-GAL) survey, with its five-band 70-500-μm full Galactic Plane mapping at 6"-36" resolution, is the keystone of a set of continuum surveys that include the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE)(360)+MIPSGAL@Spitzer, Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL)@Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX), Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS)@Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO), and CORNISH@Very Large Array (VLA). This suite enables us to measure the Galactic distribution and physical properties of dust on all scales and in all components of the ISM from diffuse clouds to filamentary complexes and hundreds of thousands of dense clumps. A complementary suite of spectroscopic surveys in various atomic and molecular tracers is providing the chemical fingerprinting of dense clumps and filaments, as well as essential kinematic information to derive distances and thus transform panoramic data into a three-dimensional representation. The latest results emerging from these Galaxy-scale surveys are reviewed. New insights into cloud formation and evolution, filaments and their relationship to channeling gas onto gravitationally-bound clumps, the properties of these clumps, density thresholds for gravitational collapse, and star and cluster formation rates are discussed.

Evolution of Morphological and Physical Properties of Laboratory Interstellar Organic Residues with Ultraviolet Irradiation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piani, L.; Tachibana, S.; Hama, T.; Tanaka, H.; Endo, Y.; Sugawara, I.; Dessimoulie, L.; Kimura, Y.; Miyake, A.; Matsuno, J.; Tsuchiyama, A.; Fujita, K.; Nakatsubo, S.; Fukushi, H.; Mori, S.; Chigai, T.; Yurimoto, H.; Kouchi, A.

2017-03-01

Refractory organic compounds formed in molecular clouds are among the building blocks of the solar system objects and could be the precursors of organic matter found in primitive meteorites and cometary materials. However, little is known about the evolutionary pathways of molecular cloud organics from dense molecular clouds to planetary systems. In this study, we focus on the evolution of the morphological and viscoelastic properties of molecular cloud refractory organic matter. We found that the organic residue, experimentally synthesized at ˜10 K from UV-irradiated H2O-CH3OH-NH3 ice, changed significantly in terms of its nanometer- to micrometer-scale morphology and viscoelastic properties after UV irradiation at room temperature. The dose of this irradiation was equivalent to that experienced after short residence in diffuse clouds (≤104 years) or irradiation in outer protoplanetary disks. The irradiated organic residues became highly porous and more rigid and formed amorphous nanospherules. These nanospherules are morphologically similar to organic nanoglobules observed in the least-altered chondrites, chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles, and cometary samples, suggesting that irradiation of refractory organics could be a possible formation pathway for such nanoglobules. The storage modulus (elasticity) of photo-irradiated organic residues is ˜100 MPa irrespective of vibrational frequency, a value that is lower than the storage moduli of minerals and ice. Dust grains coated with such irradiated organics would therefore stick together efficiently, but growth to larger grains might be suppressed due to an increase in aggregate brittleness caused by the strong connections between grains.

Evolution of Morphological and Physical Properties of Laboratory Interstellar Organic Residues with Ultraviolet Irradiation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Piani, L.; Tachibana, S.; Endo, Y.

Refractory organic compounds formed in molecular clouds are among the building blocks of the solar system objects and could be the precursors of organic matter found in primitive meteorites and cometary materials. However, little is known about the evolutionary pathways of molecular cloud organics from dense molecular clouds to planetary systems. In this study, we focus on the evolution of the morphological and viscoelastic properties of molecular cloud refractory organic matter. We found that the organic residue, experimentally synthesized at ∼10 K from UV-irradiated H{sub 2}O-CH{sub 3}OH-NH{sub 3} ice, changed significantly in terms of its nanometer- to micrometer-scale morphology andmore » viscoelastic properties after UV irradiation at room temperature. The dose of this irradiation was equivalent to that experienced after short residence in diffuse clouds (≤10{sup 4} years) or irradiation in outer protoplanetary disks. The irradiated organic residues became highly porous and more rigid and formed amorphous nanospherules. These nanospherules are morphologically similar to organic nanoglobules observed in the least-altered chondrites, chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles, and cometary samples, suggesting that irradiation of refractory organics could be a possible formation pathway for such nanoglobules. The storage modulus (elasticity) of photo-irradiated organic residues is ∼100 MPa irrespective of vibrational frequency, a value that is lower than the storage moduli of minerals and ice. Dust grains coated with such irradiated organics would therefore stick together efficiently, but growth to larger grains might be suppressed due to an increase in aggregate brittleness caused by the strong connections between grains.« less

Ionized gas at the edge of the central molecular zone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langer, W. D.; Goldsmith, P. F.; Pineda, J. L.; Velusamy, T.; Requena-Torres, M. A.; Wiesemeyer, H.

2015-04-01

Context. The edge of the central molecular zone (CMZ) is the location where massive dense molecular clouds with large internal velocity dispersions transition to the surrounding more quiescent and lower CO emissivity region of the Galaxy. Little is known about the ionized gas surrounding the molecular clouds and in the transition region. Aims: We determine the properties of the ionized gas at the edge of the CMZ near Sgr E using observations of N+ and C+. Methods: We observed a small portion of the edge of the CMZ near Sgr E with spectrally resolved [C ii] 158 μm and [N ii] 205 μm fine structure lines at six positions with the GREAT instrument on SOFIA and in [C ii] using Herschel HIFI on-the-fly strip maps. We use the [N ii] spectra along with a radiative transfer model to calculate the electron density of the gas and the [C ii] maps to illuminate the morphology of the ionized gas and model the column density of CO-dark H2. Results: We detect two [C ii] and [N ii] velocity components, one along the line of sight to a CO molecular cloud at - 207 km s-1 associated with Sgr E and the other at -174 km s-1 outside the edge of another CO cloud. From the [N ii] emission we find that the average electron density is in the range of ~5 to 21 cm-3 for these features. This electron density is much higher than that of the disk's warm ionized medium, but is consistent with densities determined for bright diffuse H ii nebula. The column density of the CO-dark H2 layer in the -207 km s-1 cloud is ~1-2 × 1021 cm-2 in agreement with theoretical models. The CMZ extends further out in Galactic radius by ~7 to 14 pc in ionized gas than it does in molecular gas traced by CO. Conclusions: The edge of the CMZ likely contains dense hot ionized gas surrounding the neutral molecular material. The high fractional abundance of N+ and high electron density require an intense EUV field with a photon flux of order 106 to 107 photons cm-2 s-1, and/or efficient proton charge exchange with nitrogen, at temperatures of order 104 K, and/or a large flux of X-rays. Sgr E is a region of massive star formation as indicated by the presence of numerous compact H ii regions. The massive stars are potential sources of the EUV radiation that ionizes and heat the gas. In addition, X-ray sources and the diffuse X-ray emission in the CMZ are candidates for ionizing nitrogen.

Molecular cloud-scale star formation in NGC 300

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Faesi, Christopher M.; Lada, Charles J.; Forbrich, Jan

2014-07-01

We present the results of a galaxy-wide study of molecular gas and star formation in a sample of 76 H II regions in the nearby spiral galaxy NGC 300. We have measured the molecular gas at 250 pc scales using pointed CO(J = 2-1) observations with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope. We detect CO in 42 of our targets, deriving molecular gas masses ranging from our sensitivity limit of ∼10{sup 5} M {sub ☉} to 7 × 10{sup 5} M {sub ☉}. We find a clear decline in the CO detection rate with galactocentric distance, which we attribute primarily tomore » the decreasing radial metallicity gradient in NGC 300. We combine Galaxy Evolution Explorer far-ultraviolet, Spitzer 24 μm, and Hα narrowband imaging to measure the star formation activity in our sample. We have developed a new direct modeling approach for computing star formation rates (SFRs) that utilizes these data and population synthesis models to derive the masses and ages of the young stellar clusters associated with each of our H II region targets. We find a characteristic gas depletion time of 230 Myr at 250 pc scales in NGC 300, more similar to the results obtained for Milky Way giant molecular clouds than the longer (>2 Gyr) global depletion times derived for entire galaxies and kiloparsec-sized regions within them. This difference is partially due to the fact that our study accounts for only the gas and stars within the youngest star-forming regions. We also note a large scatter in the NGC 300 SFR-molecular gas mass scaling relation that is furthermore consistent with the Milky Way cloud results. This scatter likely represents real differences in giant molecular cloud physical properties such as the dense gas fraction.« less

[Cii] emission from L1630 in the Orion B molecular cloud.

PubMed

Pabst, C H M; Goicoechea, J R; Teyssier, D; Berné, O; Ochsendorf, B B; Wolfire, M G; Higgins, R D; Riquelme, D; Risacher, C; Pety, J; Le Petit, F; Roueff, E; Bron, E; Tielens, A G G M

2017-10-01

L1630 in the Orion B molecular cloud, which includes the iconic Horsehead Nebula, illuminated by the star system σ Ori, is an example of a photodissociation region (PDR). In PDRs, stellar radiation impinges on the surface of dense material, often a molecular cloud, thereby inducing a complex network of chemical reactions and physical processes. Observations toward L1630 allow us to study the interplay between stellar radiation and a molecular cloud under relatively benign conditions, that is, intermediate densities and an intermediate UV radiation field. Contrary to the well-studied Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC1), which hosts much harsher conditions, L1630 has little star formation. Our goal is to relate the [Cii] fine-structure line emission to the physical conditions predominant in L1630 and compare it to studies of OMC1. The [Cii] 158 μ m line emission of L1630 around the Horsehead Nebula, an area of 12' × 17', was observed using the upgraded German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (upGREAT) onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Of the [Cii] emission from the mapped area 95%, 13 L ⊙ , originates from the molecular cloud; the adjacent Hii region contributes only 5%, that is, 1 L ⊙ . From comparison with other data (CO(1-0)-line emission, far-infrared (FIR) continuum studies, emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)), we infer a gas density of the molecular cloud of n H ∼ 3 · 10 3 cm -3 , with surface layers, including the Horsehead Nebula, having a density of up to n H ∼ 4 · 10 4 cm -3 . The temperature of the surface gas is T ∼ 100 K. The average [Cii] cooling efficiency within the molecular cloud is 1.3 · 10 -2 . The fraction of the mass of the molecular cloud within the studied area that is traced by [Cii] is only 8%. Our PDR models are able to reproduce the FIR-[Cii] correlations and also the CO(1-0)-[Cii] correlations. Finally, we compare our results on the heating efficiency of the gas with theoretical studies of photoelectric heating by PAHs, clusters of PAHs, and very small grains, and find the heating efficiency to be lower than theoretically predicted, a continuation of the trend set by other observations. In L1630 only a small fraction of the gas mass is traced by [Cii]. Most of the [Cii] emission in the mapped area stems from PDR surfaces. The layered edge-on structure of the molecular cloud and limitations in spatial resolution put constraints on our ability to relate different tracers to each other and to the physical conditions. From our study, we conclude that the relation between [Cii] emission and physical conditions is likely to be more complicated than often assumed. The theoretical heating efficiency is higher than the one we calculate from the observed [Cii] emission in the L1630 molecular cloud.

[Cii] emission from L1630 in the Orion B molecular cloud

PubMed Central

Pabst, C. H. M.; Goicoechea, J. R.; Teyssier, D.; Berné, O.; Ochsendorf, B. B.; Wolfire, M. G.; Higgins, R. D.; Riquelme, D.; Risacher, C.; Pety, J.; Le Petit, F.; Roueff, E.; Bron, E.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.

2017-01-01

Context L1630 in the Orion B molecular cloud, which includes the iconic Horsehead Nebula, illuminated by the star system σ Ori, is an example of a photodissociation region (PDR). In PDRs, stellar radiation impinges on the surface of dense material, often a molecular cloud, thereby inducing a complex network of chemical reactions and physical processes. Aims Observations toward L1630 allow us to study the interplay between stellar radiation and a molecular cloud under relatively benign conditions, that is, intermediate densities and an intermediate UV radiation field. Contrary to the well-studied Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC1), which hosts much harsher conditions, L1630 has little star formation. Our goal is to relate the [Cii] fine-structure line emission to the physical conditions predominant in L1630 and compare it to studies of OMC1. Methods The [Cii] 158 μm line emission of L1630 around the Horsehead Nebula, an area of 12′ × 17′, was observed using the upgraded German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (upGREAT) onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Results Of the [Cii] emission from the mapped area 95%, 13 L⊙, originates from the molecular cloud; the adjacent Hii region contributes only 5%, that is, 1 L⊙. From comparison with other data (CO(1-0)-line emission, far-infrared (FIR) continuum studies, emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)), we infer a gas density of the molecular cloud of nH ∼ 3 · 103 cm−3, with surface layers, including the Horsehead Nebula, having a density of up to nH ∼ 4 · 104 cm−3. The temperature of the surface gas is T ∼ 100 K. The average [Cii] cooling efficiency within the molecular cloud is 1.3 · 10−2. The fraction of the mass of the molecular cloud within the studied area that is traced by [Cii] is only 8%. Our PDR models are able to reproduce the FIR-[Cii] correlations and also the CO(1-0)-[Cii] correlations. Finally, we compare our results on the heating efficiency of the gas with theoretical studies of photoelectric heating by PAHs, clusters of PAHs, and very small grains, and find the heating efficiency to be lower than theoretically predicted, a continuation of the trend set by other observations. Conclusions In L1630 only a small fraction of the gas mass is traced by [Cii]. Most of the [Cii] emission in the mapped area stems from PDR surfaces. The layered edge-on structure of the molecular cloud and limitations in spatial resolution put constraints on our ability to relate different tracers to each other and to the physical conditions. From our study, we conclude that the relation between [Cii] emission and physical conditions is likely to be more complicated than often assumed. The theoretical heating efficiency is higher than the one we calculate from the observed [Cii] emission in the L1630 molecular cloud. PMID:28989177

Searching for Bio-Precursors and Complex Organic Molecules in Space using the GBT

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cordiner, M.; Charnley, S.; Kisiel, Z.

2012-01-01

Using the latest microwave receiver technology, large organic molecules with abundances as low as approx. 10(exp -11) times that of molecular hydrogen are detectable in cold interstellar clouds via their rotational emission line spectra. We report new observations to search for complex molecules, including molecules of possible pre-biotic importance, using the newly-commissioned Kband focal plane array (KFPA) of the NRAO Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. Spectra are presented of the dense molecular cloud TMC-1, showing strict upper limits on the level of emission from nitrogen-bearing rings pyrimidine, quinoline and iso-quinoline, carbon-chain oxides C60, C70, HC60 and HC70, and the carbon-chain anion C4H-. The typical RMS brightness temperature noise levels we achieved are approx. 1 mK at around 20 GHz.

Speeding Clouds May Reveal Invisible Black Holes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2017-07-01

Several small, speeding clouds have been discovered at the center of our galaxy. A new study suggests that these unusual objects may reveal the lurking presence of inactive black holes.Peculiar Cloudsa) Velocity-integrated intensity map showing the location of the two high-velocity compact clouds, HCN0.0090.044 and HCN0.0850.094, in the context of larger molecular clouds. b) and c) Latitude-velocity and longitude-velocity maps for HCN0.0090.044 and HCN0.0850.094, respectively. d) and e) spectra for the two compacts clouds, respectively. Click for a closer look. [Takekawa et al. 2017]Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole marking the center of our galaxy, is surrounded by a region roughly 650 light-years across known as the Central Molecular Zone. This area at the heart of our galaxy is filled with large amounts of warm, dense molecular gas that has a complex distribution and turbulent kinematics.Several peculiar gas clouds have been discovered within the Central Molecular Zone within the past two decades. These clouds, dubbed high-velocity compact clouds, are characterized by their compact sizes and extremely broad velocity widths.What created this mysterious population of energetic clouds? The recent discovery of two new high-velocity compact clouds, reported on in a paper led by Shunya Takekawa (Keio University, Japan), may help us to answer this question.Two More to the CountUsing the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, Takekawa and collaborators detected the small clouds near the circumnuclear disk at the centermost part of our galaxy. These two clouds have velocity spreads of -80 to -20 km/s and -80 to 0 km/s and compact sizes of just over 1 light-year. The clouds similar appearances and physical properties suggest that they may both have been formed by the same process.Takekawa and collaborators explore and discard several possible origins for these clouds, such as outflows from massive protostars (no massive, luminous stars have been detected affiliated with these clouds), interaction with supernova remnants (no supernova remnants have been detected toward the clouds), and cloudcloud collisions (such collisions leave other signs, like cavities in the parent cloud, which are not detected here).Masses and velocities of black holes that could create the two high-velocity compact clouds fall above the red and blue lines here. [Takekawa et al. 2017]Revealed on the PlungeAs an alternative explanation, Takekawa and collaborators propose that these two small,speeding cloudswere each created when a massive compact object plunged into a nearby molecular cloud. Since we dont seeany luminous stellar counterparts to the high-velocity compact clouds, this suggests that the responsibleobjects were invisible black holes. As each black hole tore through a molecular cloud, it dragged some of the clouds gas along behind it to form the high-velocity compact cloud.Does this explanation make sense statistically? The authors point out that the number of black holes predicted to silently lurk in the central 30 light-years of the Milky Way is around 10,000. This makes it entirely plausible that we could have caught sight of two of them as they revealed their presence while plunging through molecular clouds.If the authors interpretation is correct, then high-velocity compact clouds provide an excellent opportunity: we can search for these speeding bodiesto potentially discover inactive black holes that would otherwise go undetected.CitationShunya Takekawa et al 2017 ApJL 843 L11. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/aa79ee

GRAVITATIONAL CONTRACTION VERSUS SUPERNOVA DRIVING AND THE ORIGIN OF THE VELOCITY DISPERSION–SIZE RELATION IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ibáñez-Mejía, Juan C.; Mac Low, Mordecai-Mark; Klessen, Ralf S.

Molecular cloud (MC) observations show that clouds have non-thermal velocity dispersions that scale with the cloud size as σ ∝ R {sup 1/2} at a constant surface density, and for varying surface density scale with both the cloud’s size and surface density, σ {sup 2} ∝ R Σ. The energy source driving these chaotic motions remains poorly understood. We describe the velocity dispersions observed in a cloud population formed in a numerical simulation of a magnetized, stratified, supernova (SN)-driven, interstellar medium, including diffuse heating and radiative cooling, before and after we include the effects of the self-gravity of the gas.more » We compare the relationships between velocity dispersion, size, and surface density measured in the simulated cloud population to those found in observations of Galactic MCs. Our simulations prior to the onset of self-gravity suggest that external SN explosions alone do not drive turbulent motions of the observed magnitudes within dense clouds. On the other hand, self-gravity induces non-thermal motions as gravitationally bound clouds begin to collapse in our model, approaching the observed relations between velocity dispersion, size, and surface density. Energy conservation suggests that the observed behavior is consistent with the kinetic energy being proportional to the gravitational energy. However, the clouds in our model show no sign of reaching a stable equilibrium state at any time, even for strongly magnetized clouds. We conclude that gravitationally bound MCs are always in a state of gravitational contraction and their properties are a natural result of this chaotic collapse. In order to agree with observed star formation efficiencies, this process must be terminated by the early destruction of the clouds, presumably from internal stellar feedback.« less

NIF Discovery Science Eagle Nebula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kane, Jave; Martinez, David; Pound, Marc; Heeter, Robert; Casner, Alexis; Villette, Bruno; Mancini, Roberto

2017-10-01

The University of Maryland and and LLNL are investigating the origin and dynamics of the famous Pillars of the Eagle Nebula and similar parsec-scale structures at the boundaries of HII regions in molecular hydrogen clouds. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) Discovery Science program Eagle Nebula has performed NIF shots to study models of pillar formation. The shots feature a new long-duration x-ray source, in which multiple hohlraums mimicking a cluster of stars are driven with UV light in series for 10 to 15 ns each to create a 30 to 60 ns output x-ray pulse. The source generates deeply nonlinear hydrodynamics in the Eagle science package, a structure of dense plastic and foam mocking up a molecular cloud containing a dense core. Omega EP and NIF shots have validated the source concept, showing that earlier hohlraums do not compromise later ones by preheat or by ejecting ablated plumes that deflect later beams. The NIF shots generated radiographs of shadowing-model pillars, and also showed evidence that cometary structures can be generated. The velocity and column density profiles of the NIF shadowing and cometary pillars have been compared with observations of the Eagle Pillars made at the millimeter-wave BIMA and CARMA observatories. Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.

The inception of star cluster formation revealed by [C II] emission around an Infrared Dark Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bisbas, Thomas G.; Tan, Jonathan C.; Csengeri, Timea; Wu, Benjamin; Lim, Wanggi; Caselli, Paola; Güsten, Rolf; Ricken, Oliver; Riquelme, Denise

2018-07-01

We present SOFIA-upGREAT observations of [C II] emission of Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC) G035.39-00.33, designed to trace its atomic gas envelope and thus test models of the origins of such clouds. Several velocity components of [C II] emission are detected, tracing structures that are at a wide range of distances in the Galactic plane. We find a main component that is likely associated with the IRDC and its immediate surroundings. This strongest emission component has a velocity similar to that of the 13CO(2-1) emission of the IRDC, but offset by ˜3 km s-1 and with a larger velocity width of ˜9 km s-1. The spatial distribution of the [C II] emission of this component is also offset predominantly to one side of the dense filamentary structure of the IRDC. The C II column density is estimated to be of the order of ˜1017-1018 cm-2. We compare these results to the [C II] emission from numerical simulations of magnetized, dense gas filaments formed from giant molecular cloud (GMC) collisions, finding similar spatial and kinematic offsets. These observations and modellingof [C II] add further to the evidence that IRDC G035.39-00.33 has been formed by a process of GMC-GMC collision, which may thus be an important mechanism for initiating star cluster formation.

Toward Gas Chemistry in Low Metallicity Starburst Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meier, David S.; Anderson, Crystal N.; Turner, Jean; Ott, Juergen; Beck, Sara C.

2017-01-01

Dense gas, which is intimately connected with star formation, is key to understanding star formation. Though challenging to study, dense gas in low metallicity starbursts is important given these system's often extreme star formation and their potential implications for high redshift analogs. High spatial resolution (~50 pc) ALMA observations of several key probes of gas chemistry, including HCN(1-0), HCO+(1-0), CS(2-1), CCH(1-0;3/2-1/2) and SiO(2-1), towards the nearby super star-cluster (SSC) forming, sub-solar metallicity galaxy NGC 5253 are discussed. Dense gas is observed to be extended well beyond the current compact starburst, reaching into the apparently infalling molecular streamer. The faintness of HCN, the standard dense gas tracer, is extreme both in an absolute sense relative to high metallicity starbursts of a similar intensity and in a relative sense, with the HCO+/HCN ratio being one of the most elevated observed. UV-irradiated molecular gas, traced by CCH, is also extended over the mapped region, not being strongly correlated with the SSC. Despite the accretion of molecular gas from the halo and the intense burst of star formation, chemical signatures of shocked gas, traced by SiO (and HNCO), are not obvious. By placing NGC 5253 in context with other local starbursts, like 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Clouds and the high metallicity proto-typical starburst NGC 253, it is suggested that a combination of gas excitation and abundance changes associated with the sub solar metallicity may explain these anomalous dense gas properties.

Dense CO in Mrk 71-A: Superwind Suppressed in a Young Super Star Cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oey, M. S.; Herrera, C. N.; Silich, Sergiy; Reiter, Megan; James, Bethan L.; Jaskot, A. E.; Micheva, Genoveva

2017-11-01

We report the detection of CO(J=2-1) coincident with the super star cluster (SSC) Mrk 71-A in the nearby Green Pea analog galaxy, NGC 2366. Our observations with the Northern Extended Millimeter Array reveal a compact, ˜7 pc, molecular cloud whose mass ({10}5 {M}⊙ ) is similar to that of the SSC, consistent with a high star formation efficiency, on the order of 0.5. There are two spatially distinct components separated by 11 {km} {{{s}}}-1. If expanding, these could be due to momentum-driven stellar wind feedback. Alternatively, we may be seeing remnants of the infalling, colliding clouds responsible for triggering the SSC formation. The kinematics are also consistent with a virialized system. These extreme, high-density, star-forming conditions inhibit energy-driven feedback; the co-spatial existence of a massive, molecular cloud with the SSC supports this scenario, and we quantitatively confirm that any wind-driven feedback in Mrk 71-A is momentum-driven, rather than energy-driven. Since Mrk 71-A is a candidate Lyman continuum emitter, this implies that energy-driven superwinds may not be a necessary condition for the escape of ionizing radiation. In addition, the detection of nebular continuum emission yields an accurate astrometric position for the Mrk 71-A. We also detect four other massive molecular clouds in this giant star-forming complex.

Collapse and Fragmentation of Molecular Cloud Cores. VII. Magnetic Fields and Multiple Protostar Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boss, Alan P.

2002-04-01

Recent observations of star-forming regions suggest that binary and multiple young stars are the rule rather than the exception and implicate fragmentation as the likely mechanism for their formation. Most numerical hydrodynamic calculations of fragmentation have neglected the possibly deleterious effects of magnetic fields, despite ample evidence for the importance of magnetic support of precollapse clouds. We present here the first numerical hydrodynamic survey of the collapse and fragmentation of initially magnetically supported clouds that takes into account several magnetic field effects in an approximate manner. The models are calculated with a three-dimensional, finite differences code that solves the equations of hydrodynamics, gravitation, and radiative transfer in the Eddington and diffusion approximations. Magnetic field effects are included through two simple approximations: magnetic pressure is added to the gas pressure, and magnetic tension is approximated by gravity dilution once collapse is well underway. Ambipolar diffusion of the magnetic field leading to cloud collapse is treated approximately as well. Models are calculated for a variety of initial cloud density profiles, shapes, and rotation rates. We find that in spite of the inclusion of magnetic field effects, dense cloud cores are capable of fragmenting into binary and multiple protostar systems. Initially prolate clouds tend to fragment into binary protostars, while initially oblate clouds tend to fragment into multiple protostar systems containing a small number (of the order of 4) of fragments. The latter are likely to be subject to rapid orbital evolution, with close encounters possibly leading to the ejection of fragments. Contrary to expectation, magnetic tension effects appear to enhance fragmentation, allowing lower mass fragments to form than would otherwise be possible, because magnetic tension helps to prevent a central density singularity from forming and producing a dominant single object. Magnetically supported dense cloud cores thus seem to be capable of collapsing and fragmenting into sufficient numbers of binary and multiple protostar systems to be compatible with observations of the relative rarity of single protostars.

Modeling the chemistry of the dense interstellar clouds. I - Observational constraints for the chemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Federman, S. R.; Huntress, W. T., Jr.; Prasad, S. S.

1990-01-01

A search for correlations arising from molecular line data is made in order to place constraints on the chemical models of interstellar clouds. At 10 to the 21st H2/sq cm, N(CO) for dark clouds is a factor of six greater than the value for diffuse clouds. This implies that the strength of the UV radiation field where CO shields itself from dissociation is about one-half the strength of the average Galactic field. The dark cloud data indicate that the abundance of CO continues to increase with A(V) for directions with A(V) of 4 mag or less, although less steeply with N(H2) than for diffuse clouds. For H2CO, a quadratic relationship is obtained in plots versus H2 column density. The data suggest a possible turnover at the highest values for A(V). NH3 shows no correlation with H2, C(O-18), HC3N, or HC5N; a strong correlation is found between HC5N and HC3N, indicating a chemical link between the cyanopolyynes.

Neutral hydrogen self-absorption in the Milky Way Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kavars, Dain William

2006-06-01

To develop a better understanding of the cold neutral medium phase of the interstellar medium, we present a detailed analysis of neutral hydrogen self- absorption (HISA) clouds in the Milky Way Galaxy. These HISA clouds are in the Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS), spanning the region l = 253°--358° and | b | <= 1.3°, and in the VLA Galactic Plane Survey (VGPS), spanning the region l = 18°--67° and | b | <= 1.3°--2.3°. The SGPS and VGPS have an angular resolution of ~1 arcminute and a velocity channel spacing of 0.82 km s -1 . With the recent completion of these surveys, we can study HISA features across the Galaxy at a much better resolution and sensitivity than any previous work. To analyze HISA in detail, catalogs of clouds of all sizes, including those undetectable by eye alone, are required. We present an automated search routine to detect all HISA clouds in the SGPS. We compare HISA to CO data and find some HISA clouds associated with CO, but others have no associated CO. This suggests that HISA clouds are in a transition between molecular and atomic gas, bridging the gap between dense molecular clouds and warmer, diffuse atomic clouds. HISA thus plays an important role in the overall evolution of the Galaxy. To study this transition further, we present observations of the OH molecule toward a select sample of HISA clouds in the VGPS, using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). We present an analysis of the molecular properties of this sample, including a derivation of an OH to H 2 conversion factor and H 2 to H I abundance ratios. We discuss the complex relationship between H I, OH, 12 CO, and 13 CO emission. Finally we present a statistical analysis comparing HISA with infrared data from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) project. The GLIMPSE data reveal a large number of compact, dark infrared clouds believed to be in the early stages of star formation. If GLIMPSE clouds are associated with HISA, they provide valuable information on the evolution of HISA clouds.

[C II] emission from L1630 in the Orion B molecular cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pabst, C. H. M.; Goicoechea, J. R.; Teyssier, D.; Berné, O.; Ochsendorf, B. B.; Wolfire, M. G.; Higgins, R. D.; Riquelme, D.; Risacher, C.; Pety, J.; Le Petit, F.; Roueff, E.; Bron, E.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.

2017-10-01

Context. L1630 in the Orion B molecular cloud, which includes the iconic Horsehead Nebula, illuminated by the star system σ Ori, is an example of a photodissociation region (PDR). In PDRs, stellar radiation impinges on the surface of dense material, often a molecular cloud, thereby inducing a complex network of chemical reactions and physical processes. Aims: Observations toward L1630 allow us to study the interplay between stellar radiation and a molecular cloud under relatively benign conditions, that is, intermediate densities and an intermediate UV radiation field. Contrary to the well-studied Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC1), which hosts much harsher conditions, L1630 has little star formation. Our goal is to relate the [C II] fine-structure line emission to the physical conditions predominant in L1630 and compare it to studies of OMC1. Methods: The [C II] 158 μm line emission of L1630 around the Horsehead Nebula, an area of 12' × 17', was observed using the upgraded German Receiver for Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies (upGREAT) onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Results: Of the [C II] emission from the mapped area 95%, 13 L⊙, originates from the molecular cloud; the adjacent H II region contributes only 5%, that is, 1 L⊙. From comparison with other data (CO (1 - 0)-line emission, far-infrared (FIR) continuum studies, emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)), we infer a gas density of the molecular cloud of nH 3 × 103 cm-3, with surface layers, including the Horsehead Nebula, having a density of up to nH 4 × 104 cm-3. The temperature of the surface gas is T 100 K. The average [C II] cooling efficiency within the molecular cloud is 1.3 × 10-2. The fraction of the mass of the molecular cloud within the studied area that is traced by [C II] is only 8%. Our PDR models are able to reproduce the FIR-[C II] correlations and also the CO (1 - 0)-[C II] correlations. Finally, we compare our results on the heating efficiency of the gas with theoretical studies of photoelectric heating by PAHs, clusters of PAHs, and very small grains, and find the heating efficiency to be lower than theoretically predicted, a continuation of the trend set by other observations. Conclusions: In L1630 only a small fraction of the gas mass is traced by [C II]. Most of the [C II] emission in the mapped area stems from PDR surfaces. The layered edge-on structure of the molecular cloud and limitations in spatial resolution put constraints on our ability to relate different tracers to each other and to the physical conditions. From our study, we conclude that the relation between [C II] emission and physical conditions is likely to be more complicated than often assumed. The theoretical heating efficiency is higher than the one we calculate from the observed [C II] emission in the L1630 molecular cloud.

Organic Synthesis in Simulated Interstellar Ice Analogs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dworkin, Jason P.; Bernstein, Max P.; Sandford, Scott A.; Allamandola, Louis J.; Deamer, David W.; Elsila, Jamie; Zare, Richard N.; DeVincenzi, Donald (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Comets and carbonaceous micrometeorites may have been significant sources of organic compounds on the early Earth. Ices on grains in interstellar dense molecular clouds contain a variety of simple molecules as well as aromatic molecules of various sizes. While in these clouds the icy grains are processed by ultraviolet light and cosmic radiation which produces more complex organic molecules. ID We have run laboratory simulations to identify the types of molecules which could have been generated photolytically in pre-cometary ices. Experiments were conducted by forming various realistic interstellar mixed-molecular ices with and without polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at approx. 10 K under high vacuum irradiated with LTV light from a hydrogen plasma lamp: The residue that remained after warming to room temperature was analyzed by HPLC, and by laser desorption mass spectrometry. The residue contains several classes of compounds which may be of prebiotic significance.

Organic Synthesis in Simulated Interstellar Ice Analogs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dworkin, Jason P.; Bernstein, Max P.; Sandford, Scott A.; Allamandola, Louis J.; Deamer, David W.; Elsila, Jamie; Zare, Richard N.

2001-01-01

Comets and carbonaceous micrometeorites may have been significant sources of organic compounds on the early Earth. Ices on grains in interstellar dense molecular clouds contain a variety of simple molecules as well as aromatic molecules of various sizes. While in these clouds the icy grains are processed by ultraviolet light and cosmic radiation which produces more complex organic molecules. We have run laboratory simulations to identify the types of molecules which could have been generated photolytically in pre-cometary ices. Experiments were conducted by forming various realistic interstellar mixed-molecular ices with and without polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at approx. 10 K under high vacuum irradiated with UV light from a hydrogen plasma lamp. The residue that remained after warming to room temperature was analyzed by HPLC, and by laser desorption mass spectrometry. The residue contains several classes of compounds which may be of prebiotic significance.

Cosmic Star Formation - Seen from the Milky Way with AtLAST Short Contributed Talk

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kauffmann, Jens

2018-01-01

Herschel and Spitzer provided first truly unbiased overviews of star formation environments in the Milky Way. Today, high–powered instruments like ALMA additionally resolve the immediate birth environments of individual stars in a few selected regions throughout the Galaxy. This progress in the Milky Way is important, because the same facilities also allow us to explore how galaxies evolved over time. Was star formation more efficient in the dense molecular clouds found in starburst galaxies? Why do galaxies often follow star formation relations like those from Kennicutt & Schmidt and Gao & Solomon? A cloud-scale understanding of the star formation processes, that can only be developed in the Milky Way, is necessary to make progress. Unfortunately, ALMA can resolve the detailed substructure only in SELECTED galactic molecular clouds, given mapping with ALMA is very slow. Here I show how surveys of dust continuum and line emission provided by a large and fast single–dish telescope can overcome these critical limitations, e.g. by breaking degeneracies in current theoretical models. My discussion draws on a white papers previously developed for similar telescopes.

The anatomy of the Orion B giant molecular cloud: A local template for studies of nearby galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pety, Jérôme; Guzmán, Viviana V.; Orkisz, Jan H.; Liszt, Harvey S.; Gerin, Maryvonne; Bron, Emeric; Bardeau, Sébastien; Goicoechea, Javier R.; Gratier, Pierre; Le Petit, Franck; Levrier, François; Öberg, Karin I.; Roueff, Evelyne; Sievers, Albrecht

2017-01-01

Context. Molecular lines and line ratios are commonly used to infer properties of extra-galactic star forming regions. The new generation of millimeter receivers almost turns every observation into a line survey. Full exploitation of this technical advancement in extra-galactic study requires detailed bench-marking of available line diagnostics. Aims: We aim to develop the Orion B giant molecular cloud (GMC) as a local template for interpreting extra-galactic molecular line observations. Methods: We use the wide-band receiver at the IRAM-30 m to spatially and spectrally resolve the Orion B GMC. The observations cover almost 1 square degree at 26'' resolution with a bandwidth of 32 GHz from 84 to 116 GHz in only two tunings. Among the mapped spectral lines are the , , C18O, C17O, HCN, HNC, , C2H, HCO+, N2H+(1-0), and , , SiO, c - C3H2, CH3OH (2-1) transitions. Results: We introduce the molecular anatomy of the Orion B GMC, including relationships between line intensities and gas column density or far-UV radiation fields, and correlations between selected line and line ratios. We also obtain a dust-traced gas mass that is less than approximately one third the CO-traced mass, using the standard XCO conversion factor. The presence of over-luminous CO can be traced back to the dependence of the CO intensity on UV illumination. As a matter of fact, while most lines show some dependence on the UV radiation field, CN and C2H are the most sensitive. Moreover, dense cloud cores are almost exclusively traced by N2H+. Other traditional high-density tracers, such as HCN(1-0), are also easily detected in extended translucent regions at a typical density of 500 H2 cm-3. In general, we find no straightforward relationship between line critical density and the fraction of the line luminosity coming from dense gas regions. Conclusions: Our initial findings demonstrate that the relationships between line (ratio) intensities and environment in GMCs are more complicated than often assumed. Sensitivity (I.e., the molecular column density), excitation, and, above all, chemistry contribute to the observed line intensity distributions, and they must be considered together when developing the next generation of extra-galactic molecular line diagnostics of mass, density, temperature, and radiation field.

The origin and evolution of dust in interstellar and circumstellar environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Whittet, Douglas C. B.; Leung, Chun M.

1993-01-01

This status report covers the period from the commencement of the research program on 1 Jul. 1992 through 30 Apr. 1993. Progress is reported for research in the following areas: (1) grain formation in circumstellar envelopes; (2) photochemistry in circumstellar envelopes; (3) modeling ice features in circumstellar envelopes; (4) episodic dust formation in circumstellar envelopes; (5) grain evolution in the diffuse interstellar medium; and (6) grain evolution in dense molecular clouds.

The origin of the fan of "bullets" in OMC-1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gvaramadze, Vasilii

A possible mechanism for the formation of linear features radially diverging from the common origin in the Orion molecular cloud OMC-1 is considered. It is shown that a fan of ejections may arise by interaction of a spherical shock wave with dense cloudlets situated in the neighbourhood of the shock's source. The mechanism of formation of ejections is based on the well-known cumulative effect arising in converging conical flows.

The Formation of N- and O-Heterocycles from the Irradiation of Benzene and Naphthalene in H2O/NH3- Containing Ices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandford, S. A.; Materese, C. K.; Nuevo, M.

2015-01-01

Aromatic hydrocarbons are an important class of molecules for both astrochemistry and astrobiology (Fig. 1). Within this class of molecules, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known to be ubiquitous in many astrophysical environments, and are likely present in interstellar clouds and protostellar disks. In dense clouds, PAHs are expected to condense onto grains as part of mixed molecular ice mantles dominated by small molecules like H2O,CH3OH, NH3, CO, and CO2. These ices are exposed to ionizing radiation in the form of cosmic rays and ambient high-energy X-ray and UV photons.

On the impact of the magnitude of interstellar pressure on physical properties of molecular cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anathpindika, S.; Burkert, A.; Kuiper, R.

2017-04-01

Recently reported variations in the typical physical properties of Galactic and extra-Galactic molecular clouds (MCs), and, in their star-forming ability, have been attributed to local variations in the magnitude of interstellar pressure. Inferences from these surveys have called into question two long-standing beliefs that: (1) MCs are virialized and (2) they obey the Larson's third law. Here we invoked the framework of cloud formation via collision between warm gas-flows to examine if these latest observational inferences can be reconciled. To this end, we traced the temporal evolution of the gas surface density, the fraction of dense gas, the distribution of gas column density (N-PDF) and the virial nature of the assembled clouds. We conclude that these physical properties exhibit temporal variation and their respective peak magnitude also increases in proportion with the magnitude of external pressure, Pext. The velocity dispersion in assembled clouds appears to follow the power law, σ _{gas}∝ P_{ext}^{0.23}. The power-law tail of the N-PDFs at higher densities becomes shallower with increasing magnitude of external pressure for Pext/kB ≲ 107 K cm-3; at higher magnitudes such as those typically found in the Galactic Central Molecular Zone (Pext/kB > 107 K cm-3), the power-law shows significant steepening. While our results are broadly consistent with inferences from various recent observational surveys, it appears that MCs do not exhibit a unique set of properties, but rather a wide variety that can be reconciled with a range of magnitudes of pressure between 104 and 108 K cm-3.

Cold, clumpy accretion onto an active supermassive black hole.

PubMed

Tremblay, Grant R; Oonk, J B Raymond; Combes, Françoise; Salomé, Philippe; O'Dea, Christopher P; Baum, Stefi A; Voit, G Mark; Donahue, Megan; McNamara, Brian R; Davis, Timothy A; McDonald, Michael A; Edge, Alastair C; Clarke, Tracy E; Galván-Madrid, Roberto; Bremer, Malcolm N; Edwards, Louise O V; Fabian, Andrew C; Hamer, Stephen; Li, Yuan; Maury, Anaëlle; Russell, Helen R; Quillen, Alice C; Urry, C Megan; Sanders, Jeremy S; Wise, Michael W

2016-06-09

Supermassive black holes in galaxy centres can grow by the accretion of gas, liberating energy that might regulate star formation on galaxy-wide scales. The nature of the gaseous fuel reservoirs that power black hole growth is nevertheless largely unconstrained by observations, and is instead routinely simplified as a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. Recent theory and simulations instead predict that accretion can be dominated by a stochastic, clumpy distribution of very cold molecular clouds--a departure from the 'hot mode' accretion model--although unambiguous observational support for this prediction remains elusive. Here we report observations that reveal a cold, clumpy accretion flow towards a supermassive black hole fuel reservoir in the nucleus of the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG), a nearby (redshift z = 0.0821) giant elliptical galaxy surrounded by a dense halo of hot plasma. Under the right conditions, thermal instabilities produce a rain of cold clouds that fall towards the galaxy's centre, sustaining star formation amid a kiloparsec-scale molecular nebula that is found at its core. The observations show that these cold clouds also fuel black hole accretion, revealing 'shadows' cast by the molecular clouds as they move inward at about 300 kilometres per second towards the active supermassive black hole, which serves as a bright backlight. Corroborating evidence from prior observations of warmer atomic gas at extremely high spatial resolution, along with simple arguments based on geometry and probability, indicate that these clouds are within the innermost hundred parsecs of the black hole, and falling closer towards it.

An evolutionary model for collapsing molecular clouds and their star formation activity. II. Mass dependence of the star formation rate

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zamora-Avilés, Manuel; Vázquez-Semadeni, Enrique

We discuss the evolution and dependence on cloud mass of the star formation rate (SFR) and efficiency (SFE) of star-forming molecular clouds (MCs) within the scenario that clouds are undergoing global collapse and that the SFR is controlled by ionization feedback. We find that low-mass clouds (M {sub max} ≲ 10{sup 4} M {sub ☉}) spend most of their evolution at low SFRs, but end their lives with a mini-burst, reaching a peak SFR ∼10{sup 4} M {sub ☉} Myr{sup –1}, although their time-averaged SFR is only (SFR) ∼ 10{sup 2} M {sub ☉} Myr{sup –1}. The corresponding efficiencies aremore » SFE{sub final} ≲ 60% and (SFE) ≲ 1%. For more massive clouds (M {sub max} ≳ 10{sup 5} M {sub ☉}), the SFR first increases and then reaches a plateau because the clouds are influenced by stellar feedback since earlier in their evolution. As a function of cloud mass, (SFR) and (SFE) are well represented by the fits (SFR) ≈ 100(1 + M {sub max}/1.4 × 10{sup 5} M {sub ☉}){sup 1.68} M {sub ☉} Myr{sup –1} and (SFE) ≈ 0.03(M {sub max}/2.5 × 10{sup 5} M {sub ☉}){sup 0.33}, respectively. Moreover, the SFR of our model clouds follows closely the SFR-dense gas mass relation recently found by Lada et al. during the epoch when their instantaneous SFEs are comparable to those of the clouds considered by those authors. Collectively, a Monte Carlo integration of the model-predicted SFR(M) over a Galactic giant molecular cloud mass spectrum yields values for the total Galactic SFR that are within half an order of magnitude of the relation obtained by Gao and Solomon. Our results support the scenario that star-forming MCs may be in global gravitational collapse and that the low observed values of the SFR and SFE are a result of the interruption of each SF episode, caused primarily by the ionizing feedback from massive stars.« less

Spectral Classification of Heavily Reddened Stars by CO Absorption Strength

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garling, Christopher; Bary, Jeffrey S.; Huard, Tracy L.

2017-01-01

The nature of dust grains in dense molecular clouds can be explored by obtaining spectra of giant stars located behind the clouds and examining the wavelength-dependent attentuation of their light. This approach requires the intrinsic spectra of the background stars to be known, which can be achieved by determining their spectral types. In the K-band spectra of cool giant stars, several temperature-sensitive CO absorption bands serve as good spectral type indicators. Taking advantage of the SpeX Infrared Telescope Facility Spectral Library, near-infrared spectra collected with TripleSpec and the 3.5-meter ARC Telescope at Apache Point Observatory, and a previously constructed CO spectral index, we make precise spectral determinations of 20 giant stars located behind two dense cloud cores: CB188 and L429C. With spectral types in hand, we then utilize Markov Chain Monte Carlo techniques to constrain extinctions along these lines of sight. The spectral typing method will be described and assessed as well as its success at finding a couple of incorrectly spectral typed stars in the SpeX Library. Funding for this program was provided by a NSF REU grant to the Keck Northeast Astronomy Consortium and a grant from the NASA Astrophysics Data Analysis Program.

Fantastic Striations and Where to Find Them: The Origin of Magnetically Aligned Striations in Interstellar Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Che-Yu; Li, Zhi-Yun; King, Patrick K.; Fissel, Laura M.

2017-10-01

Thin, magnetically aligned striations of relatively moderate contrast with the background are commonly observed in both atomic and molecular clouds. They are also prominent in MHD simulations with turbulent converging shocks. The simulated striations develop within a dense, stagnated sheet in the midplane of the post-shock region where magnetically induced converging flows collide. We show analytically that the secondary flows are an inevitable consequence of the jump conditions of oblique MHD shocks. They produce the stagnated, sheet-like sub-layer through a secondary shock when, roughly speaking, the Alfvénic speed in the primary converging flows is supersonic, a condition that is relatively easy to satisfy in interstellar clouds. The dense sub-layer is naturally threaded by a strong magnetic field that lies close to the plane of the sub-layer. The substantial magnetic field makes the sheet highly anisotropic, which is the key to the striation formation. Specifically, perturbations of the primary inflow that vary spatially perpendicular to the magnetic field can easily roll up the sheet around the field lines without bending them, creating corrugations that appear as magnetically aligned striations in column density maps. On the other hand, perturbations that vary spatially along the field lines curve the sub-layer and alter its orientation relative to the magnetic field locally, seeding special locations that become slanted overdense filaments and prestellar cores through enhanced mass accumulation along field lines. In our scenario, the dense sub-layer, which is unique to magnetized oblique shocks, is the birthplace for both magnetically aligned diffuse striations and massive star-forming structures.

Triggering the formation of the supergiant H II region NGC 604 in M 33

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tachihara, Kengo; Gratier, Pierre; Sano, Hidetoshi; Tsuge, Kisetsu; Miura, Rie E.; Muraoka, Kazuyuki; Fukui, Yasuo

2018-05-01

Formation mechanism of a supergiant H II region NGC 604 is discussed in terms of collision of H I clouds in M 33. An analysis of the archival H I data obtained with the Very Large Array (VLA) reveals complex velocity distributions around NGC 604. The H I clouds are composed of two velocity components separated by ˜20 km s-1 for an extent of ˜700 pc, beyond the size of the the H II region. Although the H I clouds are not easily separated in velocity with some mixed component represented by merged line profiles, the atomic gas mass amounts to 6 × 106 M_{⊙} and 9 × 106 M_{⊙} for each component. These characteristics of H I gas and the distributions of dense molecular gas in the overlapping regions of the two velocity components suggest that the formation of giant molecular clouds and the following massive cluster formation have been induced by the collision of H I clouds with different velocities. Referring to the existence of a gas bridging feature connecting M 33 with M 31 reported by large-scale H I surveys, the disturbed atomic gas possibly represents the result of past tidal interaction between the two galaxies, which is analogous to the formation of the R 136 cluster in the LMC.

The evolution of grain mantles and silicate dust growth at high redshift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ceccarelli, Cecilia; Viti, Serena; Balucani, Nadia; Taquet, Vianney

2018-05-01

In dense molecular clouds, interstellar grains are covered by mantles of iced molecules. The formation of the grain mantles has two important consequences: it removes species from the gas phase and promotes the synthesis of new molecules on the grain surfaces. The composition of the mantle is a strong function of the environment that the cloud belongs to. Therefore, clouds in high-zeta galaxies, where conditions - like temperature, metallicity, and cosmic ray flux - are different from those in the Milky Way, will have different grain mantles. In the last years, several authors have suggested that silicate grains might grow by accretion of silicon-bearing species on smaller seeds. This would occur simultaneously with the formation of the iced mantles and be greatly affected by its composition as a function of time. In this work, we present a numerical study of the grain mantle formation in high-zeta galaxies, and we quantitatively address the possibility of silicate growth. We find that the mantle thickness decreases with increasing redshift, from about 120 to 20 layers for z varying from 0 to 8. Furthermore, the mantle composition is also a strong function of the cloud redshift, with the relative importance of CO, CO2, ammonia, methane, and methanol highly varying with z. Finally, being Si-bearing species always a very minor component of the mantle, the formation of silicates in molecular clouds is practically impossible.

Gas-grain chemical models of star-forming molecular clouds as constrained by ISO and SWAS observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Charnley, S. B.; Rodgers, S. D.; Ehrenfreund, P.

2001-11-01

We have investigated the gaseous and solid state molecular composition of dense interstellar material that periodically experiences processing in the shock waves associated with ongoing star formation. Our motivation is to confront these models with the stringent abundance constraints on CO2, H2O and O2, in both gas and solid phases, that have been set by ISO and SWAS. We also compare our results with the chemical composition of dark molecular clouds as determined by ground-based telescopes. Beginning with the simplest possible model needed to study molecular cloud gas-grain chemistry, we only include additional processes where they are clearly required to satisfy one or more of the ISO-SWAS constraints. When CO, N2 and atoms of N, C and S are efficiently desorbed from grains, a chemical quasi-steady-state develops after about one million years. We find that accretion of CO2 and H2O cannot explain the [CO2/H2O]ice ISO observations; as with previous models, accretion and reaction of oxygen atoms are necessary although a high O atom abundance can still be derived from the CO that remains in the gas. The observational constraints on solid and gaseous molecular oxygen are both met in this model. However, we find that we cannot explain the lowest H2O abundances seen by SWAS or the highest atomic carbon abundances found in molecular clouds; additional chemical processes are required and possible candidates are given. One prediction of models of this type is that there should be some regions of molecular clouds which contain high gas phase abundances of H2O, O2 and NO. A further consequence, we find, is that interstellar grain mantles could be rich in NH2OH and NO2. The search for these regions, as well as NH2OH and NO2 in ices and in hot cores, is an important further test of this scenario. The model can give good agreement with observations of simple molecules in dark molecular clouds such as TMC-1 and L134N. Despite the fact that S atoms are assumed to be continously desorbed from grain surfaces, we find that the sulphur chemistry independently experiences an ``accretion catastrophe''. The S-bearing molecular abundances cease to lie within the observed range after about 3 x 106 years and this indicates that there may be at least two efficient surface desorption mechanisms operating in dark clouds - one quasi-continous and the other operating more sporadically on this time-scale. We suggest that mantle removal on short time-scales is mediated by clump dynamics, and by the effects of star formation on longer time-scales. The applicability of this type of dynamical-chemical model for molecular cloud evolution is discussed and comparison is made with other models of dark cloud chemistry.

Lidar observations of high altitude cirrus near the tropical tropopause

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parameswaran, K.; Kumar, S. Sunil; Krishna Murthy, B.

High altitude cirrus plays a significant role in atmospheric chemistry, radiation and troposphere-stratosphere exchanges. Studies on their global morphology using satellite data (SAGE) suggests that over the tropics these clouds occur quite frequently in the altitude region around 14 to 16 km with favoured locations centred over Southern Asia, India and Mexico. A monostatic Nd:YAG lidar (operating at 532 nm wavelength) located at National MST Radar Facility (NMRF), Gadanki (13.5°N, 79.2°E) provides an excellent opportunity to study the properties of these clouds. Lidar observations for ~120 nights during the period January 1999 to March 2000 are used to investigate the physical and optical properties of these clouds aswell as their spatial (altitude) and temporal variability. Based on optical depth ( c ) cirrus clouds are classified as Sub-visual Cirrus (SVC) with c 0.03, Thin Cirrus (TC) with 0.030.3. While SVCs are observed anywhere in the altitude region 12 to 18 km, with favoured altitude above 15 km, TCs and DCs usually occur around 14.5+/-1km. The altitude region 14 to 16km appears to be more conducive for cirrus formation. Even though the geometrical thickness (vertical extent) of these clouds varies from 0.3 to 3 km, they are mostly confined to altitudes below the level of tropopause temperature inversion. The cloud optical depth maximises around the post-mid-night period. These clouds also introduce significant depolarisation for the backscattered radiation indicating presence of abundant non-spherical particles presumably ice-crystals. Under favourable conditions these ice-crystals get aligned horizontally to enhance the co - polarized component of lidar backscatter signal through specular reflection, leading to a decrease in cloud depolarisation () below the ambient molecular depolarisation (m ). Such conditions are usually encountered in the case of optically dense clouds. Altitude profile of backscatter ratio within the cloud shows that the cloud is not optically symmetric with respect to the geometric centre. This asymmetry parameter () of the cloud shows significant temporal variability. For clouds with> m , as c increases, the optical centre descends in altitude and for clouds with< m the optical centre ascends as c increases. Occurrence of cirrus clouds and their optical properties are found to be closely associated with the characteristics of atmospheric turbulence in the upper troposphere.

Numerical Simulations of Turbulent Molecular Clouds Regulated by Radiation Feedback Forces. II. Radiation-Gas Interactions and Outflows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Raskutti, Sudhir; Ostriker, Eve C.; Skinner, M. Aaron

2017-12-01

Momentum deposition by radiation pressure from young, massive stars may help to destroy molecular clouds and unbind stellar clusters by driving large-scale outflows. We extend our previous numerical radiation hydrodynamic study of turbulent star-forming clouds to analyze the detailed interaction between non-ionizing UV radiation and the cloud material. Our simulations trace the evolution of gas and star particles through self-gravitating collapse, star formation, and cloud destruction via radiation-driven outflows. These models are idealized in that we include only radiation feedback and adopt an isothermal equation of state. Turbulence creates a structure of dense filaments and large holes through which radiation escapes, such that only ˜50% of the radiation is (cumulatively) absorbed by the end of star formation. The surface density distribution of gas by mass as seen by the central cluster is roughly lognormal with {σ }{ln{{Σ }}}=1.3{--}1.7, similar to the externally projected surface density distribution. This allows low surface density regions to be driven outwards to nearly 10 times their initial escape speed {v}{esc}. Although the velocity distribution of outflows is broadened by the lognormal surface density distribution, the overall efficiency of momentum injection to the gas cloud is reduced because much of the radiation escapes. The mean outflow velocity is approximately twice the escape speed from the initial cloud radius. Our results are also informative for understanding galactic-scale wind driving by radiation, in particular, the relationship between velocity and surface density for individual outflow structures and the resulting velocity and mass distributions arising from turbulent sources.

The Mass Surface Density Distribution of a High-Mass Protocluster forming from an IRDC and GMC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Wanggi; Tan, Jonathan C.; Kainulainen, Jouni; Ma, Bo; Butler, Michael

2016-01-01

We study the probability distribution function (PDF) of mass surface densities of infrared dark cloud (IRDC) G028.36+00.07 and its surrounding giant molecular cloud (GMC). Such PDF analysis has the potential to probe the physical processes that are controlling cloud structure and star formation activity. The chosen IRDC is of particular interest since it has almost 100,000 solar masses within a radius of 8 parsecs, making it one of the most massive, dense molecular structures known and is thus a potential site for the formation of a high-mass, "super star cluster". We study mass surface densities in two ways. First, we use a combination of NIR, MIR and FIR extinction maps that are able to probe the bulk of the cloud structure that is not yet forming stars. This analysis also shows evidence for flattening of the IR extinction law as mass surface density increases, consistent with increasing grain size and/or growth of ice mantles. Second, we study the FIR and sub-mm dust continuum emission from the cloud, especially utlizing Herschel PACS and SPIRE images. We first subtract off the contribution of the foreground diffuse emission that contaminates these images. Next we examine the effects of background subtraction and choice of dust opacities on the derived mass surface density PDF. The final derived PDFs from both methods are compared, including also with other published studies of this cloud. The implications for theoretical models and simulations of cloud structure, including the role of turbulence and magnetic fields, are discussed.

A Submillimetre Study of Massive Star Formation Within the W51 Complex and Infrared Dark Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parsons, Harriet Alice Louise

Despite its importance the fundamental question of how massive stars form remains unanswered, with improvements to both models and observations having crucial roles to play. To quote Bate et al. (2003) computational models of star formation are limited because "conditions in molecular clouds are not sufficiently well understood to be able to select a representative sample of cloud cores for the initial conditions". It is this notion that motivates the study of the environments within Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) and Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs), known sites of massive star formation, at the clump and core level. By studying large populations of these objects, it is possible to make conclusions based on global properties. With this in mind I study the dense molecular clumps within one of the most massive GMCs in the Galaxy: the W51 GMC. New observations of the W51 GMC in the 12CO, 13CO and C18O (3-2) transitions using the HARP instrument on the JCMT are presented. With the help of the clump finding algorithm CLUMPFIND a total of 1575 dense clumps are identified of which 1130 are associated with the W51 GMC, yielding a dense mass reservoir of 1.5 × 10^5 M contained within these clumps. Of these clumps only 1% by number are found to be super-critical, yielding a super-critical clump formation efficiency of 0.5%, below current SFE estimates of the region. This indicates star formation within the W51 GMC will diminish over time although evidence from the first search for molecular outflows presents the W51 GMC in an active light with a lower limit of 14 outflows. The distribution of the outflows within the region searched found them concentrated towards the W51A region. Having much smaller sizes and masses, obtaining global properties of clumps and cores within IRDCs required studying a large sample of these objects. To do this pre-existing data from the SCUBA Legacy Catalogue was utilised to study IRDCs within a catalogues based on 8 μm data. This data identified 154 IRDC cores that are detected at 850 μm and 51 cores that were not. This work suggests that cores not detected at 850 μm are low mass, low column density and low temperature cores that are below the sensitivity limit of SCUBA at 850 μm Utilising observations at 24 μm from the Spitzer space telescope, allows for an investigation of current star formation by looking for warm embedded objects within the cores. This work reveals 69% of the IRDC cores have 24 μm embedded objects. IRDC cores without associated 24 μm emission ("starless" IRDC cores) may have yet to form stars, or may contain low mass YSOs below the detection limit. If it is assumed that cores without 24 μm embedded sources are at an earlier evolutionary stage to cores with embedded objects a statistical lifetime for the quiescent phase of a few 10^3 - 10^4 years is derived.

On the Formation of Interstellar Water Ice: Constraints from a Search for Hydrogen Peroxide Ice in Molecular Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, R. G.; Charnely, S. B.; Pendleton, Y. J.; Wright, C. M.; Maldoni, M. M.; Robinson, G.

2011-01-01

Recent surface chemistry experiments have shown that the hydrogenation of molecular oxygen on interstellar dust grains is a plausible formation mechanism, via hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), for the production of water (H2O) ice mantles in the dense interstellar medium. Theoretical chemistry models also predict the formation of a significant abundance of H2O2 ice in grain mantles by this route. At their upper limits, the predicted and experimental abundances are sufficiently high that H2O2 should be detectable in molecular cloud ice spectra. To investigate this further, laboratory spectra have been obtained for H2O2/H2O ice films between 2.5 and 200 micron, from 10 to 180 K, containing 3%, 30%, and 97% H2O2 ice. Integrated absorbances for all the absorption features in low-temperature H2O2 ice have been derived from these spectra. For identifying H2O2 ice, the key results are the presence of unique features near 3.5, 7.0, and 11.3 micron. Comparing the laboratory spectra with the spectra of a group of 24 protostars and field stars, all of which have strong H2O ice absorption bands, no absorption features are found that can definitely be identified with H2O2 ice. In the absence of definite H2O2 features, the H2O2 abundance is constrained by its possible contribution to the weak absorption feature near 3.47 micron found on the long-wavelength wing of the 3 micron H2O ice band. This gives an average upper limit for H2O2, as a percentage of H2O, of 9% +/- 4%. This is a strong constraint on parameters for surface chemistry experiments and dense cloud chemistry models.

Low-energy electron-induced chemistry of condensed methanol: implications for the interstellar synthesis of prebiotic molecules.

PubMed

Boamah, Mavis D; Sullivan, Kristal K; Shulenberger, Katie E; Soe, ChanMyae M; Jacob, Lisa M; Yhee, Farrah C; Atkinson, Karen E; Boyer, Michael C; Haines, David R; Arumainayagam, Christopher R

2014-01-01

In the interstellar medium, UV photolysis of condensed methanol (CH3OH), contained in ice mantles surrounding dust grains, is thought to be the mechanism that drives the formation of "complex" molecules, such as methyl formate (HCOOCH3), dimethyl ether (CH3OCH3), acetic acid (CH3COOH), and glycolaldehyde (HOCH2CHO). The source of this reaction-initiating UV light is assumed to be local because externally sourced UV radiation cannot penetrate the ice-containing dark, dense molecular clouds. Specifically, exceedingly penetrative high-energy cosmic rays generate secondary electrons within the clouds through molecular ionizations. Hydrogen molecules, present within these dense molecular clouds, are excited in collisions with these secondary electrons. It is the UV light, emitted by these electronically excited hydrogen molecules, that is generally thought to photoprocess interstellar icy grain mantles to generate "complex" molecules. In addition to producing UV light, the large numbers of low-energy (< 20 eV) secondary electrons, produced by cosmic rays, can also directly initiate radiolysis reactions in the condensed phase. The goal of our studies is to understand the low-energy, electron-induced processes that occur when high-energy cosmic rays interact with interstellar ices, in which methanol, a precursor of several prebiotic species, is the most abundant organic species. Using post-irradiation temperature-programmed desorption, we have investigated the radiolysis initiated by low-energy (7 eV and 20 eV) electrons in condensed methanol at - 85 K under ultrahigh vacuum (5 x 10(-10) Torr) conditions. We have identified eleven electron-induced methanol radiolysis products, which include many that have been previously identified as being formed by methanol UV photolysis in the interstellar medium. These experimental results suggest that low-energy, electron-induced condensed phase reactions may contribute to the interstellar synthesis of "complex" molecules previously thought to form exclusively via UV photons.

The JCMT Gould Belt Survey: A First Look at the Auriga–California Molecular Cloud with SCUBA-2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Broekhoven-Fiene, H.; Matthews, B. C.; Harvey, P.; Kirk, H.; Chen, M.; Currie, M. J.; Pattle, K.; Lane, J.; Buckle, J.; Di Francesco, J.; Drabek-Maunder, E.; Johnstone, D.; Berry, D. S.; Fich, M.; Hatchell, J.; Jenness, T.; Mottram, J. C.; Nutter, D.; Pineda, J. E.; Quinn, C.; Salji, C.; Tisi, S.; Hogerheijde, M. R.; Ward-Thompson, D.; Bastien, P.; Bresnahan, D.; Butner, H.; Chrysostomou, A.; Coude, S.; Davis, C. J.; Duarte-Cabral, A.; Fiege, J.; Friberg, P.; Friesen, R.; Fuller, G. A.; Graves, S.; Greaves, J.; Gregson, J.; Holland, W.; Joncas, G.; Kirk, J. M.; Knee, L. B. G.; Mairs, S.; Marsh, K.; Moriarty-Schieven, G.; Mowat, C.; Rawlings, J.; Richer, J.; Robertson, D.; Rosolowsky, E.; Rumble, D.; Sadavoy, S.; Thomas, H.; Tothill, N.; Viti, S.; White, G. J.; Wilson, C. D.; Wouterloot, J.; Yates, J.; Zhu, M.

2018-01-01

We present 850 and 450 μm observations of the dense regions within the Auriga–California molecular cloud using SCUBA-2 as part of the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey to identify candidate protostellar objects, measure the masses of their circumstellar material (disk and envelope), and compare the star formation to that in the Orion A molecular cloud. We identify 59 candidate protostars based on the presence of compact submillimeter emission, complementing these observations with existing Herschel/SPIRE maps. Of our candidate protostars, 24 are associated with young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Spitzer and Herschel/PACS catalogs of 166 and 60 YSOs, respectively (177 unique), confirming their protostellar nature. The remaining 35 candidate protostars are in regions, particularly around LkHα 101, where the background cloud emission is too bright to verify or rule out the presence of the compact 70 μm emission that is expected for a protostellar source. We keep these candidate protostars in our sample but note that they may indeed be prestellar in nature. Our observations are sensitive to the high end of the mass distribution in Auriga–Cal. We find that the disparity between the richness of infrared star-forming objects in Orion A and the sparsity in Auriga–Cal extends to the submillimeter, suggesting that the relative star formation rates have not varied over the Class II lifetime and that Auriga–Cal will maintain a lower star formation efficiency.

A molecular gas ridge offset from the dust lane in a spiral arm of M83

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lord, Steven D.; Kenney, Jeffrey D. P.

1991-01-01

A high-resolution interferometric map of the CO emission on the eastern spiral arm of M83 is presented. The detected emission originates in about five unresolved components located parallel but about 300 pc downstream from the dust lane which lies along the inner edge of the spiral arm. All the CO components in the map but one are located within 130 pc of an H II region and may represent emission from locally heated gas. The lack of CO emission on the dust lane indicates that the dense molecular gas does not pile up here in M83. Remarkable differences between the molecular gas distributions in M83 and the spiral arms or M51, where CO emission peaks on the dust lane, is attributed to the difference in the strength of their density waves. The observations of M83 are consistent with the model of Elmegreen in which diffuse gas is compressed at the shock front, producing the dust lane at the inner edge of the spiral arm while dense giant molecular clouds pass through the front and form a broad distribution on the arm.

A reanalysis of the HCO(+)/HOC(+) abundance ratio in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jarrold, M. F.; Bowers, M. T.; Defrees, D. J.; Mclean, A. D.; Herbst, E.

1986-01-01

New theoretical and experimental results have prompted a reinvestigation of the HCO(+)/HOC(+) abundance ratio in dense interstellar clouds. These results pertain principally but not exclusively to the reaction between HOC(+) and H2, which was previously calculated by DeFrees et al. (1984) to possess a large activation energy barrier. New calculations, reported here, indicate that this activation energy barrier is quite small and may well be zero. In addition, experimental results at higher energy and temperature indicate strongly that the reaction proceeds efficiently at interstellar temperatures. If HOC(+) does indeed react efficiently with H2 in interstellar clouds, the calculated HCO(+)/HOC(+) abundance ratio rises to a substantially greater value under standard dense cloud conditions than is deduced via the tentative observation of HOC(+) in Sgr B2.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Finn, Susanna C.; Jackson, James M.; Rathborne, Jill M.

Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are believed to host the earliest stages of high-mass star and cluster formation. Because O stars typically travel short distances over their lifetimes, if IRDCs host the earliest stages of high-mass star formation then these cold, dense molecular clouds should be located in or near the spiral arms in the Galaxy. The Galactic distribution of a large sample of IRDCs should therefore provide information on Galactic structure. Moreover, determination of distances enables mass and luminosity calculations. We have observed a large sample of IRDC candidates in the first Galactic quadrant in the dense gas tracer CSmore » (2-1) using the Mopra telescope in order to determine kinematic distances from the molecular line velocities. We find that the IRDCs are concentrated around a Galactocentric distance of {approx}4.5 kpc, agreeing with the results of Simon et al. This distribution is consistent with the location of the Scutum-Centaurus spiral arm. The group of IRDCs near the Sun in the first quadrant detected in {sup 13}CO (1-0) in Simon et al. is not detected in the CS data. This discrepancy arises from the differences in the critical densities between the {sup 13}CO (1-0) and CS (2-1) lines. We determine that the Midcourse Space Experiment selected IRDCs are not a homogeneous population, and {sup 13}CO (1-0) traces a population of IRDCs with lower column densities and lower 1.1 mm flux densities in addition to more dense IRDCs detected in CS. Masses of the first quadrant IRDCs are calculated from {sup 13}CO (1-0) maps. We find a strong peak in the Galactocentric IRDC mass surface density distribution at R {sub Gal} {approx} 4.5 kpc.« less

Excitation of interstellar hydrogen chloride

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neufild, David A.; Green, Sheldon

1994-01-01

We have computed new rate coefficients for the collisional excitation of HCl by He, in the close-coupled formalism and using an interaction potential determined recently by Willey, Choong, & DeLucia. Results have been obtained for temperatures between 10 K and 300 K. With the use of the infinite order sudden approximation, we have derived approximate expressions of general applicability which may be used to estimate how the rate constant for a transition (J to J prime) is apportioned among the various hyperfine states F prime of the final state J prime. Using these new rate coefficients, we have obtained predictions for the HCl rotational line strengths expected from a dense clump of interstellar gas, as a function of the HCl fractional abundance. Over a wide range of HCl abundances, we have found that the line luminosities are proportional to abundance(exp 2/3), a general result which can be explained using a simple analytical approximation. Our model for the excitation of HCl within a dense molecular cloud core indicates that the J = 1 goes to 0 line strengths measured by Blake, Keene, & Phillips toward the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC-1) imply a fractional abundance n(HCl)/n(H2) approximately 2 x 10(exp -9), a value which amounts to only approximately 0.3% of the cosmic abundance of chlorine nuclei. Given a fractional abundance of 2 x 10(exp -9), the contribution of HCl emission to the total radiative cooling of a dense clump is small. For Orion, we predict a flux approximately 10(exp -19) W/sq cm for the HCl J = 3 goes to 2 line near 159.8 micrometers, suggesting that the strength of this line could be measured using the Infrared Space Observatory.

Interstellar grain chemistry and organic molecules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, L. J.; Sandford, S. A.

1990-01-01

The detection of prominant infrared absorption bands at 3250, 2170, 2138, 1670 and 1470 cm(-1) (3.08, 4.61, 4.677, 5.99 and 6.80 micron m) associated with molecular clouds show that mixed molecular (icy) grain mantles are an important component of the interstellar dust in the dense interstellar medium. These ices, which contain many organic molecules, may also be the production site of the more complex organic grain mantles detected in the diffuse interstellar medium. Theoretical calculations employing gas phase as well as grain surface reactions predict that the ices should be dominated only by the simple molecules H2O, H2CO, N2, CO, O2, NH3, CH4, possibly CH3OH, and their deuterated counterparts. However, spectroscopic observations in the 2500 to 1250 cm(-1)(4 to 8 micron m) range show substantial variation from source reactions alone. By comparing these astronomical spectra with the spectra of laboratory-produced analogs of interstellar ices, one can determine the composition and abundance of the materials frozen on the grains in dense clouds. Experiments are described in which the chemical evolution of an interstellar ice analog is determined during irradiation and subsequent warm-up. Particular attention is paid to the types of moderately complex organic materials produced during these experiments which are likely to be present in interstellar grains and cometary ices.

Detecting and Identifying Organic Molecules in Space - The AstroBiology Explorer (ABE) MIDEX Mission Concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandford, Scott A.

2001-01-01

Infrared spectroscopy in the 2.5-16 micron (4000-625/cm) range is a principle means by which organic compounds are detected and identified in space. Ground-based, airborne, and spaceborne IR spectral studies have already demonstrated that a significant fraction of the carbon in the interstellar medium (ISM) resides in the form of complex organic molecular species. Unfortunately, neither the distribution of these materials nor their genetic and evolutionary relationships with each other or their environments are well understood. The Astrobiology Explorer (ABE) is a MIDEX (Medium-class Explorer) mission concept currently under study at NASA's Ames Research Center in collaboration with Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation. ABE will conduct IR spectroscopic observations to address outstanding important problems in astrobiology, astrochemistry, and astrophysics. The core observational program would make fundamental scientific progress in understanding (1) the evolution of ices and organic matter in dense molecular clouds and young forming stellar systems, (2) the chemical evolution of organic molecules in the ISM as they transition from AGB outflows to planetary nebulae to the general diffuse ISM to H II regions and dense clouds, (3) the distribution of organics in the diffuse ISM, (4) the nature of organics in the Solar System (in comets, asteroids, satellites), and (5) the nature and distribution of organics in local galaxies. Both the scientific goals of the mission and how they would be achieved will be discussed.

Identifying Organic Molecules in Space: The AstroBiology Explorer (ABE) MIDEX Mission Concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandford, Scott A.; Allamandola, Louis; Bregman, Jesse; Ennico, Kimberly; Greene, Thomas; Hudgins, Douglas; Strecker, Donald; DeVincenzi, Donald (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Infrared spectroscopy in the 2.5-16 micron range is a principle means by which organic compounds are detected and identified in space. Ground-based, airborne, and spaceborne IR spectral studies have already demonstrated that a significant fraction of the carbon in the interstellar medium (ISM) resides in the form of complex organic molecular species. Unfortunately, neither the distribution of these materials nor their genetic and evolutionary relationships with each other or their environments are well understood. The Astrobiology Explorer (ABE) is a MIDEX mission concept currently under study at NASA's Ames Research Center in collaboration with Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation. ABE will conduct IR spectroscopic observations to address outstanding important problems in astrobiology, astrochemistry, and astrophysics. The core observational program would make fundamental scientific progress in understanding (1) the evolution of ices and organic matter in dense molecular clouds and young forming stellar systems, (2) the chemical evolution of organic molecules in the ISM as they transition from AGB outflows to planetary nebulae to the general diffuse ISM to H II regions and dense clouds, (3) the distribution of organics in the diffuse ISM, (4) the nature of organics in the Solar System (in comets, asteroids, satellites), and (5) the nature and distribution of organics in local galaxies. The technical considerations of achieving these science objectives in a MIDEX-sized mission will be described.

Detecting and Identifying Organic Molecules in Space: The AstroBiology Explorer (ABE) MIDEX Mission Concept

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandford, Scott A.; DeVincenzi, Donald (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Infrared spectroscopy in the 2.5-16 microns (4000-625/cm) range is a principle means by which organic compounds are detected and identified in space. Ground-based, airborne, and spaceborne IR spectral studies have already demonstrated that a significant fraction of the carbon in the interstellar medium (ISM) resides in the form of complex organic molecular species. Unfortunately, neither the distribution of these materials nor their genetic and evolutionary relationships with each other or their environments are well understood. The Astrobiology Explorer (ABE) is a MIDEX (Medium-class Explorer) mission concept currently under study at NASA's Ames Research Center in collaboration with Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation. ABE will conduct IR spectroscopic observations to address outstanding important problems in astrobiology, astrochemistry, and astrophysics. The core observational program would make fundamental scientific progress in understanding (1) the evolution of ices and organic matter in dense molecular clouds and young forming stellar systems, (2) the chemical evolution of organic molecules in the ISM as they transition from AGB outflows to planetary nebulae to the general diffuse ISM to H II regions and dense clouds, (3) the distribution of organics in the diffuse ISM, (4) the nature of organics in the Solar System (in comets, asteroids, satellites), and (5) the nature and distribution of organics in local galaxies. Both the scientific goals of the mission and how they would be achieved will be discussed.

Interstellar abundances and depletions inferred from observations of neutral atoms

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Snow, T. P.

1984-01-01

Data on neutral atomic species are analyzed for the purpose of inferring relative elemental abundances and depletions in diffuse cloud cores, where it is assumed that densities are enhanced in comparison with mean densities over integrated lines of sight. Column densities of neutral atoms are compared to yield relative column densities of singly ionized species, which are assumed dominant in cloud cores. This paper incorporates a survey of literature data on neutral atomic abundances with the result that no systematic enhancement in the depletions of calcium or iron in cloud cores is found, except for zeta Ophiuchi. This may imply that depletions are not influenced by density, but other data argue against this interpretation. It is concluded either that in general all elements are depleted together in dense regions so that their relative abundances remain constant, or that typical diffuse clouds do not have significant cores, but instead are reasonably homogeneous. The data show a probable correlation between cloud-core depletion and hydrogen-molecular fraction, supporting the assumption that overall depletions are a function of density.

Characterising the Structure of Molecular Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wong, Graeme Francis

The Interstellar Medium contains the building blocks of matter in our Galaxy and plays a vital role in the evolution of low mass star formation. The poorly studied molecular clouds of Lupus and Chamaeleon contain ongoing low mass star formation, and are in close proximity to our Solar System. While on the other hand the Carina molecular cloud, poorly observed in radio wavelength, is an active region of star formation and host some of the brightest stars known within our Galaxy. Using tracers like carbon monoxide, atomic neutral carbon, and ammonia, we are able to measure the temperature and density of the gas cloud. This information allows us to understand the initial conditions of the formation of low mass stars. Observations conducted with the 22-m Mopra radio telescope (located at the edge of the Warrumbungle Mountains near Coonabarabran), in the Carbon monoxide (CO) isotopologues 12 CO, 13 CO, C17O, and C18O (1-0) transitions, have mapped the Chamaeleon II cloud, an intermediate mass cloud within the Chamaeleon. Through the sub-arcminute maps, comparisons have been made to previous low resolution (2.5') maps which have been to resolve some of the dense clumps previously identified. Optical depth, column density, and excitation temperature derived from the CO maps, are consistent with previous results. A detailed comparison between identified C18O clumps have shown the different conditions occurring within the clumps, some of which contain or are located near a population of young stellar objects. The Northern region of the Carina Nebular Complex, was observed with NANTEN2, a 4-m radio telescope (located in the Chilean Atacama desert), in the 12CO (4-3) and [C I] 3P1-3P0 emission lines. Previous observations towards this region has either been at poor resolution or had limited coverage. The presented observations, strike a balance between the two; observing in sub-arcmin resolution (0.6') and with an area of 0.9° X 0.5° mapped. Excitation temperature of the 12CO (4-3) and column density of [C I] 3P1-3P0 have been derived. Discussions have been made of the complex morphology of the Northern Carina Nebular Complex region, compared to optical features, and supported the assertion of the HII region (Car I) expanding into the molecular cloud. The selected areas within the Lupus molecular clouds (regions I, III and IV) were observed with the DSS43 (also known as Tid-70m), the largest steerable single dish radio telescope (70-m) in the Southern Hemisphere located at Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC) near Canberra, in the ammonia transitions (1,1) and (2,2). Due to the observation modes and limited amount of time available for the Astronomical community, the targeted areas were mapped in a series of position-switching strips. Column density, kinetic and rotation temperatures were derived, which were compared and analysed to low-resolution maps towards the dense clumps. As Tid-70m had limited observing capabilities, this project has been able to improve the observation capabilities by implementing on-the-fly (OTF) mapping. With its size and unique capabilities, implementing OTF mapping will increase the efficiency of observations. Test observations were carried out towards the well known sources of Orion A, and Sagittarius A through the newly implemented OTF observing mode. Analysis and comparison of Orion A and Sagittarius A, shows consistency with the new maps produced.

Magnetic field structure in Monoceros R2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jarrett, T. H.; Novak, G.; Xie, T.; Goldsmith, P. F.

1994-01-01

We have carried out polarimetric observations to investigate the geometry of the magnetic field in the giant molecular cloud Monoceros R2. This study is based upon deep R-band charge coupled device (CCD) polarimetry, covering a total area of 0.5 deg(exp 2) of the giant molecular cloud. The data were calibrated using a new technique that relies on obtaining broad-band photometry of stars simultaneously with polarimetric photometry of the Mon R2 fields, thus providing an accurate means of measuring the electric vectors of starlight which is polarized by the fore-ground dust grains aligned by the magnetic field in the Mon R2 GMC. In this work, (1) we were able to continuously trace magnetic field lines from the largest scales in Mon R2 to the detailed structure of the field in the dense core, as determined from infrared polarimetry; and (2) we have found that the ambient field is apparently modified by a large-scale structure in the Mon R2 cloud. The mean angle of polarization for the complete sample we measured is 158 deg, which is roughly coincident with the local Galactic magnetic field (155 deg). The dispersion in the angle of polarization is 33 deg, similar to that found in the Orion GMC. The dispersion in angle of polarization for stars located along the western side of the three CCD fields is 22 deg. The CCD fields are bisected by a dense ridge of gas defining the boundary of an expanding gas shell that recent observational results at millimeter wavelengths now reveal dominates the Mon R2 GMC. Our results suggest th at the expanding shell has distorted the magnetic field lines extending from the core to the northern gas structure comprising Mon R2.

Contraction Signatures toward Dense Cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Campbell, J. L.; Friesen, R. K.; Martin, P. G.; Caselli, P.; Kauffmann, J.; Pineda, J. E.

2016-03-01

We report the results of an HCO+ (3-2) and N2D+ (3-2) molecular line survey performed toward 91 dense cores in the Perseus molecular cloud using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, to identify the fraction of starless and protostellar cores with systematic radial motions. We quantify the HCO+ asymmetry using a dimensionless asymmetry parameter δv, and identify 20 cores with significant blue or red line asymmetries in optically thick emission indicative of collapsing or expanding motions, respectively. We separately fit the HCO+ profiles with an analytic collapse model and determine contraction (expansion) speeds toward 22 cores. Comparing the δv and collapse model results, we find that δv is a good tracer of core contraction if the optically thin emission is aligned with the model-derived systemic velocity. The contraction speeds range from subsonic (0.03 km s-1) to supersonic (0.4 km s-1), where the supersonic contraction speeds may trace global rather than local core contraction. Most cores have contraction speeds significantly less than their free-fall speeds. Only 7 of 28 starless cores have spectra well-fit by the collapse model, which more than doubles (15 of 28) for protostellar cores. Starless cores with masses greater than the Jeans mass (M/MJ > 1) are somewhat more likely to show contraction motions. We find no trend of optically thin non-thermal line width with M/MJ, suggesting that any undetected contraction motions are small and subsonic. Most starless cores in Perseus are either not in a state of collapse or expansion, or are in a very early stage of collapse.

Time scales for molecule formation by ion-molecule reactions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Langer, W. D.; Glassgold, A. E.

1976-01-01

Analytical solutions are obtained for nonlinear differential equations governing the time-dependence of molecular abundances in interstellar clouds. Three gas-phase reaction schemes are considered separately for the regions where each dominates. The particular case of CO, and closely related members of the Oh and CH families of molecules, is studied for given values of temperature, density, and the radiation field. Nonlinear effects and couplings with particular ions are found to be important. The time scales for CO formation range from 100,000 to a few million years, depending on the chemistry and regime. The time required for essentially complete conversion of C(+) to CO in the region where the H3(+) chemistry dominates is several million years. Because this time is longer than or comparable to dynamical time scales for dense interstellar clouds, steady-state abundances may not be observed in such clouds.

Coagulation of grains in static and collapsing protostellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weidenschilling, S. J.; Ruzmaikina, T. V.

1993-01-01

The wavelength dependence of extinction in the diffuse interstellar medium implies that it is produced by particles of dominant size of approximately 10(exp -5) cm. There is some indication that in the cores of dense molecular clouds, sub-micron grains can coagulate to form larger particles; this process is probably driven by turbulence. The most primitive meteorites (carbonaceous chondrites) are composed of particles with a bimodal size distribution with peaks near 1 micron (matrix) and 1 mm (chondrules). Models for chondrule formation that involve processing of presolar material by chemical reactions or through an accretion shock during infall assume that aggregates of the requisite mass could form before or during collapse. The effectiveness of coagulation during collapse has been disputed; it appears to depend on specific assumptions. The first results of detailed numerical modeling of spatial and temporal variations of particle sizes in presolar clouds, both static and collapsing, is reported in this article.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: 2mm molecular line survey of IRC+10 216 (Cernicharo+, 2000)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cernicharo, J.; Guelin, M.; Kahane, C.

2000-01-01

The mm-wave spectrum of the C-star envelope IRC+10 216 has been continuously surveyed between 129.0 and 172.5GHz with the IRAM 30-m telescope. 380 lines are detected, of which 317 have been identified. The identified lines arise from 30 different molecules and radicals which, in their vast majority, are not observed in hot and dense interstellar clouds such as Orion A or W3(OH). Actually, half of the molecular species identified in the mm-wave spectrum of IRC+10216 were first observed in the course of this spectral survey. (9 data files).

Radio Interferometry with the SMA: Uncovering Hidden Star Formation in Our Extreme Galactic Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gutierrez, Elizabeth; Battersby, Cara; MacGregor, Meredith Ann

2018-01-01

Radio interferometry provides the best tool to identify embedded star-forming cores in cold, dense, molecular clouds of gas and dust. Observations at long, submillimeter wavelengths can be used to investigate the physical properties in the youngest stages of star formation. Interferometers provide the resolution necessary to resolve small scale structures like dense cores where star formation is expected to occur. CMZoom is the first large area survey of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) at high resolution in the submillimeter, allowing us to identify early sites of star formation. The survey uses both the subcompact and compact configurations of the Submillimeter Array (SMA) interferometric radio telescope. The CMZ, or the inner 500 pc of the Milky Way Galaxy, is a high extinction region comprised of hot, dense, and turbulent molecular gas. This region is forming about an order of magnitude fewer stars than predicted based on simple star formation prescriptions. Here, we present new high resolution images of G0.068-0.075, a region from the CMZoom survey, obtained using CASA. We highlight the importance of interferometric observations of different baseline lengths by comparing the spatial information obtained through different configurations. We will use these new images, in conjunction with the rest of the CMZoom survey, to reveal the mechanisms driving star formation at the center of the galaxy.

Vertical Optical Scanning with Panoramic Vision for Tree Trunk Reconstruction

PubMed Central

Berveglieri, Adilson; Liang, Xinlian; Honkavaara, Eija

2017-01-01

This paper presents a practical application of a technique that uses a vertical optical flow with a fisheye camera to generate dense point clouds from a single planimetric station. Accurate data can be extracted to enable the measurement of tree trunks or branches. The images that are collected with this technique can be oriented in photogrammetric software (using fisheye models) and used to generate dense point clouds, provided that some constraints on the camera positions are adopted. A set of images was captured in a forest plot in the experiments. Weighted geometric constraints were imposed in the photogrammetric software to calculate the image orientation, perform dense image matching, and accurately generate a 3D point cloud. The tree trunks in the scenes were reconstructed and mapped in a local reference system. The accuracy assessment was based on differences between measured and estimated trunk diameters at different heights. Trunk sections from an image-based point cloud were also compared to the corresponding sections that were extracted from a dense terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point cloud. Cylindrical fitting of the trunk sections allowed the assessment of the accuracies of the trunk geometric shapes in both clouds. The average difference between the cylinders that were fitted to the photogrammetric cloud and those to the TLS cloud was less than 1 cm, which indicates the potential of the proposed technique. The point densities that were obtained with vertical optical scanning were 1/3 less than those that were obtained with TLS. However, the point density can be improved by using higher resolution cameras. PMID:29207468

Vertical Optical Scanning with Panoramic Vision for Tree Trunk Reconstruction.

PubMed

Berveglieri, Adilson; Tommaselli, Antonio M G; Liang, Xinlian; Honkavaara, Eija

2017-12-02

This paper presents a practical application of a technique that uses a vertical optical flow with a fisheye camera to generate dense point clouds from a single planimetric station. Accurate data can be extracted to enable the measurement of tree trunks or branches. The images that are collected with this technique can be oriented in photogrammetric software (using fisheye models) and used to generate dense point clouds, provided that some constraints on the camera positions are adopted. A set of images was captured in a forest plot in the experiments. Weighted geometric constraints were imposed in the photogrammetric software to calculate the image orientation, perform dense image matching, and accurately generate a 3D point cloud. The tree trunks in the scenes were reconstructed and mapped in a local reference system. The accuracy assessment was based on differences between measured and estimated trunk diameters at different heights. Trunk sections from an image-based point cloud were also compared to the corresponding sections that were extracted from a dense terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) point cloud. Cylindrical fitting of the trunk sections allowed the assessment of the accuracies of the trunk geometric shapes in both clouds. The average difference between the cylinders that were fitted to the photogrammetric cloud and those to the TLS cloud was less than 1 cm, which indicates the potential of the proposed technique. The point densities that were obtained with vertical optical scanning were 1/3 less than those that were obtained with TLS. However, the point density can be improved by using higher resolution cameras.

Volcanic explosion clouds - Density, temperature, and particle content estimates from cloud motion

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wilson, L.; Self, S.

1980-01-01

Photographic records of 10 vulcanian eruption clouds produced during the 1978 eruption of Fuego Volcano in Guatemala have been analyzed to determine cloud velocity and acceleration at successive stages of expansion. Cloud motion is controlled by air drag (dominant during early, high-speed motion) and buoyancy (dominant during late motion when the cloud is convecting slowly). Cloud densities in the range 0.6 to 1.2 times that of the surrounding atmosphere were obtained by fitting equations of motion for two common cloud shapes (spheres and vertical cylinders) to the observed motions. Analysis of the heat budget of a cloud permits an estimate of cloud temperature and particle weight fraction to be made from the density. Model results suggest that clouds generally reached temperatures within 10 K of that of the surrounding air within 10 seconds of formation and that dense particle weight fractions were less than 2% by this time. The maximum sizes of dense particles supported by motion in the convecting clouds range from 140 to 1700 microns.

LUMINOSITY FUNCTIONS OF SPITZER-IDENTIFIED PROTOSTARS IN NINE NEARBY MOLECULAR CLOUDS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kryukova, E.; Megeath, S. T.; Allen, T. S.

2012-08-15

We identify protostars in Spitzer surveys of nine star-forming (SF) molecular clouds within 1 kpc: Serpens, Perseus, Ophiuchus, Chamaeleon, Lupus, Taurus, Orion, Cep OB3, and Mon R2, which combined host over 700 protostar candidates. These clouds encompass a variety of SF environments, including both low-mass and high-mass SF regions, as well as dense clusters and regions of sparsely distributed star formation. Our diverse cloud sample allows us to compare protostar luminosity functions in these varied environments. We combine near- and mid-infrared photometry from the Two Micron All Sky Survey and Spitzer to create 1-24 {mu}m spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Usingmore » protostars from the c2d survey with well-determined bolometric luminosities, we derive a relationship between bolometric luminosity, mid-IR luminosity (integrated from 1-24 {mu}m), and SED slope. Estimations of the bolometric luminosities for protostar candidates are combined to create luminosity functions for each cloud. Contamination due to edge-on disks, reddened Class II sources, and galaxies is estimated and removed from the luminosity functions. We find that luminosity functions for high-mass SF clouds (Orion, Mon R2, and Cep OB3) peak near 1 L{sub Sun} and show a tail extending toward luminosities above 100 L{sub Sun }. The luminosity functions of the low-mass SF clouds (Serpens, Perseus, Ophiuchus, Taurus, Lupus, and Chamaeleon) do not exhibit a common peak, however the combined luminosity function of these regions peaks below 1 L{sub Sun }. Finally, we examine the luminosity functions as a function of the local surface density of young stellar objects. In the Orion molecular clouds, we find a significant difference between the luminosity functions of protostars in regions of high and low stellar density, the former of which is biased toward more luminous sources. This may be the result of primordial mass segregation, although this interpretation is not unique. We compare our luminosity functions to those predicted by models and find that our observed luminosity functions are best matched by models that invoke competitive accretion, although we do not find strong agreement between the high-mass SF clouds and any of the models.« less

Theory of droplet. Part 1: Renormalized laws of droplet vaporization in non-dilute sprays

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chiu, H. H.

1989-01-01

The vaporization of a droplet, interacting with its neighbors in a non-dilute spray environment is examined as well as a vaporization scaling law established on the basis of a recently developed theory of renormalized droplet. The interacting droplet consists of a centrally located droplet and its vapor bubble which is surrounded by a cloud of droplets. The distribution of the droplets and the size of the cloud are characterized by a pair-distribution function. The vaporization of a droplet is retarded by the collective thermal quenching, the vapor concentration accumulated in the outer sphere, and by the limited percolative passages for mass, momentum and energy fluxes. The retardation is scaled by the local collective interaction parameters (group combustion number of renormalized droplet, droplet spacing, renormalization number and local ambient conditions). The numerical results of a selected case study reveal that the vaporization correction factor falls from unity monotonically as the group combustion number increases, and saturation is likely to occur when the group combustion number reaches 35 to 40 with interdroplet spacing of 7.5 diameters and an environment temperature of 500 K. The scaling law suggests that dense sprays can be classified into: (1) a diffusively dense cloud characterized by uniform thermal quenching in the cloud; (2) a stratified dense cloud characterized by a radial stratification in temperature by the differential thermal quenching of the cloud; or (3) a sharply dense cloud marked by fine structure in the quasi-droplet cloud and the corresponding variation in the correction factor due to the variation in the topological structure of the cloud characterized by a pair-distribution function of quasi-droplets.

SH Observations In and Toward Sgr B2(N): Linking the Missing Sulfur

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McCarthy, Michael

Where is the missing sulfur in the molecular reservoir of the interstellar medium (ISM)? In the warm gas phase ISM, the abundance of sulfur is nearly equivalent to its solar value, but in the cold, diffuse clouds which span the space between stars, sulfur is depleted by several orders of magnitude. Our inability to account for this depletion represents a significant gap in our understanding of the fundamental chemical and physical processes occurring in the primordial reservoirs of gas and dust in the ISM. Central to this chemistry is SH, a radical for which few observations presently exist, and for which SOFIA is uniquely capable of accessing in its ground rotational state. We propose observations of SH in the cold, shocked molecular shell surrounding Sgr B2(N), and, simultaneously, in diffuse and translucent clouds along the line of sight to Sgr B2(N). We will constrain the abundance of SH, and compare it to previous measurements of SO, CS, C_2S, HCS(+) , H_2CS, and H_2S in these sources which span the evolutionary timescale from diffuse clouds to dense, cold shocked regions.

A New Unsteady Model for Dense Cloud Cavitation in Cryogenic Fluids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hosangadi, A.; Ahuja, V.

2005-01-01

A new unsteady, cavitation model is presented wherein the phase change process (bubble growth/collapse) is coupled to the acoustic field in a cryogenic fluid. It predicts the number density and radius of bubbles in vapor clouds by tracking both the aggregate surface area and volume fraction of the cloud. Hence, formulations for the dynamics of individual bubbles (e.g. Rayleigh-Plesset equation) may be integrated within the macroscopic context of a dense vapor cloud i.e. a cloud that occupies a significant fraction of available volume and contains numerous bubbles. This formulation has been implemented within the CRUNCH CFD, which has a compressible real fluid formulation, a multi-element, unstructured grid framework, and has been validated extensively for liquid rocket turbopump inducers. Detailed unsteady simulations of a cavitating ogive in liquid nitrogen are presented where time-averaged mean cavity pressure and temperature depressions due to cavitation are compared with experimental data. The model also provides the spatial and temporal history of the bubble size distribution in the vapor clouds that are shed, an important physical parameter that is difficult to measure experimentally and is a significant advancement in the modeling of dense cloud cavitation.

The giant molecular cloud Monoceros R2. 1: Shell structure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xie, Taoling; Goldsmith, Paul F.

1994-01-01

We have obtained a 45 sec resolution, Nyquist-sampled map in CO J = 1-0 covering approximately a 3 deg x 3 deg region of the giant molecular cloud Monoceros R2. The map consists of 167,000 spectra observed with the 15 element focal-plane array system on the FCRAO 14 m telescope. The data reveal that the large-scale structure of Mon R2 is dominated by a is approximately 30 pc diameter largely hemispherical shell containing approximately 4 x 10(exp 4) solar mass of molecular material and expanding at approximately 3-4 km s(exp -1) with symmetric axis roughly along the line of sight. The dynamical timescale of the shell is estimated to be approximately 4 x 10(exp 6) yr, which is consistent with the age of main-sequence stars powering the clusters of reflection nebulea in this region. There is no evidence for a redshifted shell on the far side of the interior 'bubble,' which is largely devoid of molecular material. Distortions of the shell are obvious, suggesting inhomogeneity of the cloud and possible presence of a magnetic field prior to its formation. Dense clumps in Mon R2, including the main core and the GGD 12-15 core, appear to be condensations located on the large shell. The reflection nebulea with their illuminating stars as well as embedded IRAS sources suggest that triggered star formation has taken place over a large part of the Mon R2 shell.

Fantastic Striations and Where to Find Them: The Origin of Magnetically Aligned Striations in Interstellar Clouds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Che-Yu; Li, Zhi-Yun; King, Patrick K.

2017-10-01

Thin, magnetically aligned striations of relatively moderate contrast with the background are commonly observed in both atomic and molecular clouds. They are also prominent in MHD simulations with turbulent converging shocks. The simulated striations develop within a dense, stagnated sheet in the midplane of the post-shock region where magnetically induced converging flows collide. We show analytically that the secondary flows are an inevitable consequence of the jump conditions of oblique MHD shocks. They produce the stagnated, sheet-like sub-layer through a secondary shock when, roughly speaking, the Alfvénic speed in the primary converging flows is supersonic, a condition that is relativelymore » easy to satisfy in interstellar clouds. The dense sub-layer is naturally threaded by a strong magnetic field that lies close to the plane of the sub-layer. The substantial magnetic field makes the sheet highly anisotropic, which is the key to the striation formation. Specifically, perturbations of the primary inflow that vary spatially perpendicular to the magnetic field can easily roll up the sheet around the field lines without bending them, creating corrugations that appear as magnetically aligned striations in column density maps. On the other hand, perturbations that vary spatially along the field lines curve the sub-layer and alter its orientation relative to the magnetic field locally, seeding special locations that become slanted overdense filaments and prestellar cores through enhanced mass accumulation along field lines. In our scenario, the dense sub-layer, which is unique to magnetized oblique shocks, is the birthplace for both magnetically aligned diffuse striations and massive star-forming structures.« less

IRAS images of nearby dark clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wood, Douglas O. S.; Myers, Philip C.; Daugherty, Debra A.

1994-01-01

We have investigated approximately 100 nearby molecular clouds using the extensive, all-sky database of IRAS. The clouds in this study cover a wide range of physical properties including visual extinction, size, mass, degree of isolation, homogeneity and morphology. IRAS 100 and 60 micron co-added images were used to calculate the 100 micron optical depth of dust in the clouds. These images of dust optical depth compare very well with (12)CO and (13)CO observations, and can be related to H2 column density. From the optical depth images we locate the edges of dark clouds and the dense cores inside them. We have identified a total of 43 `IRAS clouds' (regions with A(sub v) greater than 2) which contain a total of 255 `IRAS cores' (regions with A(sub v) greater than 4) and we catalog their physical properties. We find that the clouds are remarkably filamentary, and that the cores within the clouds are often distributed along the filaments. The largest cores are usually connected to other large cores by filaments. We have developed selection criteria to search the IRAS Point Source Catalog for stars that are likely to be associated with the clouds and we catalog the IRAS sources in each cloud or core. Optically visible stars associated with the clouds have been identified from the Herbig and Bell catalog. From these data we characterize the physical properties of the clouds including their star-formation efficiency.

H2 Ortho-to-para Conversion on Grains: A Route to Fast Deuterium Fractionation in Dense Cloud Cores?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bovino, S.; Grassi, T.; Schleicher, D. R. G.; Caselli, P.

2017-11-01

Deuterium fractionation, I.e., the enhancement of deuterated species with respect to non-deuterated ones, is considered to be a reliable chemical clock of star-forming regions. This process is strongly affected by the ortho-to-para H2 ratio. In this Letter we explore the effect of the ortho-para (o-p) H2 conversion on grains on the deuteration timescale in fully-depleted dense cores, including the most relevant uncertainties that affect this complex process. We show that (I) the o-p H2 conversion on grains is not strongly influenced by the uncertainties on the conversion time and the sticking coefficient, and (II) that the process is controlled by the temperature and the residence time of ortho-H2 on the surface, I.e., by the binding energy. We find that for binding energies between 330 and 550 K, depending on the temperature, the o-p H2 conversion on grains can shorten the deuterium fractionation timescale by orders of magnitude, opening a new route for explaining the large observed deuteration fraction D frac in dense molecular cloud cores. Our results suggest that the star formation timescale, when estimated through the timescale to reach the observed deuteration fractions, might be shorter than previously proposed. However, more accurate measurements of the binding energy are needed in order to better assess the overall role of this process.

GRO source candidates: (A) Nearby modest-size molecular clouds; (B) Pulsar with Wolf-Rayet companion that has lost its H-envelope

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Silberberg, R.; Murphy, Ronald J.

1989-01-01

Within 100 pc of the sun there are over a hundred cirrus clouds with masses of approx. 60 solar mass and dense molecular clouds with masses of approx. 4 solar mass. If the local interstellar density of cosmic rays is also present in these clouds, the flux of neutral pion from the decay of gamma rays from the core of a cloud at a distance of 20 pc is approx. 13 x 10(exp -8) photons/sq cm/s. The flux from the more extensive cirrus cloud is approx 4 x 10(exp -7) photons/sq cm/s. A relativistic beam of particles generated by a compact stellar object and incident upon a large, close companion can be a strong gamma ray line source if more of the beam energy is used in interactions with C and O and heavier nuclei and less with H and He. This would be the case if the companion has lost its hydrogen envelope and nucleosynthesized much of its He into C, O, and Ne. Such objects are Wolf-Rayet stars and it is believed that some Wolf-Rayet stars do, in fact, have compact companions. For a beam of protons of 10(exp 37) erg/s, the flux at 1 kpc of the 4.4 MeV C-12 line could be as high as 5 x 10(exp -6) photons/sq cm/s. The fluxes of the deexcitation lines from the spallation products of O-16 are also presented.

Dense solar wind cloud geometries deduced from comparisons of radio signal delay and in situ plasma measurements

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Landt, J. A.

1974-01-01

The geometries of dense solar wind clouds are estimated by comparing single-location measurements of the solar wind plasma with the average of the electron density obtained by radio signal delay measurements along a radio path between earth and interplanetary spacecraft. Several of these geometries agree with the current theoretical spatial models of flare-induced shock waves. A new class of spatially limited structures that contain regions with densities greater than any observed in the broad clouds is identified. The extent of a cloud was found to be approximately inversely proportional to its density.

The Green Bank Ammonia Survey: Observations of Hierarchical Dense Gas Structures in Cepheus-L1251

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Keown, Jared; Di Francesco, James; Kirk, Helen; Friesen, Rachel K.; Pineda, Jaime E.; Rosolowsky, Erik; Ginsburg, Adam; Offner, Stella S. R.; Caselli, Paola; Alves, Felipe; Chacón-Tanarro, Ana; Punanova, Anna; Redaelli, Elena; Seo, Young Min; Matzner, Christopher D.; Chun-Yuan Chen, Michael; Goodman, Alyssa A.; Chen, How-Huan; Shirley, Yancy; Singh, Ayushi; Arce, Hector G.; Martin, Peter; Myers, Philip C.

2017-11-01

We use Green Bank Ammonia Survey observations of NH3 (1, 1) and (2, 2) emission with 32″ FWHM resolution from a ˜10 pc2 portion of the Cepheus-L1251 molecular cloud to identify hierarchical dense gas structures. Our dendrogram analysis of the NH3 data results in 22 top-level structures, which reside within 13 lower-level parent structures. The structures are compact (0.01 {pc}≲ {R}{eff}≲ 0.1 {pc}) and are spatially correlated with the highest H2 column density portions of the cloud. We also compare the ammonia data to a catalog of dense cores identified by higher-resolution (18.″2 FWHM) Herschel Space Observatory observations of dust continuum emission from Cepheus-L1251. Maps of kinetic gas temperature, velocity dispersion, and NH3 column density, derived from detailed modeling of the NH3 data, are used to investigate the stability and chemistry of the ammonia-identified and Herschel-identified structures. We show that the dust and dense gas in the structures have similar temperatures, with median T dust and T K measurements of 11.7 ± 1.1 K and 10.3 ± 2.0 K, respectively. Based on a virial analysis, we find that the ammonia-identified structures are gravitationally dominated, yet may be in or near a state of virial equilibrium. Meanwhile, the majority of the Herschel-identified dense cores appear to be not bound by their own gravity and instead confined by external pressure. CCS (20 - 10) and HC5N (9-8) emission from the region reveal broader line widths and centroid velocity offsets when compared to the NH3 (1, 1) emission in some cases, likely due to these carbon-based molecules tracing the turbulent outer layers of the dense cores.

The Distribution of Mass Surface Densities in a High-mass Protocluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Wanggi; Tan, Jonathan C.; Kainulainen, Jouni; Ma, Bo; Butler, Michael J.

2016-09-01

We study the probability distribution function (PDF) of mass surface densities, Σ, of infrared dark cloud (IRDC) G028.37+00.07 and its surrounding giant molecular cloud. This PDF constrains the physical processes, such as turbulence, magnetic fields, and self-gravity, that are expected to be controlling cloud structure and star formation activity. The chosen IRDC is of particular interest since it has almost 100,000 solar masses within a radius of 8 pc, making it one of the most massive, dense molecular structures known and is thus a potential site for the formation of a “super star cluster.” We study Σ in two ways. First, we use a combination of NIR and MIR extinction maps that are able to probe the bulk of the cloud structure up to Σ ˜ 1 g cm-2(A V ≃ 200 mag). Second, we study the FIR and submillimeter dust continuum emission from the cloud utilizing Herschel-PACS and SPIRE images and paying careful attention to the effects of foreground and background contamination. We find that the PDFs from both methods, applied over a ˜20‧(30 pc)-sized region that contains ≃1.5 × 105 M ⊙ and enclosing a minimum closed contour with Σ ≃ 0.013 g cm-2 (A V ≃ 3 mag), shows a lognormal shape with the peak measured at Σ ≃ 0.021 g cm-2 (A V ≃ 4.7 mag). There is tentative evidence for the presence of a high-Σ power-law tail that contains from ˜3% to 8% of the mass of the cloud material. We discuss the implications of these results for the physical processes occurring in this cloud.

X-Ray Snapshots Capture the First Cries of Baby Stars

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

2000-11-01

CXC PR: 00-27 Stars, like babies, make quite a fuss in their first days after birth. Astronomers using the Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered that protostars--stars in their youngest, "neonatal" stage--are marked by powerful X rays from plasma ten times hotter and 100 to 100,000 times brighter than the flares on our Sun. This is all long before their nuclear furnaces of hydrogen even ignite, the mark of stellar maturity. The X-ray flares have also provided the closest look yet at the youngest stars in the universe, never before detected because they are hidden within dust and molecular clouds that filter all other types of light. Yohko Tsuboi of the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) presents these findings today in a press conference at the meeting of the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu, Hawaii. "We peered at newborn stars deeply embedded in their cradle and found that their crying is much more tumultuous than we expected," said Tsuboi. "With Chandra, we now have a new tool to examine protostars, which have been impossible to gain access to in any other wavelength." Protostars located in the rho-Ophiuchi molecular cloud Protostars located in the rho-Ophiuchi molecular cloud 1 square light years field X-ray image around rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud core. Red colorrepresents less absorbed X rays, while blue represents absorbed X rays. Lightcurves for each sources are also shown. Tsuboi and her collaborators looked at the two youngest types of protostars: Class-0 (zero) protostars, about 10,000 years old; and Class-I protostars, about 100,000 years old. In human terms, these protostars are like one-hour-old and 10-hour-old babies, respectively. The transition from one class to another is marked by changes in the protostar's infrared spectrum as the gas and dust envelope diminishes. The envelope has been well studied by infrared and radio astronomers. Protostars themselves and their most extreme activities, however, have remained hidden until now, embedded in the dense envelopes. Previous X-ray telescopes--namely the Japan-U.S. Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics and the German-UK-US Roentgen Satellite--discovered sporadic X rays from several Class-I protostars. These satellites did not have enough spatial resolution nor sensitivity, however, to resolve the large percentage of protostars deep inside crowded cloud cores. Movie in X-ray band of rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud core F Movie in X-ray band of rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud core F. The green bar indicates the time from 0 hours to 27 hours by the length. (Click Image to View Movie) With Chandra, astronomers from Penn State and Kyoto University in Japan have detected X rays from 17 Class-I protostars in a region with 22 known "infrared" Class-I sources. These protostars are located in the rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud 500 light years from Earth in constellation Ophiuchi. The astronomers also saw nearly a dozen X-ray flares over a 27-hour period (*see figure 1 and movie). "Virtually all the Class I protostars in the rho molecular cloud may emit X rays with extremely violent and frequent flare activity," said Kensuke Imanishi of Kyoto University, lead investigator of the rho Ophiuchi observation. "The X-ray fluxes in the flares we saw were up to 10,000 to 100,000 brighter than those in our Sun's flares." Probing deeply with Chandra into a different star-formation region, 1400 light years from Earth in constellation Orion, a second team of astronomers led by Tsuboi observed for the first time activity from Class-0 protostars. Up until now, only the protostar envelope had been seen. In the Class-0 phase, a dense molecular cloud and heavy accretion of gas onto the newly forming star enshroud the region and attenuate even the most penetrating X rays. Chandra, however, had the sensitivity to detect X-ray activity. "The X rays are heavily absorbed, possibly by a large amount of cloud gas," said Tsuboi. "It proves that the X rays come really from the center of the cloud core, from the protostar itself. We therefore discovered X rays even in the Class-0 phase." "Far beyond our imagination, a star immediately after the birth at the center of a cold molecular core at temperatures of only a few tens of Kelvin [-400 degrees Fahrenheit] frequently generates very hot plasma with 10 to 100 million Kelvin," said Katsuji Koyama of Kyoto University, director of these two observations. Koyama said that the violent X-ray flares on protostars may be generated by a coupled action of stellar spin and convection. These become less active as a star condenses to ignite the hydrogen burning and finally settles to a quiet phase like the Sun. In fact, our Sun was born about five billion years ago in a molecular cloud core, which also created the rest of the solar system, including the Earth. The infant Sun may have also been prone to fierce X-ray tantrums. Once the Sun's core was hot and dense enough to initiate hydrogen fusion, after about a few million years, the Sun became a steadier source of energy. This steadiness could have been what allowed life to develop on Earth. The research team for the Orion Molecular Clouds also includes Kenji Hamaguchi at Kyoto University; Ken'ichi Tatematsu and Yutaro Sekimoto at Nobeyama Radio Observatory, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; and John Bally and Bo Reipurth at University of Colorado. The Chandra observations were made using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS), conceived and developed for NASA by Penn State and Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the leadership of Penn State Professor Gordon Garmire. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program. TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, California, is the prime contractor for the spacecraft. The Smithsonian's Chandra X-ray Center controls science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass. Rho Ophiuchi Handout Constellation Ophiuchus Note to media: The press room phone number at the High Energy Astrophysics Division meeting, which will be open from November 6-10, is 808-944-6390. MEDIA CONTACTS Megan Watzke Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, CfA, Cambridge, MA Phone: 617-496-7998 Steve Roy Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL Phone: 256-544-6535 Barbara Kennedy Penn State PIO, University Park, PA. Phone: 814-863-4682

A survey of interstellar HI from L alpha absorption measurements 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bohlin, R. C.; Savage, B. D.; Drake, J. F.

1977-01-01

The Copernicus satellite surveyed the spectral region near L alpha to obtain column densities of interstellar HI toward 100 stars. The distance to 10 stars exceeds 2 kpc and 34 stars lie beyond 1 kpc. Stars with color excess E(B-V) up to 0.5 mag are observed. The value of the mean ratio of total neutral hydrogen to color excess was found to equal 5.8 x 10 to the 21st power atoms per (sq cm x mag). For stars with accurate E(B-V), the deviations from this mean are generally less than a factor of 1.5. A notable exception is the dark cloud star, rho Oph. A reduction in visual reddening efficiency for the grains that are larger than normal in the rho Oph dark cloud probably explains this result. The conversion of atomic hydrogen into molecular form in dense clouds was observed in the gas to E(B-V) correlation plots. The best estimate for the mean total gas density for clouds and the intercloud medium, as a whole, in the solar neighborhood and in the plane of the galaxy is 1.15 atoms per cu. cm; those for the atomic gas and molecular gas alone are 0.86 atoms per cu cm and 0.143 molecules per cu cm respectively. For the intercloud medium, where molecular hydrogen is a negligible fraction of the total gas, atomic gas density was found to equal 0.16 atoms per cu cm with a Gaussian scale height perpendicular to the plane of about 350 pc, as derived from high latitude stars.

Cold, clumpy accretion onto an active supermassive black hole

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tremblay, Grant R.; Oonk, J. B. Raymond; Combes, Françoise; Salomé, Philippe; O'Dea, Christopher P.; Baum, Stefi A.; Voit, G. Mark; Donahue, Megan; McNamara, Brian R.; Davis, Timothy A.; McDonald, Michael A.; Edge, Alastair C.; Clarke, Tracy E.; Galván-Madrid, Roberto; Bremer, Malcolm N.; Edwards, Louise O. V.; Fabian, Andrew C.; Hamer, Stephen; Li, Yuan; Maury, Anaëlle; Russell, Helen R.; Quillen, Alice C.; Urry, C. Megan; Sanders, Jeremy S.; Wise, Michael W.

2016-06-01

Supermassive black holes in galaxy centres can grow by the accretion of gas, liberating energy that might regulate star formation on galaxy-wide scales. The nature of the gaseous fuel reservoirs that power black hole growth is nevertheless largely unconstrained by observations, and is instead routinely simplified as a smooth, spherical inflow of very hot gas. Recent theory and simulations instead predict that accretion can be dominated by a stochastic, clumpy distribution of very cold molecular clouds—a departure from the ‘hot mode’ accretion model—although unambiguous observational support for this prediction remains elusive. Here we report observations that reveal a cold, clumpy accretion flow towards a supermassive black hole fuel reservoir in the nucleus of the Abell 2597 Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG), a nearby (redshift z = 0.0821) giant elliptical galaxy surrounded by a dense halo of hot plasma. Under the right conditions, thermal instabilities produce a rain of cold clouds that fall towards the galaxy’s centre, sustaining star formation amid a kiloparsec-scale molecular nebula that is found at its core. The observations show that these cold clouds also fuel black hole accretion, revealing ‘shadows’ cast by the molecular clouds as they move inward at about 300 kilometres per second towards the active supermassive black hole, which serves as a bright backlight. Corroborating evidence from prior observations of warmer atomic gas at extremely high spatial resolution, along with simple arguments based on geometry and probability, indicate that these clouds are within the innermost hundred parsecs of the black hole, and falling closer towards it.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Virial analysis of the dense cores in Orion A (Kirk+, 2017)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirk, H.; Friesen, R. K.; Pineda, J. E.; Rosolowsky, E.; Offner, S. S. R.; Matzner, C. D.; Myers, P. C.; di, Francesco J.; Caselli, P.; Alves, F. O.; Chacon-Tanarro, A.; Chen, H.-H.; Chen, M. C.-Y.; Keown, J.; Punanova, A.; Seo, Y. M.; Shirley, Y.; Ginsburg, A.; Hall, C.; Singh, A.; Arce, H. G.; Goodman, A. A.; Martin, P.; Redaelli, E.

2018-05-01

NH3 observations were obtained through the Green Bank Ammonia (GAS), a large project to map the ammonia (1,1), (2,2), and (3,3) rotation-inversion transitions across the high-extinction regions of nearby Gould Belt molecular clouds using the Green Bank Telescope's K-band Focal Plane Array. The survey strategy, data reduction procedure, and basic data properties are described in detail in Friesen+ (2017ApJ...843...63F). The spatial resolution is 32" (0.064pc), while the spectral resolution is 0.07km/s. For our analysis, we use the dense core catalog presented in Lane+ (2016ApJ...833...44L), which covers the entire Orion A complex with the JCMT SCUBA-2 850um. See section 2.2. (1 data file).

VELOCITY-RESOLVED [C ii] EMISSION AND [C ii]/FIR MAPPING ALONG ORION WITH HERSCHEL *,**

PubMed Central

Goicoechea, Javier R.; Teyssier, D.; Etxaluze, M.; Goldsmith, P.F.; Ossenkopf, V.; Gerin, M.; Bergin, E.A.; Black, J.H.; Cernicharo, J.; Cuadrado, S.; Encrenaz, P.; Falgarone, E.; Fuente, A.; Hacar, A.; Lis, D.C.; Marcelino, N.; Melnick, G.J.; Müller, H.S.P.; Persson, C.; Pety, J.; Röllig, M.; Schilke, P.; Simon, R.; Snell, R.L.; Stutzki, J.

2015-01-01

We present the first ~7.5′×11.5′ velocity-resolved (~0.2 km s−1) map of the [C ii] 158 μm line toward the Orion molecular cloud 1 (OMC 1) taken with the Herschel/HIFI instrument. In combination with far-infrared (FIR) photometric images and velocity-resolved maps of the H41α hydrogen recombination and CO J=2-1 lines, this data set provides an unprecedented view of the intricate small-scale kinematics of the ionized/PDR/molecular gas interfaces and of the radiative feedback from massive stars. The main contribution to the [C ii] luminosity (~85 %) is from the extended, FUV-illuminated face of the cloud (G0>500, nH>5×103 cm−3) and from dense PDRs (G≳104, nH≳105 cm−3) at the interface between OMC 1 and the H ii region surrounding the Trapezium cluster. Around ~15 % of the [C ii] emission arises from a different gas component without CO counterpart. The [C ii] excitation, PDR gas turbulence, line opacity (from [13C ii]) and role of the geometry of the illuminating stars with respect to the cloud are investigated. We construct maps of the L[C ii]/LFIR and LFIR/MGas ratios and show that L[C ii]/LFIR decreases from the extended cloud component (~10−2–10−3) to the more opaque star-forming cores (~10−3–10−4). The lowest values are reminiscent of the “[C ii] deficit” seen in local ultra-luminous IR galaxies hosting vigorous star formation. Spatial correlation analysis shows that the decreasing L[C ii]/LFIR ratio correlates better with the column density of dust through the molecular cloud than with LFIR/MGas. We conclude that the [C ii] emitting column relative to the total dust column along each line of sight is responsible for the observed L[C ii]/LFIR variations through the cloud. PMID:26568638

Size-density relations in dark clouds: Non-LTE effects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Maloney, P.

1986-01-01

One of the major goals of molecular astronomy has been to understand the physics and dynamics of dense interstellar clouds. Because the interpretation of observations of giant molecular clouds is complicated by their very complex structure and the dynamical effects of star formation, a number of studies have concentrated on dark clouds. Leung, Kutner and Mead (1982) (hereafter LKM) and Myers (1983), in studies of CO and NH3 emission, concluded that dark clouds exhibit significant correlations between linewidth and cloud radius of the form delta v varies as R(0.5) and between mean density and radius of the form n varies as R(-1), as originally suggested by Larson (1981). This result suggests that these objects are in virial equilibrium. However, the mean densities inferred from the CO data of LKM are based on an local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) analysis of their 13CO data. At the very low mean densities inferred by LKM for the larger clouds in their samples, the assumption of LTE becomes very questionable. As most of the range in R in the density-size correlation comes from the clouds observed in CO, it seems worthwhile to examine how non-LTE effects will influence the derived densities. One way to assess the validity of LTE-derived densities is to construct cloud models and then to interpret them in the same way as the observed data. Microturbulent models of inhomogeneous clouds of varying central concentration with the linewidth-size and mean density-size relations found by Myers show sub-thermal excitation of the 13CO line in the larger clouds, with the result that LTE analysis considerbly underestimates the actual column density. A more general approach which doesn't require detailed modeling of the clouds is to consider whether the observed T sub R*(13CO)/T sub R*(12CO) ratios in the clouds studied by LKM are in the range where the LTE-derived optical depths (and hence column densities) can be seriously in error due to sub-thermal excitation of the 13CO molecule.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Frau, P.; Girart, J. M.; Padovani, M.

The Pipe nebula is a massive, nearby, filamentary dark molecular cloud with a low star formation efficiency threaded by a uniform magnetic field perpendicular to its main axis. It harbors more than a hundred, mostly quiescent, very chemically young starless cores. The cloud is therefore a good laboratory to study the earliest stages of the star formation process. We aim to investigate the primordial conditions and the relation among physical, chemical, and magnetic properties in the evolution of low-mass starless cores. We used the IRAM 30 m telescope to map the 1.2 mm dust continuum emission of five new starlessmore » cores, which are in good agreement with previous visual extinction maps. For the sample of nine cores, which includes the four cores studied in a previous work, we derived an A {sub V} to N{sub H{sub 2}} factor of (1.27 {+-} 0.12) Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -21} mag cm{sup 2} and a background visual extinction of {approx}6.7 mag possibly arising from the cloud material. We derived an average core diameter of {approx}0.08 pc, density of {approx}10{sup 5} cm{sup -3}, and mass of {approx}1.7 M {sub Sun }. Several trends seem to exist related to increasing core density: (1) the diameter seems to shrink, (2) the mass seems to increase, and (3) the chemistry tends to be richer. No correlation is found between the direction of the surrounding diffuse medium magnetic field and the projected orientation of the cores, suggesting that large-scale magnetic fields seem to play a secondary role in shaping the cores. We also used the IRAM 30 m telescope to extend the previous molecular survey at 1 and 3 mm of early- and late-time molecules toward the same five new Pipe nebula starless cores, and analyzed the normalized intensities of the detected molecular transitions. We confirmed the chemical differentiation toward the sample and increased the number of molecular transitions of the 'diffuse' (e.g., the 'ubiquitous' CO, C{sub 2}H, and CS), 'oxo-sulfurated' (e.g., SO and CH{sub 3}OH), and 'deuterated' (e.g., N{sub 2}H{sup +}, CN, and HCN) starless core groups. The chemically defined core groups seem to be related to different evolutionary stages: 'diffuse' cores present the cloud chemistry and are less dense, while 'deuterated' cores are the densest and present a chemistry typical of evolved dense cores. 'Oxo-sulfurated' cores might be in a transitional stage exhibiting intermediate properties and a very characteristic chemistry.« less

A Deuteration Survey of Starless Clumps in GemOB1 and the First Quadrant

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henrici, Andrew; Shirley, Yancy L.; Svoboda, Brian

2018-01-01

One very strong chemical process in star-forming regions is the fractionation of deuterium in molecules, which results in an increase in the deuterium ratio many orders of magnitude over the ISM [D]/[H] ratio and provides a chemical probe of cold, dense regions. Recent maps of dust continuum emission at (sub)millimeter wavelengths have identified tens of thousands of dense clumps of gas and dust. By comparing these regions to infrared and radio surveys, we have identified starless clump candidates which have no evidence for embedded star formation. These objects represent the earliest phase of star formation throughout the Milky Way. One benefit of the Milky Way surveys is that it is also possible to study the chemistry of entire core and clump populations within a single cloud. We used the 10m Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope to survey starless clump candidates in the First Quadrant identified from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey 1.1 mm continuum in the deuterated molecular transitions of DCO+ 3-2 and N2D+ 3-2. We also survey the entire clump population of the Gemini OB1 molecular cloud. In both surveys, we compared detection statistics and compare deuteration fraction to physical properties of the clumps and their evolutionary stage. High resolution ALMA observations of 9 starless clump candidates of the same lines are used to analyze how the cold deuterated gas is spatially distributed in these clumps.

Recent Advances in Organic Cosmochemistry

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandford, Scott A.; Witteborn, Fred C. (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

The Astrochemistry Laboratory at NASA's Ames Research Center pursues a variety of activities, most of which center around the use of spectroscopy (ultraviolet to far-infrared) for the interpretation of astronomical and meteoritic data. One of our key activities is the study of the chemical and physical properties of cometary, interstellar, and planetary ice analogs and matrix-isolated molecules of astrophysical interest. As a result of these studies it is now known that a significant fraction of the carbon in the interstellar medium (ISM) is in reasonably complex forms, some of which are clearly of interest for exobiology. Examples of compounds known or suspected to be present in space include polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), microdiamonds, an aliphatic-rich component found in the diffuse interstellar medium, and a variety of molecular species produced by the irradiation of mixed molecular ices in dense clouds. A number of the species produced by irradiation contain nitrogen and appear to offer an additional means of producing some of the amino acids found in meteorites. I will review these complex carbonaceous materials and discuss how they are connected with each other and the organic materials that ultimately ended up as part of our own Solar System. Specific points that will probably be covered include: (1) the composition of the ices in interstellar dense molecular clouds; (2) the more complex organic compounds produced when these ices are irradiated and/or warmed; (3) the detection of microdiamonds in space; (4) the discovery that aliphatic materials may constitute as much as 15% of all the carbon in the diffuse ISM, appears to be present everywhere in the galaxy, and yet seems to be present everywhere in the galaxy, and yet seems to be significantly concentrated towards the center of the galaxy.

CONTRACTION SIGNATURES TOWARD DENSE CORES IN THE PERSEUS MOLECULAR CLOUD

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Campbell, J. L.; Friesen, R. K.; Martin, P. G.

We report the results of an HCO{sup +} (3–2) and N{sub 2}D{sup +} (3–2) molecular line survey performed toward 91 dense cores in the Perseus molecular cloud using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, to identify the fraction of starless and protostellar cores with systematic radial motions. We quantify the HCO{sup +} asymmetry using a dimensionless asymmetry parameter δ{sub v}, and identify 20 cores with significant blue or red line asymmetries in optically thick emission indicative of collapsing or expanding motions, respectively. We separately fit the HCO{sup +} profiles with an analytic collapse model and determine contraction (expansion) speeds toward 22more » cores. Comparing the δ{sub v} and collapse model results, we find that δ{sub v} is a good tracer of core contraction if the optically thin emission is aligned with the model-derived systemic velocity. The contraction speeds range from subsonic (0.03 km s{sup −1}) to supersonic (0.4 km s{sup −1}), where the supersonic contraction speeds may trace global rather than local core contraction. Most cores have contraction speeds significantly less than their free-fall speeds. Only 7 of 28 starless cores have spectra well-fit by the collapse model, which more than doubles (15 of 28) for protostellar cores. Starless cores with masses greater than the Jeans mass (M/M{sub J} > 1) are somewhat more likely to show contraction motions. We find no trend of optically thin non-thermal line width with M/M{sub J}, suggesting that any undetected contraction motions are small and subsonic. Most starless cores in Perseus are either not in a state of collapse or expansion, or are in a very early stage of collapse.« less

Molecular Gas Feeding the Circumnuclear Disk of the Galactic Center

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hsieh, Pei-Ying; Koch, Patrick M.; Ho, Paul T. P.

The interaction between a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and the surrounding material is of primary importance in modern astrophysics. The detection of the molecular 2 pc circumnuclear disk (CND) immediately around the Milky Way SMBH, SgrA*, provides a unique opportunity to study SMBH accretion at subparsec scales. Our new wide-field CS( J = 2 − 1) map toward the Galactic center (GC) reveals multiple dense molecular streamers that originated from the ambient clouds 20 pc further out, and that are connected to the central 2 pc of the CND. These dense gas streamers appear to carry gas directly toward themore » nuclear region and might be captured by the central potential. Our phase-plot analysis indicates that these streamers show a signature of rotation and inward radial motion with progressively higher velocities as the gas approaches the CND and finally ends up corotating with the CND. Our results might suggest a possible mechanism of gas feeding the CND from 20 pc around 2 pc in the GC. In this paper, we discuss the morphology and the kinematics of these streamers. As the nearest observable Galactic nucleus, this feeding process may have implications for understanding the processes in extragalactic nuclei.« less

Molecular Gas Feeding the Circumnuclear Disk of the Galactic Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hsieh, Pei-Ying; Koch, Patrick M.; Ho, Paul T. P.; Kim, Woong-Tae; Tang, Ya-Wen; Wang, Hsiang-Hsu; Yen, Hsi-Wei; Hwang, Chorng-Yuan

2017-09-01

The interaction between a supermassive black hole (SMBH) and the surrounding material is of primary importance in modern astrophysics. The detection of the molecular 2 pc circumnuclear disk (CND) immediately around the Milky Way SMBH, SgrA*, provides a unique opportunity to study SMBH accretion at subparsec scales. Our new wide-field CS(J = 2 - 1) map toward the Galactic center (GC) reveals multiple dense molecular streamers that originated from the ambient clouds 20 pc further out, and that are connected to the central 2 pc of the CND. These dense gas streamers appear to carry gas directly toward the nuclear region and might be captured by the central potential. Our phase-plot analysis indicates that these streamers show a signature of rotation and inward radial motion with progressively higher velocities as the gas approaches the CND and finally ends up corotating with the CND. Our results might suggest a possible mechanism of gas feeding the CND from 20 pc around 2 pc in the GC. In this paper, we discuss the morphology and the kinematics of these streamers. As the nearest observable Galactic nucleus, this feeding process may have implications for understanding the processes in extragalactic nuclei.

Filtering Photogrammetric Point Clouds Using Standard LIDAR Filters Towards DTM Generation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Z.; Gerke, M.; Vosselman, G.; Yang, M. Y.

2018-05-01

Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) can be generated from point clouds acquired by laser scanning or photogrammetric dense matching. During the last two decades, much effort has been paid to developing robust filtering algorithms for the airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. With the point cloud quality from dense image matching (DIM) getting better and better, the research question that arises is whether those standard Lidar filters can be used to filter photogrammetric point clouds as well. Experiments are implemented to filter two dense matching point clouds with different noise levels. Results show that the standard Lidar filter is robust to random noise. However, artefacts and blunders in the DIM points often appear due to low contrast or poor texture in the images. Filtering will be erroneous in these locations. Filtering the DIM points pre-processed by a ranking filter will bring higher Type II error (i.e. non-ground points actually labelled as ground points) but much lower Type I error (i.e. bare ground points labelled as non-ground points). Finally, the potential DTM accuracy that can be achieved by DIM points is evaluated. Two DIM point clouds derived by Pix4Dmapper and SURE are compared. On grassland dense matching generates points higher than the true terrain surface, which will result in incorrectly elevated DTMs. The application of the ranking filter leads to a reduced bias in the DTM height, but a slightly increased noise level.

THE BOLOCAM GALACTIC PLANE SURVEY. VIII. A MID-INFRARED KINEMATIC DISTANCE DISCRIMINATION METHOD

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ellsworth-Bowers, Timothy P.; Glenn, Jason; Battersby, Cara

2013-06-10

We present a new distance estimation method for dust-continuum-identified molecular cloud clumps. Recent (sub-)millimeter Galactic plane surveys have cataloged tens of thousands of these objects, plausible precursors to stellar clusters, but detailed study of their physical properties requires robust distance determinations. We derive Bayesian distance probability density functions (DPDFs) for 770 objects from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey in the Galactic longitude range 7. Degree-Sign 5 {<=} l {<=} 65 Degree-Sign . The DPDF formalism is based on kinematic distances, and uses any number of external data sets to place prior distance probabilities to resolve the kinematic distance ambiguity (KDA)more » for objects in the inner Galaxy. We present here priors related to the mid-infrared absorption of dust in dense molecular regions and the distribution of molecular gas in the Galactic disk. By assuming a numerical model of Galactic mid-infrared emission and simple radiative transfer, we match the morphology of (sub-)millimeter thermal dust emission with mid-infrared absorption to compute a prior DPDF for distance discrimination. Selecting objects first from (sub-)millimeter source catalogs avoids a bias towards the darkest infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) and extends the range of heliocentric distance probed by mid-infrared extinction and includes lower-contrast sources. We derive well-constrained KDA resolutions for 618 molecular cloud clumps, with approximately 15% placed at or beyond the tangent distance. Objects with mid-infrared contrast sufficient to be cataloged as IRDCs are generally placed at the near kinematic distance. Distance comparisons with Galactic Ring Survey KDA resolutions yield a 92% agreement. A face-on view of the Milky Way using resolved distances reveals sections of the Sagittarius and Scutum-Centaurus Arms. This KDA-resolution method for large catalogs of sources through the combination of (sub-)millimeter and mid-infrared observations of molecular cloud clumps is generally applicable to other dust-continuum Galactic plane surveys.« less

Vertical variation of ice particle size in convective cloud tops.

PubMed

van Diedenhoven, Bastiaan; Fridlind, Ann M; Cairns, Brian; Ackerman, Andrew S; Yorks, John E

2016-05-16

A novel technique is used to estimate derivatives of ice effective radius with respect to height near convective cloud tops ( dr e / dz ) from airborne shortwave reflectance measurements and lidar. Values of dr e / dz are about -6 μ m/km for cloud tops below the homogeneous freezing level, increasing to near 0 μ m/km above the estimated level of neutral buoyancy. Retrieved dr e / dz compares well with previously documented remote sensing and in situ estimates. Effective radii decrease with increasing cloud top height, while cloud top extinction increases. This is consistent with weaker size sorting in high, dense cloud tops above the level of neutral buoyancy where fewer large particles are present, and with stronger size sorting in lower cloud tops that are less dense. The results also confirm that cloud-top trends of effective radius can generally be used as surrogates for trends with height within convective cloud tops. These results provide valuable observational targets for model evaluation.

Vertical Variation of Ice Particle Size in Convective Cloud Tops

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Van Diedenhoven, Bastiaan; Fridlind, Ann M.; Cairns, Brian; Ackerman, Andrew S.; Yorks, John E.

2016-01-01

A novel technique is used to estimate derivatives of ice effective radius with respect to height near convective cloud tops (dr(sub e)/dz) from airborne shortwave reflectance measurements and lidar. Values of dr(sub e)/dz are about -6 micrometer/km for cloud tops below the homogeneous freezing level, increasing to near 0 micrometer/km above the estimated level of neutral buoyancy. Retrieved dr(sub e)/dz compares well with previously documented remote sensing and in situ estimates. Effective radii decrease with increasing cloud top height, while cloud top extinction increases. This is consistent with weaker size sorting in high, dense cloud tops above the level of neutral buoyancy where fewer large particles are present and with stronger size sorting in lower cloud tops that are less dense. The results also confirm that cloud top trends of effective radius can generally be used as surrogates for trends with height within convective cloud tops. These results provide valuable observational targets for model evaluation.

Ultraviolet photometry from the orbiting astronomical observatory. XXX - The Orion reflection nebulosity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Witt, A. N.; Lillie, C. F.

1978-01-01

Surface-brightness measurements are presented that cover the region of Orion in nine intermediate-width bandpasses ranging from 4250 to 1550 A. The existence of an extended ultraviolet reflection nebulosity in this area is confirmed, and the characteristics of its spectrum and spatial distribution are derived. The observations are consistent with a model in which the dense molecular cloud complex in Orion is illuminated by the foreground Orion aggregate of early-type stars. The interpretation is complicated by the fact that foreground dust may contribute to the observed scattered light. The scattering particles in the cloud appear to exhibit a wavelength-dependent albedo similar to that found for interstellar grains in general, with a strong indication that the phase function changes to a less forward-scattering form in the ultraviolet.

A cloud collision model for water maser excitation.

PubMed

Tarter, J C; Welch, W J

1986-06-01

High-velocity collisions between small, dense, neutral clouds or between a dense cloud and a dense shell can provide the energy source required to excite H2O maser emission. The radiative precursor from the surface of the collisional shock front rapidly diffuses through the cloud, heating the dust grains but leaving the H2 molecules cool. Transient maser emission occurs as the conditions for the Goldreich and Kwan "hot-dust cold-gas" maser pump scheme are realized locally within the cloud. In time the local maser action quenches due to the heating of the H2 molecules by collisions against the grains. Although this model cannot explain the very long-lived steady maser features, it is quite successful in explaining a number of the observed properties of the high-velocity features in such sources as Orion, W51, and W49. In particular, it provides a natural explanation for the rapid time variations, the narrow line widths, juxtaposition of high- and low-velocity features, and the short lifetimes which are frequently observed for the so-called high-velocity maser "bullets" thought to be accelerated by strong stellar winds.

Interaction of the 100-year old X-Ray flare produced by a central black hole with diffuse gas in the Galactic center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chernyshov, D.; Cheng, K.; Dogiel, V.; Kong, A.; Ko, C.; Tatischeff, V.; Terrier, R.

2017-10-01

We investigate an old X-Ray flare produced by a central black hole which is most likely responsible for the transient X-Ray emission from massive molecular clouds in the Galactic center. This flare should ionize diffuse molecular gas and also excite fluorescence lines e.g. neutral iron line at 6.4 keV. It turns out that the observed diffuse 6.4 keV line can be explained by the same X-Ray flare which illuminates dense molecular clouds. The diffuse emission can also be considered as a tool to limit potential duration and intensity of the primary X-Ray flare. We show that charged particles cannot provide necessary iron ionization rate to reproduce the observed emission. On the other hand ionization of neutral hydrogen cannot be provided by a primary flare and should be done by other mechanisms like for example charged particles. We also claim that recently found afterglow from Swift J1644+57 can be produced by similar event and can be a nice example of a Compton echo observed in a distant galaxy.

SILCC-Zoom: the dynamic and chemical evolution of molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seifried, D.; Walch, S.; Girichidis, P.; Naab, T.; Wünsch, R.; Klessen, R. S.; Glover, S. C. O.; Peters, T.; Clark, P.

2017-12-01

We present 3D 'zoom-in' simulations of the formation of two molecular clouds out of the galactic interstellar medium. We model the clouds - identified from the SILCC simulations - with a resolution of up to 0.06 pc using adaptive mesh refinement in combination with a chemical network to follow heating, cooling and the formation of H2 and CO including (self-) shielding. The two clouds are assembled within a few million years with mass growth rates of up to ∼10-2 M⊙ yr-1 and final masses of ∼50 000 M⊙. A spatial resolution of ≲0.1 pc is required for convergence with respect to the mass, velocity dispersion and chemical abundances of the clouds, although these properties also depend on the cloud definition such as based on density thresholds, H2 or CO mass fraction. To avoid grid artefacts, the progressive increase of resolution has to occur within the free-fall time of the densest structures (1-1.5 Myr) and ≳200 time-steps should be spent on each refinement level before the resolution is progressively increased further. This avoids the formation of spurious, large-scale, rotating clumps from unresolved turbulent flows. While CO is a good tracer for the evolution of dense gas with number densities n ≥ 300 cm-3, H2 is also found for n ≲ 30 cm-3 due to turbulent mixing and becomes dominant at column densities around 30-50 M⊙ pc-2. The CO-to-H2 ratio steadily increases within the first 2 Myr, whereas XCO ≃ 1-4 × 1020 cm-2 (K km s-1)-1 is approximately constant since the CO(1-0) line quickly becomes optically thick.

The chemistry in circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars: following the origin of the elements to the origin of life.

PubMed

Ziurys, Lucy M

2006-08-15

Mass loss from evolved stars results in the formation of unusual chemical laboratories: circumstellar envelopes. Such envelopes are found around carbon- and oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch stars and red supergiants. As the gaseous material of the envelope flows from the star, the resulting temperature and density gradients create a complex chemical environment involving hot, thermodynamically controlled synthesis, molecule "freeze-out," shock-initiated reactions, and photochemistry governed by radical mechanisms. In the circumstellar envelope of the carbon-rich star IRC+10216, >50 different chemical compounds have been identified, including such exotic species as C(8)H, C(3)S, SiC(3), and AlNC. The chemistry here is dominated by molecules containing long carbon chains, silicon, and metals such as magnesium, sodium, and aluminum, which makes it quite distinct from that found in molecular clouds. The molecular composition of the oxygen-rich counterparts is not nearly as well explored, although recent studies of VY Canis Majoris have resulted in the identification of HCO(+), SO(2), and even NaCl in this object, suggesting chemical complexity here as well. As these envelopes evolve into planetary nebulae with a hot, exposed central star, synthesis of molecular ions becomes important, as indicated by studies of NGC 7027. Numerous species such as HCO(+), HCN, and CCH are found in old planetary nebulae such as the Helix. This "survivor" molecular material may be linked to the variety of compounds found recently in diffuse clouds. Organic molecules in dense interstellar clouds may ultimately be traced back to carbon-rich fragments originally formed in circumstellar shells.

Triggering Collapse of the Presolar Dense Cloud Core and Injecting Short-lived Radioisotopes with a Shock Wave. V. Nonisothermal Collapse Regime

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boss, Alan P., E-mail: aboss@carnegiescience.edu

Recent meteoritical analyses support an initial abundance of the short-lived radioisotope (SLRI) {sup 60}Fe that may be high enough to require nucleosynthesis in a core-collapse supernova, followed by rapid incorporation into primitive meteoritical components, rather than a scenario where such isotopes were inherited from a well-mixed region of a giant molecular cloud polluted by a variety of supernovae remnants and massive star winds. This paper continues to explore the former scenario, by calculating three-dimensional, adaptive mesh refinement, hydrodynamical code (FLASH 2.5) models of the self-gravitational, dynamical collapse of a molecular cloud core that has been struck by a thin shockmore » front with a speed of 40 km s{sup −1}, leading to the injection of shock front matter into the collapsing cloud through the formation of Rayleigh–Taylor fingers at the shock–cloud intersection. These models extend the previous work into the nonisothermal collapse regime using a polytropic approximation to represent compressional heating in the optically thick protostar. The models show that the injection efficiencies of shock front materials are enhanced compared to previous models, which were not carried into the nonisothermal regime, and so did not reach such high densities. The new models, combined with the recent estimates of initial {sup 60}Fe abundances, imply that the supernova triggering and injection scenario remains a plausible explanation for the origin of the SLRIs involved in the formation of our solar system.« less

The Nature of Carbon Dioxide Bearing Ices in Quiescent Molecular Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whittet, D. C. B.; Cook, A. M.; Chiar, J. E.; Pendleton, Y. J.; Shenoy, S. S.; Gerakines, P. A.

2009-04-01

The properties of the ices that form in dense molecular clouds represent an important set of initial conditions in the evolution of interstellar and preplanetary matter in regions of active star formation. Of the various spectral features available for study, the bending mode of solid CO2 near 15 μm has proven to be a particularly sensitive probe of physical conditions, especially temperature. We present new observations of this absorption feature in the spectrum of Q21-1, a background field star located behind a dark filament in the Cocoon Nebula (IC 5146). We show the profile of the feature to be consistent with a two-component (polar + nonpolar) model for the ices, based on spectra of laboratory analogs with temperatures in the range 10-20 K. The polar component accounts for ~85% of the CO2 in the line of sight. We compare for the first time 15 μm profiles in three widely separated dark clouds (Taurus, Serpens, and IC 5146), and show that they are indistinguishable to within observational scatter. Systematic differences in the observed CO2/H2O ratio in the three clouds have little or no effect on the 15 μm profile. The abundance of elemental oxygen in the ices appears to be a unifying factor, displaying consistent behavior in the three clouds. We conclude that the ice formation process is robust and uniformly efficient, notwithstanding compositional variations arising from differences in how the O is distributed between the primary species (H2O, CO2, and CO) in the ices.

H{sub 2} Ortho-to-para Conversion on Grains: A Route to Fast Deuterium Fractionation in Dense Cloud Cores?

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bovino, S.; Grassi, T.; Schleicher, D. R. G.

Deuterium fractionation, i.e., the enhancement of deuterated species with respect to non-deuterated ones, is considered to be a reliable chemical clock of star-forming regions. This process is strongly affected by the ortho-to-para H{sub 2} ratio. In this Letter we explore the effect of the ortho–para (o–p) H{sub 2} conversion on grains on the deuteration timescale in fully-depleted dense cores, including the most relevant uncertainties that affect this complex process. We show that (i) the o–p H{sub 2} conversion on grains is not strongly influenced by the uncertainties on the conversion time and the sticking coefficient, and (ii) that the processmore » is controlled by the temperature and the residence time of ortho-H{sub 2} on the surface, i.e., by the binding energy. We find that for binding energies between 330 and 550 K, depending on the temperature, the o–p H{sub 2} conversion on grains can shorten the deuterium fractionation timescale by orders of magnitude, opening a new route for explaining the large observed deuteration fraction D {sub frac} in dense molecular cloud cores. Our results suggest that the star formation timescale, when estimated through the timescale to reach the observed deuteration fractions, might be shorter than previously proposed. However, more accurate measurements of the binding energy are needed in order to better assess the overall role of this process.« less

Chemical evolution of primitive solar system bodies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oro, J.; Mills, T.

1989-01-01

Observations on organic molecules and compounds containing biogenic elements in the interstellar medium and in the primitive bodies of the solar system are reviewed. The discovery of phosphorus molecular species in dense interstellar clouds, the existence of organic ions in the dust and gas phase of the comas of Comet Halley, and the presence of presolar, deuterium-hydrogen ratios in the amino acids of carbonaceous chondrites are discussed. The relationships between comets, dark asteroids, and carbonaceous chondrites are examined. Also, consideration is given to the chemical evolution of Titan, the primitive earth, and early Mars.

Indirect observation of unobservable interstellar molecules

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herbst, E.; Green, S.; Thaddeus, P.; Klemperer, W.

1977-01-01

It is suggested that the abundances of neutral non-polar interstellar molecules unobservable by radio astronomy can be systematically determined by radio observation of the protonated ions. As an example, observed N2H(+) column densities are analyzed to infer molecular nitrogen abundances in dense interstellar clouds. The chemistries and expected densities of the protonated ions of O2, C2, CO2, C2H2 and CH4 are then discussed. Microwave transition frequencies fo HCO2(+) and C2H3(+) are estimated, and a preliminary astronomical search for HCO2(+) is described.

Empirical relationships between gas abundances and UV selective extinction

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Joseph, Charles L.

1990-01-01

Several studies of gas-phase abundances in lines of sight through the outer edges of dense clouds are summarized. These lines of sight have 0.4 less than E(B-V) less than 1.1 and have inferred spatial densities of a few hundred cm(-3). The primary thrust of these studies has been to compare gaseous abundances in interstellar clouds that have various types of peculiar selective extinction. To date, the most notable result has been an empirical relationship between the CN/Fe I abundance ratio and the depth of the 2200 A extinction bump. It is not clear at the present time, however, whether these two parameters are linearly correlated or the data are organized into two discrete ensembles. Based on 19 samples and assuming the clouds form discrete ensembles, lines of sight that have a CN/Fe I abundance ratio greater than 0.3 (dex) appear to have a shallow 2.57 plus or minus 0.55 bump compared to 3.60 plus or minus 0.36 for other dense clouds and compared to the 3.6 Seaton (1979) average. The difference in the strength of the extinction bump between these two ensembles is 1.03 plus or minus 0.23. Although a high-resolution IUE survey of dense clouds is far from complete, the few lines of sight with shallow extinction bumps all show preferential depletion of certain elements, while those lines of sight with normal 2200 A bumps do not. Ca II, Cr II, and Mn II appear to exhibit the strongest preferential depletion compared to S II, P II, and Mg II. Fe II and Si II depletions also appear to be enhanced somewhat in the shallow-bump lines of sight. It should be noted that Copernicus data suggest all elements, including the so-called nondepletors, deplete in diffuse clouds (Snow and Jenkins 1980, Joseph 1988). Those lines of sight through dense clouds that have normal 2200 A extinction bumps appear to be extensions of the depletions found in the diffuse interstellar medium. That is, the overall level of depletion is enhanced, but the element-to-element abundances are similar to those in diffuse clouds. In a separate study, the abundances of neutral atoms were studied in a dense cloud having a shallow 2200 A bump and in one with a normal strength bump.

Grain Growth and Silicates in Dense Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pendeleton, Yvonne J.; Chiar, J. E.; Ennico, K.; Boogert, A.; Greene, T.; Knez, C.; Lada, C.; Roellig, T.; Tielens, A.; Werner, M.;

Fast molecular shocks. I - Reformation of molecules behind a dissociative shock

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Neufeld, David A.; Dalgarno, A.

1989-01-01

The physical and chemical processes that operate in the cooling gas behind a fast, dissociative, single-fluid shock propagating in a dense interstellar cloud are discussed. The treatment extends previous theoretical work on fast molecular shocks by including the effects of the conversion of Ly-alpha photons into radiation of the two-photon continuum and into H2 Lyman band emission lines, the effects of CO photodissociation following line absorption, and the formation and destruction of molecules containing the elements nitrogen, silicon, and sulphur, and of the complex hydrocarbons. Abundance profiles for the molecular species of interest are presented. After molecular hydrogen begins to reform, by means of gas phase and grain surface processes, the neutral species OH, H2O, O2, CO, CN, HCN, N2, NO, SO, and SiO reach substantial abundances. The molecular ions HeH(+), OH(+), SO(+), CH(+), H2(+), and H3(+), are produced while the gas is still hot and partially ionized. Emissions from them provide a possible diagnostic probe of fast molecular shocks.

Widespread deuteration across the IRDC G035.39-00.33

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barnes, A. T.; Kong, S.; Tan, J. C.; Henshaw, J. D.; Caselli, P.; Jiménez-Serra, I.; Fontani, F.

2016-05-01

Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) are cold, dense regions that are usually found within Giant Molecular Clouds. Ongoing star formation within IRDCs is typically still deeply embedded within the surrounding molecular gas. Characterizing the properties of relatively quiescent IRDCs may therefore help us to understand the earliest phases of the star formation process. Studies of local molecular clouds have revealed that deuterated species are enhanced in the earliest phases of star formation. In this paper, we test this towards IRDC G035.39-00.33. We present an 80 arcsec by 140 arcsec map of the J = 2 → 1 transition of N2D+, obtained with the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique 30 m telescope telescope. We find that N2D+ is widespread throughout G035.39-00.33. Complementary observations of N2H+ (1 - 0) are used to estimate the deuterium fraction, D_frac^N_2H^+ ≡ N(N2D+)/N(N2H+). We report a mean D_frac^N_2H^+ = 0.04 ± 0.01, with a maximum of D_frac^N_2H^+ = 0.09 ± 0.02. The mean deuterium fraction is ˜3 orders of magnitude greater than the interstellar [D]/[H] ratio. High angular resolution observations are required to exclude beam dilution effects of compact deuterated cores. Using chemical modelling, we find that the average observed values of D_frac^N_2H^+are in agreement with an equilibrium deuterium fraction, given the general properties of the cloud. This implies that the IRDC is at least ˜3 Myr old, which is ˜8 times longer than the mean free-fall time of the observed deuterated region.

Formation of Very Young Massive Clusters and Implications for Globular Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banerjee, Sambaran; Kroupa, Pavel

How Very Young Massive star Clusters (VYMCs; also known as "starburst" clusters), which typically are of ≳ 104 M ⊙ and are a few Myr old, form out of Giant Molecular Clouds is still largely an open question. Increasingly detailed observations of young star clusters and star-forming molecular clouds and computational studies provide clues about their formation scenarios and the underlying physical processes involved. This chapter is focused on reviewing the decade-long studies that attempt to computationally reproduce the well-observed nearby VYMCs, such as the Orion Nebula Cluster, R136 and NGC 3603 young cluster, thereby shedding light on birth conditions of massive star clusters, in general. On this regard, focus is given on direct N-body modelling of real-sized massive star clusters, with a monolithic structure and undergoing residual gas expulsion, which have consistently reproduced the observed characteristics of several VYMCs and also of young star clusters, in general. The connection of these relatively simplified model calculations with the structural richness of dense molecular clouds and the complexity of hydrodynamic calculations of star cluster formation is presented in detail. Furthermore, the connections of such VYMCs with globular clusters, which are nearly as old as our Universe, is discussed. The chapter is concluded by addressing long-term deeply gas-embedded (at least apparently) and substructured systems like W3 Main. While most of the results are quoted from existing and up-to-date literature, in an integrated fashion, several new insights and discussions are provided.

The Mass Evolution of Protostellar Disks and Envelopes in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andersen, Bridget; Stephens, Ian; Dunham, Michael; Pokhrel, Riwaj; Jørgensen, Jes; Frimann, Søren

2018-01-01

In the standard picture for low-mass star formation, a dense molecular cloud undergoes gravitational collapse to form a protostellar system consisting of a new central star, a circumstellar disk, and a surrounding envelope of remaining material. The mass distribution of the system evolves as matter accretes from the large-scale envelope through the disk and onto the protostar. While this general picture is supported by simulations and indirect observational measurements, the specific timescales related to disk growth and envelope dissipation remain poorly constrained. We present a rigorous test of a method introduced by Jørgensen et al. (2009) to obtain observational mass measurements of disks and envelopes around embedded protostars from unresolved (resolution of ~1000 AU) observations. Using data from the recent Mass Assembly of Stellar Systems and their Evolution with the SMA (MASSES) survey, we derive disk and envelope mass estimates for 59 protostellar systems in the Perseus molecular cloud. We compare our results to independent disk mass measurements from the VLA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM) survey and find a strong linear correlation. Then, leveraging the size and uniformity of our sample, we find no significant trend in protostellar mass distribution as a function of age, as approximated from bolometric temperatures. These results may indicate that the disk mass of a protostar is set near the onset of the Class 0 protostellar stage and remains roughly constant throughout the Class I protostellar stage.

Following the Interstellar History of Carbon: From the Interiors of Stars to the Surfaces of Planets.

PubMed

Ziurys, L M; Halfen, D T; Geppert, W; Aikawa, Y

2016-12-01

The chemical history of carbon is traced from its origin in stellar nucleosynthesis to its delivery to planet surfaces. The molecular carriers of this element are examined at each stage in the cycling of interstellar organic material and their eventual incorporation into solar system bodies. The connection between the various interstellar carbon reservoirs is also examined. Carbon has two stellar sources: supernova explosions and mass loss from evolved stars. In the latter case, the carbon is dredged up from the interior and then ejected into a circumstellar envelope, where a rich and unusual C-based chemistry occurs. This molecular material is eventually released into the general interstellar medium through planetary nebulae. It is first incorporated into diffuse clouds, where carbon is found in polyatomic molecules such as H 2 CO, HCN, HNC, c-C 3 H 2 , and even C 60 + . These objects then collapse into dense clouds, the sites of star and planet formation. Such clouds foster an active organic chemistry, producing compounds with a wide range of functional groups with both gas-phase and surface mechanisms. As stars and planets form, the chemical composition is altered by increasing stellar radiation, as well as possibly by reactions in the presolar nebula. Some molecular, carbon-rich material remains pristine, however, encapsulated in comets, meteorites, and interplanetary dust particles, and is delivered to planet surfaces. Key Words: Carbon isotopes-Prebiotic evolution-Interstellar molecules-Comets-Meteorites. Astrobiology 16, 997-1012.

Ionization impact on molecular clouds and star formation. Numerical simulations and observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tremblin, P.

2012-11-01

At all the scales of Astrophysics, the impact of the ionization from massive stars is a crucial issue. At the galactic scale, the ionization can regulate star formation by supporting molecular clouds against gravitational collapse and at the stellar scale, indications point toward a possible birth place of the Solar System close to massive stars. At the molecular cloud scale, it is clear that the hot ionized gas compresses the surrounding cold gas, leading to the formation of pillars, globules, and shells of dense gas in which some young stellar objects are observed. What are the formation mechanisms of these structures? Are the formation of these young stellar objects triggered or would have they formed anyway? Do massive stars have an impact on the distribution of the surrounding gas? Do they have an impact on the mass distribution of stars (the initial mass function, IMF)? This thesis aims at shedding some light on these questions, by focusing especially on the formation of the structures between the cold and the ionized gas. We present the state of the art of the theoretical and observational works on ionized regions (H ii regions) and we introduce the numerical tools that have been developed to model the ionization in the hydrodynamic simulations with turbulence performed with the HERACLES code. Thanks to the simulations, we present a new model for the formation of pillars based on the curvature and collapse of the dense shell on itself and a new model for the formations of cometary globules based on the turbulence of the cold gas. Several diagnostics have been developed to test these new models in the observations. If pillars are formed by the collapse of the dense shell on itself, the velocity spectrum of a nascent pillar presents a large spectra with a red-shifted and a blue-shifted components that are caused by the foreground and background parts of the shell that collapse along the line of sight. If cometary globules emerge because of the turbulence of the molecular cloud, the velocity spectrum of these globules is shifted at different velocities than the velocity of the shell, pillars and clumps that follow the global expansion of the H ii region. An other diagnostic is the impact of the compression on the probability density function (PDF) of the cold gas. The distribution is double peaked when the turbulent ram pressure is low compared to the ionized-gas pressure. This is the signature of the compression caused by the expansion of the ionized bubble. When the turbulence is high, the two peaks merge and the compression can still be identified although the signature is less clear. We have used Herschel column density maps and molecular-line data to characterize the density and velocity structures of the interface between the ionized and the cold gas in several regions: RCW 120, RCW 36, Cygnus X, the Rosette and Eagle Nebulae. In addition to the diagnostics derived from the simulations, analytical predictions of the shell and pillar parameters was tested and confronted to the observations. In all the regions, we have seen that there is a good agreement with the analytical models and with the simulation diagnostics. The velocity structure of a nascent pillar in the Rosette Nebula suggests that it has been formed by the collapse of the shell on itself and the bulk velocity of cometary globules in Cygnus X and in the Rosette Nebula tends to confirm their turbulent origin. The compression caused by the ionized gas can be seen on the PDF of the cold gas in most of the regions studied. This result is important for the link between the IMF and the global prop! erties of the cloud. If the IMF can be derived from the PDF of a cloud, the impact of the massive stars on the PDF has to be taken in account. Furthermore, we present dedicated simulations of RCW 36 that suggest that the dense clumps at the edge of the ionized gas are not pre-existing, it is likely that their formation was triggered by the compression caused by the ionization. Therefore the ionization from the massive stars is a key process that has to be taken into account for the understanding of the IMF. We also present in appendix other works that have been done in parallel of this thesis: the charge exchange in colliding planetary and stellar winds in collaboration with Prof. E. Chiang during the ISIMA summer school 2011 in Beijing; and the sub-millimeter site testing at the Concordia station in Antarctica with the CAMISTIC team.

Magnetic Fields Versus Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hensley, Kerry

2018-04-01

Deep within giant molecular clouds, hidden by dense gas and dust, stars form. Unprecedented data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveal the intricate magnetic structureswoven throughout one of the most massive star-forming regions in the Milky Way.How Stars Are BornThe Horsehead Nebulasdense column of gas and dust is opaque to visible light, but this infrared image reveals the young stars hidden in the dust. [NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team]Simple theory dictates that when a dense clump of molecular gas becomes massive enough that its self-gravity overwhelms the thermal pressure of the cloud, the gas collapses and forms a star. In reality, however, star formation is more complicated than a simple give and take between gravity and pressure. Thedusty molecular gas in stellar nurseries is permeated with magnetic fields, which are thought to impede the inward pull of gravity and slow the rate of star formation.How can we learn about the magnetic fields of distant objects? One way is by measuring dust polarization. An elongated dust grain will tend to align itself with its short axis parallel to the direction of the magnetic field. This systematic alignment of the dust grains along the magnetic field lines polarizes the dust grains emission perpendicular to the local magnetic field. This allows us to infer the direction of the magnetic field from the direction of polarization.Magnetic field orientations for protostars e2 and e8 derived from Submillimeter Array observations (panels a through c) and ALMA observations (panels d and e). Click to enlarge. [Adapted from Koch et al. 2018]Tracing Magnetic FieldsPatrick Koch (Academia Sinica, Taiwan) and collaborators used high-sensitivity ALMA observations of dust polarization to learn more about the magnetic field morphology of Milky Way star-forming region W51. W51 is one of the largest star-forming regions in our galaxy, home to high-mass protostars e2, e8, and North.The ALMA observations reveal polarized emission toward all three sources. By extracting the magnetic field orientations from the polarization vectors, Koch and collaborators found that the molecular cloud contains an ordered magnetic field with never-before-seen structures. Several small clumps on the perimeter of the massive star-forming cores exhibit comet-shaped magnetic field structures, which could indicate that these smaller cores are being pulled toward the more massive cores.These findings hint that the magnetic field structure can tell us about the flow of material within star-forming regions key to understanding the nature of star formation itself.Maps of sin for two of the protostars (e2 and e8) and their surroundings. [Adapted from Koch et al. 2018]Guiding Star FormationDo the magnetic fields in W51 help or hinder star formation? To explore this question,Koch and collaborators introduced the quantity sin , where is the angle between the local gravity and the local magnetic field.When the angle between gravity and the magnetic field is small (sin 0), the magnetic field has little effect on the collapse of the cloud. If gravity and the magnetic field are perpendicular (sin 1), the magnetic field can slow the infall of gas and inhibit star formation.Based on this parameter, Koch and collaborators identified narrow channels where gravity acts unimpeded by the magnetic field. These magnetic channels may funnel gas toward the dense cores and aid the star-formation process.The authors observations demonstrate just one example of the broad realm ALMAs polarimetry capabilities have opened to discovery. These and future observations of dust polarization will continue to reveal more about the delicate magnetic structure within molecular clouds, furtherilluminating the role that magnetic fields play in star formation.CitationPatrick M. Koch et al 2018 ApJ 855 39. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaa4c1

Astrophysical radiation environments of habitable worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, David Samuel

Numerous astrophysical sources of radiation affect the environment of planets orbiting within the liquid-water habitable zone of main-sequence stars. This dissertation reaches a number of conclusions about the ionizing radiation environment of the habitable zone with respect to X-rays and gamma-rays from stellar flares and background Galactic cosmic rays. Gamma-rays and X-rays incident on terrestrial-like exoplanet atmospheres can be efficiently reprocessed into diffuse UV emission that, depending on the presence of atmospheric UV absorbers, can reach the surface. Extreme solar X-ray flares over the last 4.6 Gyr could have delivered large enough radiation doses to the Martian surface to sterilize any unprotected organisms, depending on the largest energy releases possible. These flares also pose a significant hazard to manned space missions, since a large flare can occur with little or no warning during an extravehicular activity. A flare as large as the largest observed could deliver radiation doses exceeding safety limits to an astronaut protected by only a spacesuit. With respect to particle radiation, the nature of Galactic cosmic-ray modulation by astrospheres means that habitable-zone cosmic-ray fluxes change by much larger magnitudes when passing through low- densities regions of the interstellar medium. In contrast to the popular idea that passages through dense molecular clouds are required to significantly enhance Galactic cosmic-ray fluxes and affect planets' electrical circuits, background mutation rates, and climates, we find that densities of only 0.1-10 cm -3 , the densities of most interstellar clouds, are sufficient to bring fluxes close to the full, interstellar level. Finally, passages through dense molecular clouds are necessary to shrink astrospheres to within the habitable zone, but such events produce even higher interstellar hydrogen and dust accretion rates than have been estimated because of the combination of enhanced charge-exchange rates between stellar-wind ions and interstellar neutrals and the growing importance of the central star's gravity on particle trajectories as the astrosphere shrinks.

Ultrafast Outflows: Galaxy-scale Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wagner, A. Y.; Umemura, M.; Bicknell, G. V.

2013-01-01

We show, using global three-dimensional grid-based hydrodynamical simulations, that ultrafast outflows (UFOs) from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) result in considerable feedback of energy and momentum into the interstellar medium (ISM) of the host galaxy. The AGN wind interacts strongly with the inhomogeneous, two-phase ISM consisting of dense clouds embedded in a tenuous, hot, hydrostatic medium. The outflow floods through the intercloud channels, sweeps up the hot ISM, and ablates and disperses the dense clouds. The momentum of the UFO is primarily transferred to the dense clouds via the ram pressure in the channel flow, and the wind-blown bubble evolves in the energy-driven regime. Any dependence on UFO opening angle disappears after the first interaction with obstructing clouds. On kpc scales, therefore, feedback by UFOs operates similarly to feedback by relativistic AGN jets. Negative feedback is significantly stronger if clouds are distributed spherically rather than in a disk. In the latter case, the turbulent backflow of the wind drives mass inflow toward the central black hole. Considering the common occurrence of UFOs in AGNs, they are likely to be important in the cosmological feedback cycles of galaxy formation.

ULTRAFAST OUTFLOWS: GALAXY-SCALE ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS FEEDBACK

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wagner, A. Y.; Umemura, M.; Bicknell, G. V., E-mail: ayw@ccs.tsukuba.ac.jp

We show, using global three-dimensional grid-based hydrodynamical simulations, that ultrafast outflows (UFOs) from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) result in considerable feedback of energy and momentum into the interstellar medium (ISM) of the host galaxy. The AGN wind interacts strongly with the inhomogeneous, two-phase ISM consisting of dense clouds embedded in a tenuous, hot, hydrostatic medium. The outflow floods through the intercloud channels, sweeps up the hot ISM, and ablates and disperses the dense clouds. The momentum of the UFO is primarily transferred to the dense clouds via the ram pressure in the channel flow, and the wind-blown bubble evolves inmore » the energy-driven regime. Any dependence on UFO opening angle disappears after the first interaction with obstructing clouds. On kpc scales, therefore, feedback by UFOs operates similarly to feedback by relativistic AGN jets. Negative feedback is significantly stronger if clouds are distributed spherically rather than in a disk. In the latter case, the turbulent backflow of the wind drives mass inflow toward the central black hole. Considering the common occurrence of UFOs in AGNs, they are likely to be important in the cosmological feedback cycles of galaxy formation.« less

Prospects for Studying Interstellar Magnetic Fields with a Far-Infrared Polarimeter for SAFIR

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dowell, C. Darren; Chuss, D. T.; Dotson, J. L.

2008-01-01

Polarimetry at mid-infrared through millimeter wavelengths using airborne and ground-based telescopes has revealed magnetic structures in dense molecular clouds in the interstellar medium, primarily in regions of star formation. Furthermore, spectropolarimetry has offered clues about the composition of the dust grains and the mechanism by which they are aligned with respect to the local magnetic field. The sensitivity of the observations to date has been limited by the emission from the atmosphere and warm telescopes. A factor of 1000 in sensitivity can be gained by using instead a cold space telescope. With 5 arcminute resolution, Planck will make the first submillimeter polarization survey of the full Galaxy early in the next decade. We discuss the science case for and basic design of a far-infrared polarimeter on the SAFIR space telescope, which offers resolution in the few arcsecond range and wavelength selection of cold and warm dust components. Key science themes include the formation and evolution of molecular clouds in nearby spiral galaxies, the magnetic structure of the Galactic center, and interstellar turbulence.

Infrared Spectroscopy of Black Hole Candidates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Colgan, Sean W.; Cotera, A. S.; Maloney, P. R.; Hollenbach, D. J.; DeVincenzi, Donald L. (Technical Monitor)

2000-01-01

ISO LWS and SWS observations of the approx. solar mass black hole candidates 1E1740.7-2942 and GRS1758-258 are presented. For 1E1740.7-2942, it has been suggested that the luminosity is provided in whole or part by Bondi-Hoyle accretion from a surrounding black hole (Bally & Leventhal 1991, Nat, 353,234). Maloney et al. (1997, ApJ482, L41) have predicted that detectable far-infrared line emission from [0I] (63 microns), [CII] (158 microns), [SiII] (35 microns) and other lines will arise from black holes which are embedded in molecular clouds. No strong line emission associated with either 1E1740.7-2942 or GRS1758-258 was detected, implying either that 1) these sources are not embedded in dense molecular clouds, or 2) that their average X-ray luminosity over the past 100 years is significantly lower than its current value. The measured upper limits to the line fluxes are compared with the models of Maloney et al.to constrain the properties of the ISM in the vicinity of these X-ray sources.

Gas-phase chemistry in dense interstellar clouds including grain surface molecular depletion and desorption

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bergin, E. A.; Langer, W. D.; Goldsmith, P. F.

1995-01-01

We present time-dependent models of the chemical evolution of molecular clouds which include depletion of atoms and molecules onto grain surfaces and desorption, as well as gas-phase interactions. We have included three mechanisms to remove species from the grain mantles: thermal evaporation, cosmic-ray-induced heating, and photodesorption. A wide range of parameter space has been explored to examine the abundance of species present both on the grain mantles and in the gas phase as a function of both position in the cloud (visual extinction) and of evolutionary state (time). The dominant mechanism that removes molecules from the grain mantles is cosmic-ray desorption. At times greater than the depletion timescale, the abundances of some simple species agree with abundances observed in the cold dark cloud TMC-1. Even though cosmic-ray desorption preserves the gas-phase chemistry at late times, molecules do show significant depletions from the gas phase. Examination of the dependence of depletion as a function of density shows that when the density increases from 10(exp 3)/cc to 10(exp 5)/cc several species including HCO(+), HCN, and CN show gas-phase abundance reductions of over an order of magnitude. The CO: H2O ratio in the grain mantles for our standard model is on the order of 10:1, in reasonable agreement with observations of nonpolar CO ice features in rho Ophiuchus and Serpens. We have also examined the interdependence of CO depletion with the space density of molecular hydrogen and binding energy to the grain surface. We find that the observed depletion of CO in Taurus in inconsistent with CO bonding in an H2O rich mantle, in agreement with observations. We suggest that if interstellar grains consist of an outer layer of CO ice, then the binding energies for many species to the grain mantle may be lower than commonly used, and a significant portion of molecular material may be maintained in the gas phase.

Star Formation: Answering Fundamental Questions During the Spitzer Warm Mission Phase

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strom, Steve; Allen, Lori; Carpenter, John; Hartmann, Lee; Megeath, S. Thomas; Rebull, Luisa; Stauffer, John R.; Liu, Michael

2007-10-01

Through existing studies of star-forming regions, Spitzer has created rich databases which have already profoundly influenced our ability to understand the star and planet formation process on micro and macro scales. However, it is essential to note that Spitzer observations to date have focused largely on deep observations of regions of recent star formation associated directly with well-known molecular clouds located within 500 pc. What has not been done is to explore to sufficient depth or breadth a representative sample of the much larger regions surrounding the more massive of these molecular clouds. Also, while there have been targeted studies of specific distant star forming regions, in general, there has been little attention devoted to mapping and characterizing the stellar populations and star-forming histories of the surrounding giant molecular clouds (GMCs). As a result, we have yet to develop an understanding of the major physical processes that control star formation on the scale or spiral arms. Doing so will allow much better comparison of star-formation in our galaxy to the star-forming complexes that dominate the spiral arms of external galaxies. The power of Spitzer in the Warm Mission for studies of star formation is its ability to carry out large-scale surveys unbiased by prior knowledge of ongoing star formation or the presence of molecular clouds. The Spitzer Warm Mission will provide two uniquely powerful capabilities that promise equally profound advances : high sensitivity and efficient coverage of many hundreds of square degrees, and angular resolution sufficient to resolve dense groups and clusters of YSOs and to identify contaminating background galaxies whose colors mimic those of young stars. In this contribution, we describe two major programs: a survey of the outer regions of selected nearby OB associations, and a study of distant GMCs and star formation on the scale of a spiral arm.

Radiolysis of astrophysical ices by heavy ion irradiation: Destruction cross section measurement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Barros, A. L. F.; Boduch, P.; Domaracka, A.; Rothard, H.; da Silveira, E. F.

2012-08-01

Many solar system objects, such as planets and their satellites, dust grains in rings, and comets, are known to either be made of ices or to have icy surfaces. These ices are exposed to ionizing radiation including keV, MeV and GeV ions from solar wind or cosmic rays. Moreover, icy dust grains are present in interstellar space and, in particular, in dense molecular clouds. Radiation effects include radiolysis (the destruction of molecules leading to formation of radicals), the formation of new molecules following radiolysis, the desorption or sputtering of atoms or molecules from the surface, compaction of porous ices, and phase changes. This review discusses the application of infrared spectroscopy FTIR to study the evolution of the chemical composition of ices containing the most abundant molecular species found in the solar system and interstellar medium, such as H2O, CO, CO2 and hydrocarbons. We focus on the evolution of chemical composition with ion fluence in order to deduce the corresponding destruction and formation cross sections. Although initial approach focused on product identification, it became increasingly necessary to work toward a comprehensive understanding of ice chemistry. The abundances of these molecules in different phases of ice mantles provide important clues to the chemical processes in dense interstellar clouds, and therefore it is of importance to accurately measure the quantities such as dissociation and formation cross sections of the infrared features of these molecules. We also are able to obtain the scaling of these cross sections with deposited energy.

On the Appearance of Thresholds in the Dynamical Model of Star Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Elmegreen, Bruce G.

2018-02-01

The Kennicutt–Schmidt (KS) relationship between the surface density of the star formation rate (SFR) and the gas surface density has three distinct power laws that may result from one model in which gas collapses at a fixed fraction of the dynamical rate. The power-law slope is 1 when the observed gas has a characteristic density for detection, 1.5 for total gas when the thickness is about constant as in the main disks of galaxies, and 2 for total gas when the thickness is regulated by self-gravity and the velocity dispersion is about constant, as in the outer parts of spirals, dwarf irregulars, and giant molecular clouds. The observed scaling of the star formation efficiency (SFR per unit CO) with the dense gas fraction (HCN/CO) is derived from the KS relationship when one tracer (HCN) is on the linear part and the other (CO) is on the 1.5 part. Observations of a threshold density or column density with a constant SFR per unit gas mass above the threshold are proposed to be selection effects, as are observations of star formation in only the dense parts of clouds. The model allows a derivation of all three KS relations using the probability distribution function of density with no thresholds for star formation. Failed galaxies and systems with sub-KS SFRs are predicted to have gas that is dominated by an equilibrium warm phase where the thermal Jeans length exceeds the Toomre length. A squared relation is predicted for molecular gas-dominated young galaxies.

Chemistry in dynamically evolving clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tarafdar, S. P.; Prasad, S. S.; Huntress, W. T., Jr.; Villere, K. R.; Black, D. C.

1985-01-01

A unified model of chemical and dynamical evolution of isolated, initially diffuse and quiescent interstellar clouds is presented. The model uses a semiempirically derived dependence of the observed cloud temperatures on the visual extinction and density. Even low-mass, low-density, diffuse clouds can collapse in this model, because the inward pressure gradient force assists gravitational contraction. In contrast, previous isothermal collapse models required the low-mass diffuse clouds to be unrealistically cold before gravitational contraction could start. Theoretically predicted dependences of the column densities of various atoms and molecules, such as C and CO, on visual extinction in diffuse clouds are in accord with observations. Similarly, the predicted dependences of the fractional abundances of various chemical species (e.g., CO, H2CO, HCN, HCO(+)) on the total hydrogen density in the core of the dense clouds also agree with observations reported to date in the literature. Compared with previous models of interstellar chemistry, the present model has the potential to explain the wide spectrum of chemical and physical properties of both diffuse and dense clouds with a common formalism employing only a few simple initial conditions.

Chemical transitions for interstellar C2 and CN in cloud envelopes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Federman, S. R.; Strom, C. J.; Lambert, D. L.; Cardelli, Jason A.; Smith, V. V.; Joseph, C. L.

1994-01-01

Observations were made of absorption from CH, C2, and CN toward moderately reddened stars in Sco, OB2, Ceo OB3, and Taurus/Auriga. For these directions, most of the reddening is associated with a single cloud complex, for example, the rho Ophiuchus molecular cloud, and as a result, the observations probe moderately dense material. When combined with avaliable data for nearby directions, the survey provides the basis for a comprehensive analysis of the chemistry for these species. The chemical transitions affecting C2 and CN in cloud envelopes were analyzed. The depth into a cloud at which a transition takes place was characterized by tau(sub uv), the grain optical depth at 1000 A. One transition at tau(sub uv) approx. = 2, which arises from, the conversion of C(+) into CO, affects the chemistries for both molecules because of the key role this ion plays. A second one involving production terms in the CN chemistry occurs at tau(sub uv) of approx. = 3; neutral reactions which C2 and CH is more important at larger values for tau(sub uv). The transition from photodissociation to chemical destruction takes place at tau(sub uv) approx. = 4.5 for C2 and CN. The observational data for stars in Sco OB2, Cep OB3, and Taurus/Auriga were studied with chemical rate equations containing the most important production and destruction mechanisms. Because the sample of stars in Sco OB2 includes sight lines with A(sub v) ranging from 1-4 mag, sight lines dominated by photochemistry could be analyzed separately from those controlled by gas-phase destruction. The analysis yielded values for two poorly known rate constants for reactions involved in the production of CN; the reactions are C2 + N yields CN + C and C(+) + NH yields all products. The other directions were analyzed with the inferred values. The predicted column densities for C2 and CN agree with the observed values to better than 50%, and in most instances 20%. When combining the estimates for density and temperature derived from chemical modeling and molecular excitation for a specific cloud, such as the rho Ophiuchus molecular cloud, the portion of the cloud envelope probed by C2 and CN absorption was found to be in pressure equilibrium.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF MASS SURFACE DENSITIES IN A HIGH-MASS PROTOCLUSTER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lim, Wanggi; Tan, Jonathan C.; Ma, Bo

2016-09-20

We study the probability distribution function (PDF) of mass surface densities, Σ, of infrared dark cloud (IRDC) G028.37+00.07 and its surrounding giant molecular cloud. This PDF constrains the physical processes, such as turbulence, magnetic fields, and self-gravity, that are expected to be controlling cloud structure and star formation activity. The chosen IRDC is of particular interest since it has almost 100,000 solar masses within a radius of 8 pc, making it one of the most massive, dense molecular structures known and is thus a potential site for the formation of a “super star cluster.” We study Σ in two ways.more » First, we use a combination of NIR and MIR extinction maps that are able to probe the bulk of the cloud structure up to Σ ∼ 1 g cm{sup −2}( A {sub V}≃ 200 mag). Second, we study the FIR and submillimeter dust continuum emission from the cloud utilizing Herschel -PACS and SPIRE images and paying careful attention to the effects of foreground and background contamination. We find that the PDFs from both methods, applied over a ∼20′(30 pc)-sized region that contains ≃1.5 × 10{sup 5} M {sub ⊙} and enclosing a minimum closed contour with Σ ≃ 0.013 g cm{sup −2} ( A {sub V} ≃ 3 mag), shows a lognormal shape with the peak measured at Σ ≃ 0.021 g cm{sup −2} ( A {sub V}≃ 4.7 mag). There is tentative evidence for the presence of a high-Σ power-law tail that contains from ∼3% to 8% of the mass of the cloud material. We discuss the implications of these results for the physical processes occurring in this cloud.« less

Are CO Observations of Interstellar Clouds Tracing the H2?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Federrath, Christoph; Glover, S. C. O.; Klessen, R. S.; Mac Low, M.

2010-01-01

Interstellar clouds are commonly observed through the emission of rotational transitions from carbon monoxide (CO). However, the abundance ratio of CO to molecular hydrogen (H2), which is the most abundant molecule in molecular clouds is only about 10-4. This raises the important question of whether the observed CO emission is actually tracing the bulk of the gas in these clouds, and whether it can be used to derive quantities like the total mass of the cloud, the gas density distribution function, the fractal dimension, and the velocity dispersion--size relation. To evaluate the usability and accuracy of CO as a tracer for H2 gas, we generate synthetic observations of hydrodynamical models that include a detailed chemical network to follow the formation and photo-dissociation of H2 and CO. These three-dimensional models of turbulent interstellar cloud formation self-consistently follow the coupled thermal, dynamical and chemical evolution of 32 species, with a particular focus on H2 and CO (Glover et al. 2009). We find that CO primarily traces the dense gas in the clouds, however, with a significant scatter due to turbulent mixing and self-shielding of H2 and CO. The H2 probability distribution function (PDF) is well-described by a log-normal distribution. In contrast, the CO column density PDF has a strongly non-Gaussian low-density wing, not at all consistent with a log-normal distribution. Centroid velocity statistics show that CO is more intermittent than H2, leading to an overestimate of the velocity scaling exponent in the velocity dispersion--size relation. With our systematic comparison of H2 and CO data from the numerical models, we hope to provide a statistical formula to correct for the bias of CO observations. CF acknowledges financial support from a Kade Fellowship of the American Museum of Natural History.

ORIGINS OF SCATTER IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HCN 1-0 AND DENSE GAS MASS IN THE GALACTIC CENTER

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mills, Elisabeth A. C.; Battersby, Cara, E-mail: elisabeth.mills@sjsu.edu

We investigate the correlation of HCN 1-0 with gas mass in the central 300 pc of the Galaxy. We find that on the ∼10 pc size scale of individual cloud cores, HCN 1-0 is well correlated with dense gas mass when plotted as a log–log relationship. There is ∼0.75 dex of scatter in this relationship from clouds like Sgr B2, which has an integrated HCN 1-0 intensity of a cloud less than half its mass, and others that have HCN 1-0 enhanced by a factor of 2–3 relative to clouds of comparable mass. We identify the two primary sources ofmore » scatter to be self-absorption and variations in HCN abundance. We also find that the extended HCN 1-0 emission is more intense per unit mass than in individual cloud cores. In fact the majority (80%) of HCN 1-0 emission comes from extended gas with column densities below 7 × 10{sup 22} cm{sup −2}, accounting for 68% of the total mass. We find variations in the brightness of HCN 1-0 would only yield a ∼10% error in the dense gas mass inferred from this line in the Galactic center. However, the observed order of magnitude HCN abundance variations, and the systematic nature of these variations, warn of potential biases in the use of HCN as dense gas mass tracer in more extreme environments such as an active galactic nucleus and shock-dominated regions. We also investigate other 3 mm tracers, finding that HNCO is better correlated with mass than HCN, and might be a better tracer of cloud mass in this environment.« less

SHOCKED AND SCORCHED: THE TAIL OF A TADPOLE IN AN INTERSTELLAR POND

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sahai, R.; Morris, M. R.; Claussen, M. J., E-mail: raghvendra.sahai@jpl.nasa.gov

2012-05-20

We report multi-wavelength observations of the far-infrared source IRAS 20324+4057, including high-resolution optical imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope, and ground-based near-infrared, millimeter-wave and radio observations. These data show an extended, limb-brightened, tadpole-shaped nebula with a bright, compact, cometary nebula located inside the tadpole head. Our molecular line observations indicate that the Tadpole is predominantly molecular with a total gas mass exceeding 3.7 M{sub Sun }. Our radio continuum imaging and archival Spitzer IRAC images show the presence of additional tadpole-shaped objects in the vicinity of IRAS 20324+4057 that share a common east-west head-tail orientation: we propose that these structuresmore » are small, dense molecular cores that originated in the Cygnus cloud and are now being (1) photoevaporated by the ultraviolet radiation field of the Cyg OB2 No. 8 cluster located to the northwest; and (2) shaped by ram pressure of a distant wind source or sources located to the west, blowing ablated and photoevaporated material from their heads eastward. The ripples in the tail of the Tadpole are interpreted in terms of instabilities at the interface between the ambient wind and the dense medium of the former.« less

Gravitational fragmentation caught in the act: the filamentary Musca molecular cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kainulainen, J.; Hacar, A.; Alves, J.; Beuther, H.; Bouy, H.; Tafalla, M.

2016-02-01

Context. Filamentary structures are common in molecular clouds. Explaining how they fragment to dense cores is a missing step in understanding their role in star formation. Aims: We perform a case study of whether low-mass filaments are close to hydrostatic prior to their fragmentation, and whether their fragmentation agrees with gravitational fragmentation models. To accomplish this, we study the ~6.5 pc long Musca molecular cloud, which is an ideal candidate for a filament at an early stage of fragmentation. Methods: We employ dust extinction mapping, in conjunction with near-infrared JHKS-band data from the CTIO/NEWFIRM instrument, and 870 μm dust continuum emission data from the APEX/LABOCA instrument to estimate column densities in Musca. We use the data to identify fragments from the cloud and to determine the radial density distribution of its filamentary part. We compare the cloud's morphology with 13CO and C18O line emission observed with the APEX/SHeFI instrument. Results: The Musca cloud is pronouncedly fragmented at its ends, but harbors a remarkably well-defined, ~1.6 pc long filament in its center region. The line mass of the filament is 21-31 M⊙ pc-1 and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) 0.07 pc. The radial profile of the filament can be fitted with a Plummer profile, which has the power-index of 2.6 ± 11% and is flatter than that of an infinite hydrostatic filament. The profile can also be fitted with a hydrostatic cylinder truncated by external pressure. These models imply a central density of ~5-10 × 104 cm-3. The fragments in the cloud have a mean separation of ~0.4 pc, in agreement with gravitational fragmentation. These properties, together with the subsonic and velocity-coherent nature of the cloud, suggest a scenario in which an initially hydrostatic cloud is currently gravitationally fragmenting. The fragmentation started a few tenths of a Myr ago from the ends of the cloud, leaving its center still relatively nonfragmented, possibly because of gravitational focusing in a finite geometry. This publication is based on data acquired with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), which is a collaboration between the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, the European Southern Observatory, and the Onsala Space Observatory (Max-Planck programme ID M-085.F-0027).The maps as FITS files are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/586/A27

Shocked and Scorched - Free-Floating Evaporating Gas Globules and Star Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sahai, Raghvendra; Morris, Mark R.; Claussen, Mark J.

2014-07-01

Massive stars have a strong feedback effect on their environment, via their winds, UV radiation, and ultimately, supernova blast waves, all of which can alter the likelihood for the formation of stars in nearby clouds and limit the accretion process of nearby protostars. Free-floating Evaporating Gaseous Globules, or frEGGs, are a newly recognized class of stellar nurseries embedded within the giant HII regions found in massive star-formation region (MSFRs). We recently discovered the prototype frEGG in the Cygnus MSFR with HST. Further investigation using the Spitzer and Herschel archives have revealed a much larger number (>50) in Cygnus and other MSFRs. Our molecular-line observations of these show the presence of dense clouds with total masses of cool molecular gas exceeding 0.5 to a few Msun associated with these objects, thereby disproving the initial hypothesis based on their morphology that these have an origin similar to the proplyds (cometary-shaped photoevaporating protoplanetary disks) found in Orion. We report the results of our molecular-line studies and detailed high-resolution optical (with HST) or near-IR (with AO at the Keck Observatory) imaging of a few frEGGs in Cygnus, Carina and the W5 MSFRs. The images show the presence of young stars with associated outflow cavities and/or jets in the heads of the tadpole-shaped frEGGs. These results support our hypothesis that frEGGs are density concentrations originating in giant molecular clouds, that, when subject to the compression by the strong winds and ionization from massive stars in these MSFRs, become active star-forming cores. In summary, by virtue of their distinct, isolated morphologies, frEGGs offer us a clean probe of triggered star formation on small scales in the vicinity of massive stars.

The chemistry in circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars: Following the origin of the elements to the origin of life

PubMed Central

Ziurys, Lucy M.

2006-01-01

Mass loss from evolved stars results in the formation of unusual chemical laboratories: circumstellar envelopes. Such envelopes are found around carbon- and oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch stars and red supergiants. As the gaseous material of the envelope flows from the star, the resulting temperature and density gradients create a complex chemical environment involving hot, thermodynamically controlled synthesis, molecule “freeze-out,” shock-initiated reactions, and photochemistry governed by radical mechanisms. In the circumstellar envelope of the carbon-rich star IRC+10216, >50 different chemical compounds have been identified, including such exotic species as C8H, C3S, SiC3, and AlNC. The chemistry here is dominated by molecules containing long carbon chains, silicon, and metals such as magnesium, sodium, and aluminum, which makes it quite distinct from that found in molecular clouds. The molecular composition of the oxygen-rich counterparts is not nearly as well explored, although recent studies of VY Canis Majoris have resulted in the identification of HCO+, SO2, and even NaCl in this object, suggesting chemical complexity here as well. As these envelopes evolve into planetary nebulae with a hot, exposed central star, synthesis of molecular ions becomes important, as indicated by studies of NGC 7027. Numerous species such as HCO+, HCN, and CCH are found in old planetary nebulae such as the Helix. This “survivor” molecular material may be linked to the variety of compounds found recently in diffuse clouds. Organic molecules in dense interstellar clouds may ultimately be traced back to carbon-rich fragments originally formed in circumstellar shells. PMID:16894164

Interstellar Chemistry Special Feature: The chemistry in circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars: Following the origin of the elements to the origin of life

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ziurys, Lucy M.

2006-08-01

Mass loss from evolved stars results in the formation of unusual chemical laboratories: circumstellar envelopes. Such envelopes are found around carbon- and oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch stars and red supergiants. As the gaseous material of the envelope flows from the star, the resulting temperature and density gradients create a complex chemical environment involving hot, thermodynamically controlled synthesis, molecule "freeze-out," shock-initiated reactions, and photochemistry governed by radical mechanisms. In the circumstellar envelope of the carbon-rich star IRC+10216, >50 different chemical compounds have been identified, including such exotic species as C8H, C3S, SiC3, and AlNC. The chemistry here is dominated by molecules containing long carbon chains, silicon, and metals such as magnesium, sodium, and aluminum, which makes it quite distinct from that found in molecular clouds. The molecular composition of the oxygen-rich counterparts is not nearly as well explored, although recent studies of VY Canis Majoris have resulted in the identification of HCO+, SO2, and even NaCl in this object, suggesting chemical complexity here as well. As these envelopes evolve into planetary nebulae with a hot, exposed central star, synthesis of molecular ions becomes important, as indicated by studies of NGC 7027. Numerous species such as HCO+, HCN, and CCH are found in old planetary nebulae such as the Helix. This "survivor" molecular material may be linked to the variety of compounds found recently in diffuse clouds. Organic molecules in dense interstellar clouds may ultimately be traced back to carbon-rich fragments originally formed in circumstellar shells.

Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+): Inner Galaxy Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yorke, Harold; Langer, William; Velusamy, T.; Pineda, J. L.; Goldsmith, P. F.; Li, D.

To understand the lifecycle of the interstellar gas and star formation we need detailed information about the diffuse atomic and diffuse molecular gas cloud properties. The ionized carbon [CII] 1.9 THz fine structure line is an important tracer of the atomic gas in the diffuse regions and the interface regions of atomic gas to molecular clouds. Furthermore, C+ is a major ISM coolant and among the Galaxy's strongest far-IR emission lines, and thus controls the thermal conditions throughout large parts of the Galaxy. Until now our knowledge of interstellar gas has been limited to the diffuse atomic phase traced by HI and to the dense molecular H2 phase traced by CO. However, we are missing an important phase of the ISM, called "dark gas" in which there is no or little, HI, and mostly molecular hydrogen but with insufficient shielding of UV to allow CO to form. C+ emission and absorption lines at 1.9 THz have the potential to trace such cloud transitions and evolution. Galactic Observations of the Terahertz C+ Line (GOT C+) is a Herschel Space Observatory Open Time Key Program to study the diffuse interstellar medium by sampling [CII] 1.9 THz line emission throughout the Galactic disk. We discuss the broader perspective of this survey and the first results of GOT C+ obtained during the Science Demonstration Phase (SDP) and Priority Science Phase (PSP) of HIFI, which focus on approximately 100 lines of sight in the inner galaxy. These observations are being carried out with the Herschel Space Observatory, which is an ESA cornerstone mission, with contributions from NASA. This research was conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. JLP is a Caltech-JPL Postdoctoral Associate.

ALMA Images of the Orion Hot Core at 349 GHz

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wright, M. C. H.; Plambeck, R. L., E-mail: wright@astro.berkeley.edu

We present ALMA images of the dust and molecular line emission in the Orion Hot Core at 349 GHz. At 0.″2 angular resolution the images reveal multiple clumps in an arc ∼1″ east of Orion Source I, the protostar at the center of the Kleinmann–Low Nebula, and another chain of peaks from IRc7 toward the southwest. The molecular line images show narrow filamentary structures at velocities >10 km s{sup −1} away from the heavily resolved ambient cloud velocity ∼5 km s{sup −1}. Many of these filaments trace the SiO outflow from Source I, and lie along the edges of themore » dust emission. Molecular line emission at excitation temperatures 300–2000 K, and velocities >10 km s{sup −1} from the ambient cloud, suggest that the Hot Core may be heated in shocks by the outflow from Source I or from the Becklin–Neugebauer (BN)/SrcI explosion. The spectral line observations also reveal a remarkable molecular ring, ∼2″ south of SrcI, with a diameter ∼600 au. The ring is seen in high-excitation transitions of HC{sub 3}N, HCN v 2 = 1, and SO{sub 2}. An impact of ejecta from the BN/SrcI explosion with a dense dust clump could result in the observed ring of shocked material.« less

Studies of star formation in isolated small dark clouds - II. A southern ammonia survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bourke, T. L.; Hyland, A. R.; Robinson, G.; James, S. D.; Wright, C. M.

1995-10-01

A study of the set of small, southern molecular clouds (globules) compiled by Bourke, Hyland & Robinson has been undertaken, through radio observations of ammonia using the Parkes 64-m telescope. The aim of the study is to determine the physical characteristics of the globules, their role in the formation of low-mass stars, and the physical mechanism that triggers the star formation process, or stabilizes the globules against collapse. With this general aim in mind, the (1,1) and (2,2) inversion transitions of ammonia have been surveyed in order to determine the densities, temperatures and masses of the globules. Half of the globules have been detected in ammonia, but only 6 per cent of the detections are `strong' (T*_a>=0.35K). Comparing the globule properties with those of Benson & Myers for cores within complexes, we find that the globules are less opaque and less dense, and are less active sites of star formation. Other properties are comparable. The Vela cometary globules are detected more readily in ammonia than the more isolated globules, and are more active star formation sites. These results suggest that the dense core's environment, in particular the presence of either a large external mass or a significant stellar wind, plays an important role in initiating the star formation process.

Precombination Cloud Collapse and Baryonic Dark Matter

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hogan, Craig J.

1993-01-01

A simple spherical model of dense baryon clouds in the hot big bang 'strongly nonlinear primordial isocurvature baryon fluctuations' is reviewed and used to describe the dependence of cloud behavior on the model parameters, baryon mass, and initial over-density. Gravitational collapse of clouds before and during recombination is considered including radiation diffusion and trapping, remnant type and mass, and effects on linear large-scale fluctuation modes. Sufficiently dense clouds collapse early into black holes with a minimum mass of approx. 1 solar mass, which behave dynamically like collisionless cold dark matter. Clouds below a critical over-density, however, delay collapse until recombination, remaining until then dynamically coupled to the radiation like ordinary diffuse baryons, and possibly producing remnants of other kinds and lower mass. The mean density in either type of baryonic remnant is unconstrained by observed element abundances. However, mixed or unmixed spatial variations in abundance may survive in the diffuse baryon and produce observable departures from standard predictions.

Interstellar gas and X-rays toward the Young supernova remnant RCW 86; pursuit of the origin of the thermal and non-thermal X-ray

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sano, H.; Reynoso, E. M.; Mitsuishi, I.; Nakamura, K.; Furukawa, N.; Mruganka, K.; Fukuda, T.; Yoshiike, S.; Nishimura, A.; Ohama, A.; Torii, K.; Kuwahara, T.; Okuda, T.; Yamamoto, H.; Tachihara, K.; Fukui, Y.

2017-09-01

We have analyzed the atomic and molecular gas using the 21 cm HI and 2.6/1.3 mm CO emissions toward the young supernova remnant (SNR) RCW 86 in order to identify the interstellar medium with which the shock waves of the SNR interact. We have found an HI intensity depression in the velocity range between -46 and - 28 kms-1 toward the SNR, suggesting a cavity in the interstellar medium. The HI cavity coincides with the thermal and non-thermal emitting X-ray shell. The thermal X-rays are coincident with the edge of the HI distribution, which indicates a strong density gradient, while the non-thermal X-rays are found toward the less dense, inner part of the HI cavity. The most significant non-thermal X-rays are seen toward the southwestern part of the shell where the HI gas traces the dense and cold component. We also identified CO clouds which are likely interacting with the SNR shock waves in the same velocity range as the HI, although the CO clouds are distributed only in a limited part of the SNR shell. The most massive cloud is located in the southeastern part of the shell, showing detailed correspondence with the thermal X-rays. These CO clouds show an enhanced CO J = 2- 1 / 1- 0 intensity ratio, suggesting heating/compression by the shock front. We interpret that the shock-cloud interaction enhances non-thermal X-rays in the southwest and the thermal X-rays are emitted by the shock-heated gas of density 10-100 cm-3. Moreover, we can clearly see an HI envelope around the CO cloud, suggesting that the progenitor had a weaker wind than the massive progenitor of the core-collapse SNR RX J1713.7-3949. It seems likely that the progenitor of RCW 86 was a system consisting of a white dwarf and a low-mass star with low-velocity accretion winds.

Ab initio study of C + H3+ reactions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Talbi, D.; DeFrees, D. J.

1991-01-01

The reaction C + H3+ --> CH(+) + H2 is frequently used in models of dense interstellar cloud chemistry with the assumption that it is fast, i.e. there are no potential energy barriers inhibiting it. Ab initio molecular orbital study of the triplet CH3+ potential energy surface (triplet because the reactant carbon atom is a ground state triplet) supports this hypothesis. The reaction product is 3 pi CH+; the reaction is to exothermic even though the product is not in its electronic ground state. No path has been found on the potential energy surface for C + H3+ --> CH2(+) + H reaction.

Initial conditions of formation of starburst clusters: constraints from stellar dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banerjee, Sambaran

2017-03-01

How starburst clusters form out of molecular clouds is still an open question. In this article, I highlight some of the key constraints in this regard, that one can get from the dynamical evolutionary properties of dense stellar systems. I particularly focus on secular expansion of massive star clusters and hierarchical merging of sub-clusters, and discuss their implications vis-á-vis the observed properties of young massive clusters. The analysis suggests that residual gas expulsion is necessary for shaping these clusters as we see them today, irrespective of their monolithic or hierarchical mode of formation.

Probing the chemical environments of early star formation: A multidisciplinary approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hardegree-Ullman, Emily Elizabeth

Chemical compositions of prestellar and protostellar environments in the dense interstellar medium are best quantified using a multidisciplinary approach. For my dissertation, I completed two projects to measure molecular abundances during the earliest phases of star formation. The first project investigates gas phase CO depletion in molecular cloud cores, the progenitors of star systems, using infrared photometry and molecular line spectroscopy at radio wavelengths. Hydrogenation of CO depleted onto dust is an important first step toward building complex organic molecules. The second project constrains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) abundances toward young stellar objects (YSO). Band strengths measured from laboratory spectroscopy of pyrene/water ice mixtures were applied to estimate abundances from features attributed to PAHs in observational YSO spectra. PAHs represent a distinct but important component of interstellar organic material that is widely observed but not well quantified in star-forming regions.

Optical and microphysical parameters of dense stratocumulus clouds during mission 206 of EUCREX '94 as retrieved from measurements made with the airborne lidar LEANDRE 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pelon, J.; Flamant, C.; Trouillet, V.; Flamant, P. H.

Cloud parameters derived from measurements performed with the airborne backscatter lidar LEANDRE 1 during mission 206 of the EUCREX '94 campaign are reported. A new method has been developed to retrieve the extinction coefficient at the top of the dense stratocumulus deck under scrutiny during this mission. The largest extinction values are found to be related to the highest cloud top altitude revealing the small-scale structure of vertical motions within the stratocumulus field. Cloud optical depth (COD) is estimated from extinction retrievals, as well as cloud top and cloud base altitude using nadir and zenith lidar observations, respectively. Lidar-derived CODs are compared with CODs deduced from radiometric measurements made onboard the French research aircraft Avion de Recherche Atmosphérique et de Télédétection (ARAT/F27). A fair agreement is obtained (within 20%) for COD's larger than 10. Our results show the potential of lidar measurements to analyze cloud properties at optical depths larger than 5.

Desorption from interstellar grains

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leger, A.; Jura, M.; Omont, A.

1985-01-01

Different desorption mechanisms from interstellar grains are considered to resolve the conflict between the observed presence of gaseous species in molecular clouds and their expected depletion onto grains. The physics of desorption is discussed with particular reference to the process of grain heating and the specific heat of the dust material. Impulsive heating by X-rays and cosmic rays is addressed. Spot heating of the grains by cosmic rays and how this can lead to desorption of mantles from very large grains is considered. It is concluded that CO depletion on grains will be small in regions with A(V) less than five from the cloud surface and n(H) less than 10,000, in agreement with observations and in contrast to expectations from pure thermal equilibrium. Even in very dense and obscured regions and in the absence of internal ultraviolet sources, the classical evaporation of CO or N2 and O2-rich mantles by cosmic rays is important.

Laboratory Investigations of the Physical and Optical Properties of the Analogs of Individual Cosmic Dust Grains

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Abbas, M. M.; Tankosic, D.; Craven, P. D.; Spann, J. F.; LeClair, A.; West, E. A.

2005-01-01

Microdsub-micron size cosmic dust grains play an important role in the physical and dynamical process in the galaxy, the interstellar medium, and the interplanetary and planetary environments. The dust grains in various astrophysical environments are generally charged by a variety of mechanisms that include collisional process with electrons and ions, and photoelectric emissions with UV radiation. The photoelectric emission process is believed to be the dominant process in many astrophysical environments with nearby UV sources, such as the interstellar medium, diffuse clouds, the outer regions of the dense molecular clouds, interplanetary medium, dust in planetary environments and rings, cometary tails, etc. Also, the processes and mechanisms involved in the rotation and alignment of interstellar dust grains are of great interest in view of the polarization of observed starlight as a probe for evaluation of the galactic magnetic field.

Globules and pillars in Cygnus X. I. Herschel far-infrared imaging of the Cygnus OB2 environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schneider, N.; Bontemps, S.; Motte, F.; Blazere, A.; André, Ph.; Anderson, L. D.; Arzoumanian, D.; Comerón, F.; Didelon, P.; Di Francesco, J.; Duarte-Cabral, A.; Guarcello, M. G.; Hennemann, M.; Hill, T.; Könyves, V.; Marston, A.; Minier, V.; Rygl, K. L. J.; Röllig, M.; Roy, A.; Spinoglio, L.; Tremblin, P.; White, G. J.; Wright, N. J.

2016-06-01

The radiative feedback of massive stars on molecular clouds creates pillars, globules and other features at the interface between the H II region and molecular cloud. Optical and near-infrared observations from the ground as well as with the Hubble or Spitzer satellites have revealed numerous examples of such cloud structures. We present here Herschel far-infrared observations between 70 μm and 500 μm of the immediate environment of the rich Cygnus OB2 association, performed within the Herschel imaging survey of OB Young Stellar objects (HOBYS) program. All of the observed irradiated structures were detected based on their appearance at 70 μm, and have been classified as pillars, globules, evaporating gasous globules (EGGs), proplyd-like objects, and condensations. From the 70 μm and 160 μm flux maps, we derive the local far-ultraviolet (FUV) field on the photon dominated surfaces. In parallel, we use a census of the O-stars to estimate the overall FUV-field, that is 103-104 G0 (Habing field) close to the central OB cluster (within 10 pc) and decreases down to a few tens G0, in a distance of 50 pc. From a spectral energy distribution (SED) fit to the four longest Herschel wavelengths, we determine column density and temperature maps and derive masses, volume densities and surface densities for these structures. We find that the morphological classification corresponds to distinct physical properties. Pillars and globules are massive (~500 M⊙) and large (equivalent radius r ~ 0.6 pc) structures, corresponding to what is defined as "clumps" for molecular clouds. EGGs and proplyd-likeobjects are smaller (r ~ 0.1 and 0.2 pc) and less massive (~10 and ~30 M⊙). Cloud condensations are small (~0.1 pc), have an average mass of 35 M⊙, are dense (~6 × 104 cm-3), and can thus be described as molecular cloud "cores". All pillars and globules are oriented toward the Cyg OB2 association center and have the longest estimated photoevaporation lifetimes, a few million years, while all other features should survive less than a million years. These lifetimes are consistent with that found in simulations of turbulent, UV-illuminated clouds. We propose a tentative evolutionary scheme in which pillars can evolve into globules, which in turn then evolve into EGGs, condensations and proplyd-like objects. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Simulations of Early Structure Formation: Primordial Gas Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshida, Naoki; Abel, Tom; Hernquist, Lars; Sugiyama, Naoshi

2003-08-01

We use cosmological simulations to study the origin of primordial star-forming clouds in a ΛCDM universe, by following the formation of dark matter halos and the cooling of gas within them. To model the physics of chemically pristine gas, we employ a nonequilibrium treatment of the chemistry of nine species (e-, H, H+, He, He+, He++, H2, H+2, H-) and include cooling by molecular hydrogen. By considering cosmological volumes, we are able to study the statistical properties of primordial halos, and the high resolution of our simulations enables us to examine these objects in detail. In particular, we explore the hierarchical growth of bound structures forming at redshifts z~25-30 with total masses in the range ~105-106Msolar. We find that when the amount of molecular hydrogen in these objects reaches a critical level, cooling by rotational line emission is efficient, and dense clumps of cold gas form. We identify these ``gas clouds'' as sites for primordial star formation. In our simulations, the threshold for gas cloud formation by molecular cooling corresponds to a critical halo mass of ~5×105h-1Msolar, in agreement with earlier estimates, but with a weak dependence on redshift in the range z>16. The complex interplay between the gravitational formation of dark halos and the thermodynamic and chemical evolution of the gas clouds compromises analytic estimates of the critical H2 fraction. Dynamical heating from mass accretion and mergers opposes relatively inefficient cooling by molecular hydrogen, delaying the production of star-forming clouds in rapidly growing halos. We also investigate the effect of photodissociating ultraviolet radiation on the formation of primordial gas clouds. We consider two extreme cases, first by including a uniform radiation field in the optically thin limit and second by accounting for the maximum effect of gas self-shielding in virialized regions. For radiation with Lyman-Werner band flux J>10-23 ergs s-1 cm-2 Hz-1 sr-1, hydrogen molecules are rapidly dissociated, rendering gas cooling inefficient. In both the cases we consider, the overall effect can be described by computing an equilibrium H2 abundance for the radiation flux and defining an effective shielding factor. Based on our numerical results, we develop a semianalytic model of the formation of the first stars and demonstrate how it can be coupled with large N-body simulations to predict the star formation rate in the early universe.

Gas Flow and Star Formation in the Centre of the Milky Way : Investigations with Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucas, William Evan

2015-06-01

The centre of the Milky Way, commonly referred to as the Galactic Centre, is roughly that region within 500 pc of the central black hole, Sagittarius A*. Within the innermost parsec around the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* are more than a hundred massive young stars whose orbits align to form one or possibly two discs. At about 100 pc is a ring containing more than ten million solar masses of molecular gas which could be the origin of some of the most massive star clusters in the Galaxy. I have performed a number of numerical simulations to help us understand how it is that these structures may have been formed. I firstly describe and test an improvement to the smoothed particle hydrodynamics code I used. This improves conservation of energy and momentum in certain situations such as in strong shocks from supernovae, which were to be included in a later chapter. The discs of massive stars around Sagittarius A* are believed to have been born there within fragmenting gaseous discs. This is problematic, as the formation of two stellar discs would require two gaseous counterparts. A method is described of forming multiple discs around a black hole from a single cloud's infall and subsequent tidal destruction. This is due to its prolate shape providing a naturally large distribution in the direction of the angular momentum vectors within the cloud. The resulting discs may then go on to form stars. Energetically, it would appear that a sequence of supernovae could potentially cause a giant molecular cloud to fall inwards towards the central black hole from an originally large orbit around the Galactic Centre. I simulate the impact on a giant molecular cloud of supernovae originating from a massive stellar cluster located a parsec away. Ultimately, the supernovae are found to have little effect. Finally, I simulate the formation of the dense ring of clouds observed in the Central Molecular Zone at a distance of about 100 pc from Sgr A*. Infalling gas is shown to be subject to such extreme tidal forces that a single cloud of gas is extended to form a long stream. The ribbon grows to the point that it self-intersects and forms a ring-like structure. Its complexity depends on the orbit of the original cloud. The position-velocity data is compared with observations, and similarities are noted.

Coagulation of grains in static and collapsing protostellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Weidenschilling, S. J.; Ruzmaikina, T. V.

1994-01-01

We simulate collisional evolution of grains in dense turbulent molecular cloud cores (or Bok globules) in static equilibrium and free-fall collapse, assuming spherical symmetry. Relative velocities are due to thermal motions, differential settling, and turbulence, with the latter dominant for sonic turbulence with an assumed Kolmogorov spectrum. Realistic criteria are used to determine outcomes of collisions (coagulation vs. destruction) as functions of particle size and velocity. Results are presented for a variety of cloud parameters (radial density profile, turbulent velocity) and particle properties (density, impact strength). Results are sensitive to the assumed mechanical properties (density and impact strength) of grain aggregates. Particle growth is enhanced if aggregates have low density or fractal structures. On a timescale of a few Myr, an initial population of 0.1 micrometers grains may produce dense compact particles approximately 1 micrometer in size, or fluffy aggregates approximately 100 micrometers. For impact strengths less than or equal to 10(exp 6) ergs/g, a steady state is reached between coagulation of small grains and collisional disruption of larger aggregates. Formation of macroscopic aggregates requires high mechanical strengths and low aggregate densities. We assume sonic turbulence during collapse, with varied eddy size scales determining the dissipation rate or turbulence strength. The degree of collisional evolution during collapse is sensitive to the assumed small-scale structure (inner sc ale) of the turbulence. Weak turbulence results in few collisions and preserves the precollapse particle size distribution with little change. Strong turbulence tends to produce net destruction, rather than particle growth, during infall, unless inpact strengths are greater than 10(exp 6)ergs/g.

Multiplicity At Early Stages Of Star Formation, Small Clusters. Observations Overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saito, Masao

2017-07-01

The SOLA (Soul of Lupus with ALMA) project is conducting comprehensive studies of the Lupus Molecular Clouds and their star formation processes covering 10-10^4 AU scale. Our goal is to exploit ALMA and other facilities over a wide wavelength range to establish a prototypical low-mass star forming scenario based on the Lupus region. In the presentation, we will focus on angular momentum in dense cores in a filament, molecular outflows from young stars, and Class 0/I binary survey in Lupus as well as overview of our projects. Our binary survey was conducted in ALMA cycle 2 and achieved at 0.2-0.3 arcsec resolution discovering new binary systems in Lupus. At the same time, we obtained EX Lup, EXor type burst source, data in ALMA Cycle 3.

Multiplicity at Early Stages of Star Formation, Small Clusters. Observations Overview

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saito, Masao

2017-06-01

The SOLA (Soul of Lupus with ALMA) project is conducting comprehensive studies of the Lupus Molecular Clouds and their star formation processes covering 10-10^4 AU scale. Our goal is to exploit ALMA and other facilities over a wide wavelength range to establish a prototypical low-mass star forming scenario based on the Lupus region. In the presentation, we will focus on angular momentum in dense cores in a filament, molecular outflows from young stars, and Class 0/I binary survey in Lupus as well as overview of our projects. Our binary survey was conducted in ALMA cycle 2 and achieved at 0.2-0.3 arcsec resolution discovering new binary systems in Lupus. At the same time, we obtained EX Lup, EXor type burst source, data in ALMA Cycle 3.

Dense Regions in Supersonic Isothermal Turbulence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Robertson, Brant; Goldreich, Peter

2018-02-01

The properties of supersonic isothermal turbulence influence a variety of astrophysical phenomena, including the structure and evolution of star-forming clouds. This work presents a simple model for the structure of dense regions in turbulence in which the density distribution behind isothermal shocks originates from rough hydrostatic balance between the pressure gradient behind the shock and its deceleration from ram pressure applied by the background fluid. Using simulations of supersonic isothermal turbulence and idealized waves moving through a background medium, we show that the structural properties of dense, shocked regions broadly agree with our analytical model. Our work provides a new conceptual picture for describing the dense regions, which complements theoretical efforts to understand the bulk statistical properties of turbulence and attempts to model the more complex features of star-forming clouds like magnetic fields, self-gravity, or radiative properties.

Probing the Extreme Environment of the Galactic Center with Observations from SOFIA/FORCAST

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lau, Ryan M.; Herter, Terry L.; Morris, Mark; Adams, Joseph D; Becklin, Eric E.

2014-06-01

In this thesis we present a study of the inner 40 pc of the Galactic center addressing the dense, dusty torus around Sgr A*, dust production around massive stars, and massive star formation. Observations of warm dust emission from the Galactic center were performed using the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST). A dense, molecular torus referred to as the Circumnuclear Disk (CND) orbits Sgr A* with an inner radius of ~1.4 pc and extending to ~7 pc. The inner edge of the CND, which we refer to as the Circumnuclear Ring (CNR), exhibits features of a classic HII region and appears consistent with the prevailing paradigm in which the dust is heated by the Central cluster of hot, young stars. We do not detect any star formation occurring in the CNR; however, we reveal the presence of density “clumps” along the inner edge of the CNR. These clumps are not dense enough to be stable against tidal shear from Sgr A* and will be sheared out before completing a full orbit 10^5 yrs). Three Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are located in and near the Quintuplet Cluster 40 pc in projection from Sgr A*: qF362, the Pistol star, G0.120-0.048 (LBV3). FORCAST observation reveal the asymmetric, compressed shell of hot dust surrounding the Pistol Star and provide the first detection of the thermal emission from the symmetric, hot dust envelope surrounding LBV3. However, no detection of hot dust associated with qF362 is made. We argue that the Pistol star and LBV3 are identical “twins” that exhibit contrasting nebulae due to the external influence of their different environments. G-0.02-0.07, a complex consisting of three compact HII regions and one ultracompact HII region, is located at the edge of a molecular cloud 6 pc in projection to the east of Sgr A* and contains the most recent episode of star formation in the Galactic center. We probe the dust morphology, energetics, and composition of the regions to study the star forming conditions of a molecular cloud in the strong gravitational potential of Sgr A*.

A bright-rimmed cloud sculpted by the H ii region Sh2-48

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ortega, M. E.; Paron, S.; Giacani, E.; Rubio, M.; Dubner, G.

2013-08-01

Aims: We characterize a bright-rimmed cloud embedded in the H ii region Sh2-48 while searching for evidence of triggered star formation. Methods: We carried out observations towards a region of 2' × 2' centered at RA = 18h22m11.39s, Dec = -14°35'24.81''(J2000) using the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE; Chile) in the 12CO J = 3-2, 13CO J = 3-2, HCO+J = 4-3, and CS J = 7-6 lines with an angular resolution of about 22''. We also present radio continuum observations at 5 GHz carried out with the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA; EEUU) interferometer with a synthetized beam of 7'' × 5''. The molecular transitions were used to study the distribution and kinematics of the molecular gas of the bright-rimmed cloud. The radio continuum data was used to characterize the ionized gas located on the illuminated border of this molecular condensation. Combining these observations with infrared public data allowed us to build up a comprehensive picture of the current state of star formation within this cloud. Results: The analysis of our molecular observations reveals a relatively dense clump with n(H2) ~ 3 × 103cm-3, located in projection onto the interior of the H ii region Sh2-48. The emission distribution of the four observed molecular transitions has, at VLSR ~ 38 km s-1, morphological anticorrelation with the bright-rimmed cloud as seen in the optical emission. From the new radio continuum observations, we identify a thin layer of ionized gas located on the border of the clump that is facing the ionizing star. The ionized gas has an electron density of about 73 cm-3, which is a factor three higher than the typical critical density (nc ~ 25 cm-3), above which an ionized boundary layer can be formed and maintained. This supports the hypothesis that the clump is being photoionized by the nearby O9.5V star, BD-14 5014. From the evaluation of the pressure balance between the ionized and molecular gas, we conclude that the clump would be in a prepressure balance state with the shocks being driven into the surface layer. Among the five YSO candidates found in the region, two of them (class I) are placed slightly beyond the bright rim, suggesting that their formation could have been triggered by the radiation-driven implosion process.

Point Cloud Generation from Aerial Image Data Acquired by a Quadrocopter Type Micro Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and a Digital Still Camera

PubMed Central

Rosnell, Tomi; Honkavaara, Eija

2012-01-01

The objective of this investigation was to develop and investigate methods for point cloud generation by image matching using aerial image data collected by quadrocopter type micro unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging systems. Automatic generation of high-quality, dense point clouds from digital images by image matching is a recent, cutting-edge step forward in digital photogrammetric technology. The major components of the system for point cloud generation are a UAV imaging system, an image data collection process using high image overlaps, and post-processing with image orientation and point cloud generation. Two post-processing approaches were developed: one of the methods is based on Bae Systems’ SOCET SET classical commercial photogrammetric software and another is built using Microsoft®’s Photosynth™ service available in the Internet. Empirical testing was carried out in two test areas. Photosynth processing showed that it is possible to orient the images and generate point clouds fully automatically without any a priori orientation information or interactive work. The photogrammetric processing line provided dense and accurate point clouds that followed the theoretical principles of photogrammetry, but also some artifacts were detected. The point clouds from the Photosynth processing were sparser and noisier, which is to a large extent due to the fact that the method is not optimized for dense point cloud generation. Careful photogrammetric processing with self-calibration is required to achieve the highest accuracy. Our results demonstrate the high performance potential of the approach and that with rigorous processing it is possible to reach results that are consistent with theory. We also point out several further research topics. Based on theoretical and empirical results, we give recommendations for properties of imaging sensor, data collection and processing of UAV image data to ensure accurate point cloud generation. PMID:22368479

Point cloud generation from aerial image data acquired by a quadrocopter type micro unmanned aerial vehicle and a digital still camera.

PubMed

Rosnell, Tomi; Honkavaara, Eija

2012-01-01

The objective of this investigation was to develop and investigate methods for point cloud generation by image matching using aerial image data collected by quadrocopter type micro unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imaging systems. Automatic generation of high-quality, dense point clouds from digital images by image matching is a recent, cutting-edge step forward in digital photogrammetric technology. The major components of the system for point cloud generation are a UAV imaging system, an image data collection process using high image overlaps, and post-processing with image orientation and point cloud generation. Two post-processing approaches were developed: one of the methods is based on Bae Systems' SOCET SET classical commercial photogrammetric software and another is built using Microsoft(®)'s Photosynth™ service available in the Internet. Empirical testing was carried out in two test areas. Photosynth processing showed that it is possible to orient the images and generate point clouds fully automatically without any a priori orientation information or interactive work. The photogrammetric processing line provided dense and accurate point clouds that followed the theoretical principles of photogrammetry, but also some artifacts were detected. The point clouds from the Photosynth processing were sparser and noisier, which is to a large extent due to the fact that the method is not optimized for dense point cloud generation. Careful photogrammetric processing with self-calibration is required to achieve the highest accuracy. Our results demonstrate the high performance potential of the approach and that with rigorous processing it is possible to reach results that are consistent with theory. We also point out several further research topics. Based on theoretical and empirical results, we give recommendations for properties of imaging sensor, data collection and processing of UAV image data to ensure accurate point cloud generation.

A sample of [C II] clouds tracing dense clouds in weak FUV fields observed by Herschel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pineda, J. L.; Velusamy, T.; Langer, W. D.; Goldsmith, P. F.; Li, D.; Yorke, H. W.

2010-10-01

The [C ii] fine-structure line at 158 μm is an excellent tracer of the warm diffuse gas in the ISM and the interfaces between molecular clouds and their surrounding atomic and ionized envelopes. Here we present the initial results from Galactic observations of terahertz C+ (GOT C+), a Herschel key project devoted to studying the [C ii] emission in the Galactic plane using the HIFI instrument. We used the [C ii] emission, together with observations of CO, as a probe to understand the effects of newly formed stars on their interstellar environment and characterize the physical and chemical state of the star-forming gas. We collected data along 16 lines-of-sight passing near star-forming regions in the inner Galaxy near longitudes 330° and 20°. We identified fifty-eight [C ii] components that are associated with high-column density molecular clouds as traced by 13CO emission. We combined [C ii], 12CO, and 13CO observations to derive the physical conditions of the [C ii]-emitting regions in our sample of high-column density clouds based on comparing results from a grid of photon dominated region (PDR) models. From this unbiased sample, our results suggest that most of the [C ii] emission originates in clouds with H2 volume densities between 103.5 and 105.5 cm-3 and weak FUV strength (χ0 = 1-10). We find two regions where our analysis suggest high densities >105 cm-3 and strong FUV fields (χ0 = 104-106), likely associated with massive star formation. We suggest that [C ii] emission in conjunction with CO isotopes is a good tool for differentiating regions of massive star formation (high densities/strong FUV fields) and regions that are distant from massive stars (lower densities/weaker FUV fields) along the line-of-sight. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Automatic Building Abstraction from Aerial Photogrammetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ley, A.; Hänsch, R.; Hellwich, O.

2017-09-01

Multi-view stereo has been shown to be a viable tool for the creation of realistic 3D city models. Nevertheless, it still states significant challenges since it results in dense, but noisy and incomplete point clouds when applied to aerial images. 3D city modelling usually requires a different representation of the 3D scene than these point clouds. This paper applies a fully-automatic pipeline to generate a simplified mesh from a given dense point cloud. The mesh provides a certain level of abstraction as it only consists of relatively large planar and textured surfaces. Thus, it is possible to remove noise, outlier, as well as clutter, while maintaining a high level of accuracy.

Dark Murky Clouds in the Bright Milky Way

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-08-24

This infrared image from NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer shows exceptionally cold, dense cloud cores seen in silhouette against the bright diffuse infrared glow of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy.

Evaluation of Methods for Coregistration and Fusion of Rpas-Based 3d Point Clouds and Thermal Infrared Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoegner, L.; Tuttas, S.; Xu, Y.; Eder, K.; Stilla, U.

2016-06-01

This paper discusses the automatic coregistration and fusion of 3d point clouds generated from aerial image sequences and corresponding thermal infrared (TIR) images. Both RGB and TIR images have been taken from a RPAS platform with a predefined flight path where every RGB image has a corresponding TIR image taken from the same position and with the same orientation with respect to the accuracy of the RPAS system and the inertial measurement unit. To remove remaining differences in the exterior orientation, different strategies for coregistering RGB and TIR images are discussed: (i) coregistration based on 2D line segments for every single TIR image and the corresponding RGB image. This method implies a mainly planar scene to avoid mismatches; (ii) coregistration of both the dense 3D point clouds from RGB images and from TIR images by coregistering 2D image projections of both point clouds; (iii) coregistration based on 2D line segments in every single TIR image and 3D line segments extracted from intersections of planes fitted in the segmented dense 3D point cloud; (iv) coregistration of both the dense 3D point clouds from RGB images and from TIR images using both ICP and an adapted version based on corresponding segmented planes; (v) coregistration of both image sets based on point features. The quality is measured by comparing the differences of the back projection of homologous points in both corrected RGB and TIR images.

The molecular universe: from astronomy to laboratory astrophysics and back

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Dishoeck, Ewine

2015-08-01

Molecules are found in a wide range of astronomical environments, fromour Solar System to distant starburst galaxies at the highest redshifts. Thanks to the opening up of the infrared and (sub)millimeter wavelength regime, culminating with Herschel and ALMA, more than 180 different species have now been found throughout the various stages of stellar birth and death: diffuse and dense interstellar clouds, protostars and disks, the envelopes of evolved stars and planetary nebulae, and exo-planetary atmospheres. Molecules and solid-state features are now also routinely detected in the interstellar medium of external galaxies, near and far.There are many motivations for studying this molecular universe. From the chemical perspective, interstellar space provides a unique laboratory to study basic molecular processes under very different conditions from those normally found in a laboratory on Earth. For astronomers, molecules are unique probes of the many environments where they are found, providing information on density, temperature, dynamics, ionization fractions and magnetic fields. Molecules also play an important role in the cooling of clouds allowing them to collapse, including the formation of the very first stars and galaxies. Finally, the molecular composition is sensitive to the history of the material, and ultimately provides critical information on our origins.This talk will summarize a number of recent observational highlights and provide examples of cases where the availability of new laboratory data proved crucial in the analysis. This includes basic data such as spectroscopy and collisional rate coefficients, but also an improved understanding of photoprocesses in the gaseous and solid state. Much of the chemistry in star- and planet-forming regions is now thought to be driven by gas-grain chemistry rather than pure gas-phase chemistry, and a few examples of the close link between models and laboratory experiments will be given. In spite of lingering uncertainties, the future of molecular astrophysics is bright and will allow increased understanding of the journey of gas and solids from clouds to comets and planets.

SOFIA Observations of S106: Dynamics of the Warm Gas

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simon, R.; Schneider, N.; Stutzki, J.; Gusten, R.; Graf, U. U.; Hartogh, P.; Guan, X.; Staguhn, J. G.; Benford, D. J.

2012-01-01

Context The H II region/PDR/molecular cloud complex S106 is excited by a single O-star. The full extent of the warm and dense gas close to the star has not been mapped in spectrally resolved high-J CO or [C II] lines, so the kinematics of the warm. partially ionized gas, are unknown. Whether the prominent dark lane bisecting the hourglass-shaped nebula is due solely to the shadow cast by a small disk around the exciting star or also to extinction in high column foreground gas was an open question until now. Aims. To disentangle the morphology and kinematics of warm neutral and ionized gas close to the star, study their relation to the bulk of the molecular gas. and to investigate the nature of the dark lane. Methods. We use the heterodyne receiver GREAT on board SOFIA to observe velocity resolved spectral lines of [C II] and CO 11 yields 10 in comparison with so far unpublished submm continuum data at 350 micron (8HARC-Il) and complementary molecular line data. Results. The high angular and spectral resolution observations show a very complex morphology and kinematics of the inner S106 region, with many different components at different excitation conditions contributing to the observed emission. The [C II] lines are found to be bright and very broad. tracing high velocity gas close to the interface of molecular cloud and H II region. CO 11 yields 10 emission is more confined.. both spatially and in velocity, to the immediate surroundings of S 106 IR showing the presence of warm, high density (clumpy) gas. Our high angular resolution submm continuum observations rule out the scenario where the dark lane separating the two lobes is due solely to the shadow cast by a small disk close to the star. The lane is clearly seen also as warm, high column density gas at the boundary of the molecular cloud and H II region.

Chemical evolution in space--a source of prebiotic molecules.

PubMed

Greenberg, J M

1983-01-01

In Laboratory Astrophysics at Leiden University a laboratory analog for following the chemical evolution of interstellar dust in space shows that the dust contains the bulk of organic material in the universe. We follow the photoprocessing of low temperature (10 K) mixtures of ices subjected to vacuum ultraviolet radiation in simulation of interstellar conditions. The most important, but necessary, difference is in the time scales for photo-processing. One hour in the laboratory is equivalent to one thousand years in low density regions of space and as much as, or greater than, ten thousand to one million years in the depths of dense molecular clouds. The ultimate product of photoprocessing of grain material in the laboratory is a complex nonvolatile residue which is yellow in color and soluble in water and methanol. The molecular weight is greater than the mid-hundreds. The infrared absorption spectra indicate the presence of carboxylic acid and amino groups resembling those of other molecules of presumably prebiological significance produced by more classical methods. One of our residues, when subjected to high resolution mass spectroscopy gave a mass of 82 corresponding to C4H6H2 after release of CO2 and trace ammounts of urea suggesting amino pyroline rings. The deposit of prebiotic dust molecules occurred as many as 5 times in the first 500-700 million years on a primitive Earth by accretion during the passage of the solar system through a dense interstellar cloud. The deposition rate during each passage is estimated to be between 10(9) and 10(10) g per year during the million or so years of each passage; i.e., a total deposition of 1O(9)-10(10) metric tons of complex organic material per passage.

Detection of Interstellar Ortho-D2H+ with SOFIA

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harju, Jorma; Sipilä, Olli; Brünken, Sandra; Schlemmer, Stephan; Caselli, Paola; Juvela, Mika; Menten, Karl M.; Stutzki, Jürgen; Asvany, Oskar; Kamiński, Tomasz; Okada, Yoko; Higgins, Ronan

2017-05-01

We report on the detection of the ground-state rotational line of ortho-D2H+ at 1.477 THz (203 μm) using the German REceiver for Astronomy at Terahertz frequencies (GREAT) on board the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). The line is seen in absorption against far-infrared continuum from the protostellar binary IRAS 16293-2422 in Ophiuchus. The para-D2H+ line at 691.7 GHz was not detected with the APEX telescope toward this position. These D2H+ observations complement our previous detections of para-H2D+ and ortho-H2D+ using SOFIA and APEX. By modeling chemistry and radiative transfer in the dense core surrounding the protostars, we find that the ortho-D2H+ and para-H2D+ absorption features mainly originate in the cool (T < 18 K) outer envelope of the core. In contrast, the ortho-H2D+ emission from the core is significantly absorbed by the ambient molecular cloud. Analyses of the combined D2H+ and H2D+ data result in an age estimate of ˜5 × 105 yr for the core, with an uncertainty of ˜2 × 105 yr. The core material has probably been pre-processed for another 5 × 105 years in conditions corresponding to those in the ambient molecular cloud. The inferred timescale is more than 10 times the age of the embedded protobinary. The D2H+ and H2D+ ions have large and nearly equal total (ortho+para) fractional abundances of ˜10-9 in the outer envelope. This confirms the central role of {{{H}}}3+ in the deuterium chemistry in cool, dense gas, and adds support to the prediction of chemistry models that also {{{D}}}3+ should be abundant in these conditions.

Inefficient jet-induced star formation in Centaurus A. High resolution ALMA observations of the northern filaments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salomé, Q.; Salomé, P.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Combes, F.; Hamer, S.

2017-12-01

NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) is one of the best targets to study AGN feedback in the local Universe. At 13.5 kpc from the galaxy, optical filaments with recent star formation lie along the radio jet direction. This region is a testbed for positive feedback, here through jet-induced star formation. Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) observations have revealed strong CO emission in star-forming regions and in regions with no detected tracers of star formation activity. In cases where star formation is observed, this activity appears to be inefficient compared to the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation. We used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to map the 12CO(1-0) emission all along the filaments of NGC 5128 at a resolution of 1.3'' 23.8pc. We find that the CO emission is clumpy and is distributed in two main structures: (i) the Horseshoe complex, located outside the HI cloud, where gas is mostly excited by shocks and where no star formation is observed, and (ii) the Vertical filament, located at the edge of the HI shell, which is a region of moderate star formation. We identified 140 molecular clouds using a clustering method applied to the CO data cube. A statistical study reveals that these clouds have very similar physical properties, such as size, velocity dispersion, and mass, as in the inner Milky Way. However, the range of radius available with the present ALMA observations does not enable us to investigate whether or not the clouds follow the Larson relation. The large virial parameter αvir of the clouds suggests that gravity is not dominant and clouds are not gravitationally unstable. Finally, the total energy injection in the northern filaments of Centaurus A is of the same order as in the inner part of the Milky Way. The strong CO emission detected in the northern filaments is an indication that the energy injected by the jet acts positively in the formation of dense molecular gas. The relatively high virial parameter of the molecular clouds suggests that the injected kinetic energy is too strong for star formation to be efficient. This is particularly the case in the horseshoe complex, where the virial parameter is the largest and where strong CO is detected with no associated star formation. This is the first evidence of AGN positive feedback in the sense of forming molecular gas through shocks, associated with low star formation efficiency due to turbulence injection by the interaction with the radio jet. This paper makes use of the following ALMA data: ADS/JAO.ALMA#2015.1.01019.S.The full Table A.1 and a catalogue of the molecular clouds are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/608/A98

Sulfur chemistry in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prasad, S. S.; Huntress, W. T., Jr.

1982-01-01

A model is presented for the gas phase chemistry of molecules containing sulfur in dense interstellar clouds. The sulfur chemistry is different from that used in previous models as a result of an extensive search of the recent literature and the availability of new laboratory data. The changes have a significant effect on the calculated abundance of sulfur compounds. The linked chemistry of sulfur and oxygen in the present model requires a severe depletion of sulfur and low fractional abundances of both O and O2 in the dense clouds. In contrast, the high abundance of SO and the low abundance of CS relative to SO in the HVS in the KL may indicate an oxygen-rich, high temperature environment compared to OMC-1. The formation of S-H bonds is slow because of the absence of radiative association between S(+) and H2. The present model underestimates the abundance of H2S unless a radiative association reaction between HS(+) and H2 is postulated.

MALATANG: MApping the dense moLecular gAs in the sTrongest stAr-formiNg Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Yu; Zhang, Zhiyu; Greve, Thomas; MALATANG Team

2017-01-01

The MALATANG Large Program is a 390 hr campaign, using the heterodyne array HARP on the JCMT to map theHCN and HCO+ J = 4 - 3 line emission in 23 of the nearest IR-brightest galaxies beyond the Local Group. Theobservations will reach a sensitivity of 0.3 K km/s (~ 4.5 x 10^6 Msun) at linear resolutions of 0.2-2.8kpc. It is thefirst survey to systematically map the distribution of dense molecular gas out to large galactocentric distances in a statisticallysignificant sample of nearby galaxies. MALATANG will bridge the gap, in terms of physical scale and luminosity,between extragalactic (i.e., galaxy-integrated) and Galactic (i.e., single molecular clouds) observations. A primarygoal of the survey is to delineate for the first time the distributed dense gas star-formation relations, as traced by theHCN and HCO+ J = 4-3, on scales of ~1kpc across our targets. Exploring the behaviour of these star-formationrelations in low surface density regions found in the disks as well as in the nuclear regions where surface densitiesare high, will shed new light on whether such environments are host to fundamentally different star-formation modes.The MALATANG data products of resolved HCN and HCO+ J = 4-3 maps of 23 IR-bright local galaxies, will beof great value to the extragalactic community and, in and of themselves, carry significant legacy value. At the moment,about 50% (~195hrs) of the 390hrs of time allocated to MALATANG has been observed. We here show somevery preliminary results as well after introducing our project.

DENSE GAS FRACTION AND STAR FORMATION EFFICIENCY VARIATIONS IN THE ANTENNAE GALAXIES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bigiel, F.; Leroy, A. K.; Blitz, L.

2015-12-20

We use the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) millimeter interferometer to map the Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/39), tracing the bulk of the molecular gas via the {sup 12}CO(1–0) line and denser molecular gas via the high density transitions HCN(1–0), HCO{sup +}(1–0), CS(2–1), and HNC(1–0). We detect bright emission from all tracers in both the two nuclei and three locales in the overlap region between the two nuclei. These three overlap region peaks correspond to previously identified “supergiant molecular clouds.” We combine the CARMA data with Herschel infrared (IR) data to compare observational indicators of the star formationmore » efficiency (star formation rate/H{sub 2} ∝ IR/CO), dense gas fraction (HCN/CO), and dense gas star formation efficiency (IR/HCN). Regions within the Antennae show ratios consistent with those seen for entire galaxies, but these ratios vary by up to a factor of six within the galaxy. The five detected regions vary strongly in both their integrated intensities and these ratios. The northern nucleus is the brightest region in millimeter-wave line emission, while the overlap region is the brightest part of the system in the IR. We combine the CARMA and Herschel data with ALMA CO data to report line ratio patterns for each bright point. CO shows a declining spectral line energy distribution, consistent with previous studies. HCO{sup +} (1–0) emission is stronger than HCN (1–0) emission, perhaps indicating either more gas at moderate densities or higher optical depth than is commonly seen in more advanced mergers.« less

Hubble space telescope imaging of decoupled dust clouds in the ram pressure stripped Virgo spirals NGC 4402 and NGC 4522

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Abramson, Anne; Kenney, Jeffrey D. P., E-mail: anne.abramson@yale.edu, E-mail: jeff.kenney@yale.edu

We present the highest-resolution study to date of the interstellar medium (ISM) in galaxies undergoing ram pressure stripping, using Hubble Space Telescope BVI imaging of NGC 4522 and NGC 4402, Virgo Cluster spirals that are well known to be experiencing intracluster medium (ICM) ram pressure. We find that throughout most of both galaxies, the main dust lane has a fairly well-defined edge, with a population of giant molecular cloud (GMC) sized (tens- to hundreds-of-pc scale), isolated, highly extincting dust clouds located up to ∼1.5 kpc radially beyond it. Outside of these dense clouds, the area has little or no diffusemore » dust extinction, indicating that the clouds have decoupled from the lower-density ISM material that has already been stripped. Several of the dust clouds have elongated morphologies that indicate active ram pressure, including two large (kpc scale) filaments in NGC 4402 that are elongated in the projected ICM wind direction. We calculate a lower limit on the H I + H{sub 2} masses of these clouds based on their dust extinctions and find that a correction factor of ∼10 gives cloud masses consistent with those measured in CO for clouds of similar diameters, probably due to the complicating factors of foreground light, cloud substructure, and resolution limitations. Assuming that the clouds' actual masses are consistent with those of GMCs of similar diameters (∼10{sup 4}-10{sup 5} M {sub ☉}), we estimate that only a small fraction (∼1%-10%) of the original H I + H{sub 2} remains in the parts of the disks with decoupled clouds. Based on Hα images, a similar fraction of star formation persists in these regions, 2%-3% of the estimated pre-stripping star formation rate. We find that the decoupled cloud lifetimes may be up to 150-200 Myr.« less

An anomalous extinction law in the Cep OB3b young cluster: Evidence for dust processing during gas dispersal

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Allen, Thomas S.; Prchlik, Jakub J.; Megeath, S. Thomas

We determine the extinction law through Cep OB3b, a young cluster of 3000 stars undergoing gas dispersal. The extinction is measured toward 76 background K giants identified with MMT/Hectospec spectra. Color excess ratios were determined toward each of the giants using V and R photometry from the literature, g, r, i, and z photometry from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and J, H, and K{sub s} photometry from the Two Micron All Sky Survey. These color excess ratios were then used to construct the extinction law through the dusty material associated with Cep OB3b. The extinction law through Cep OB3bmore » is intermediate between the R{sub V} = 3.1 and R{sub V} = 5 laws commonly used for the diffuse atomic interstellar medium and dense molecular clouds, respectively. The dependence of the extinction law on line-of-sight A{sub V} is investigated and we find the extinction law becomes shallower for regions with A{sub V} > 2.5 mag. We speculate that the intermediate dust law results from dust processing during the dispersal of the molecular cloud by the cluster.« less

The Production of Complex Organics from Interstellar Ices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandford, Scott A.; Allamandola, Louis; Bernstein, Max; Deamer, David; Dworkin, Jason; Zare, Richard

2001-01-01

Infrared spectroscopy of ices in interstellar dense molecular clouds has shown that they contain a variety of simple molecules, as well as aromatic hydrocarbons. While in these clouds, these ices are processed by ultraviolet light and cosmic rays. High vacuum, UV irradiation laboratory simulations conducted using various realistic approx. 10 K interstellar mixed-molecular ice analogs, both with and without polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), have been carried out in NASA-Ames' Astrochemistry Laboratory. Upon warming, these irradiated ices are found to produce refractory organic residues. These residues have been analyzed using a variety of techniques, including HPLC and laser desorption mass spectrometry, and they have been shown to contain a variety of complex organic compounds. Several of these compounds may be of prebiotic significance. In particular, we will discuss the detection of quinones (substituted PAHs that are used by living systems for electron transport) and amphiphiles (molecules that self-assemble to form membranes). Laboratory simulations have also demonstrated that the organic products can show isotopic enrichments in D that provide clues for the mechanisms of their formation. Similar compounds and D enrichments are seen in the organics found in primitive meteorites, suggesting a direct link between interstellar chemistry and the delivery of organics to newly formed planets.

An XMM-Newton Study of the Mixed-morphology Supernova Remnant G346.6-0.2

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Auchettl, Katie; Lopez, Laura; Ng, C-Y.

We present an X-ray imaging and spectroscopic study of the molecular cloud interacting mixed-morphology supernova remnant G346.6–0.2 using XMM-Newton . The X-ray spectrum of the remnant is well described by a recombining plasma that most likely arises from adiabatic cooling and has subsolar abundances of Mg, Si, and S. Our fits also suggest the presence of either an additional power-law component with a photon index of ∼2 or an additional thermal component with a temperature of ∼2.0 keV. We investigate the possible origin of this component and suggest that it could arise from either the Galactic ridge X-ray emission, anmore » unidentified pulsar wind nebula, or X-ray synchrotron emission from high-energy particles accelerated at the shock. However, deeper, high-resolution observations of this object are needed to shed light on the presence and origin of this feature. Based on its morphology, its Galactic latitude, the density of the surrounding environment, and its association with a dense molecular cloud, G346.6–0.2 most likely arises from a massive progenitor that underwent core collapse.« less

X-ray detectability of accreting isolated black holes in our Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsuna, Daichi; Kawanaka, Norita; Totani, Tomonori

2018-06-01

Detectability of isolated black holes (IBHs) without a companion star but emitting X-rays by accretion from dense interstellar medium (ISM) or molecular cloud gas is investigated. We calculate orbits of IBHs in the Galaxy to derive a realistic spatial distribution of IBHs for various mean values of kick velocity at their birth υavg. X-ray luminosities of these IBHs are then calculated considering various phases of ISM and molecular clouds for a wide range of the accretion efficiency λ (a ratio of the actual accretion rate to the Bondi rate) that is rather uncertain. It is found that detectable IBHs mostly reside near the Galactic Centre (GC), and hence taking the Galactic structure into account is essential. In the hard X-ray band, where identification of IBHs from other contaminating X-ray sources may be easier, the expected number of IBHs detectable by the past survey by NuSTAR towards GC is at most order unity. However, 30-100 IBHs may be detected by the future survey by FORCE with an optimistic parameter set of υavg = 50 km s-1 and λ = 0.1, implying that it may be possible to detect IBHs or constrain the model parameters.

Carbon Chemistry in Transitional Clouds from the GOT C+ Survey of CII 158 micron Emission in the Galactic Plane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langer, W. D.; Velusamy, T.; Pineda, J.; Willacy, K.; Goldsmith, P. F.

2011-05-01

In understanding the lifecycle and chemistry of the interstellar gas, the transition from diffuse atomic to molecular gas clouds is a very important stage. The evolution of carbon from C+ to C0 and CO is a fundamental part of this transition, and C+ along with its carbon chemistry is a key diagnostic. Until now our knowledge of interstellar gas has been limited primarily to the diffuse atomic phase traced by HI and the dense molecular H2 phase traced by CO. However, we have generally been missing an important layer in diffuse and transition clouds, which is denoted by the warm "dark gas'', that is mostly H2 and little HI and CO, and is best traced with C+. Here, we discuss the chemistry in the transition from C+ to C0 and CO in these clouds as understood by a survey of the CII 1.9 THz (158 micron) line from a sparse survey of the inner galaxy over about 40 degrees in longitude as part of the Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+) program, a Herschel Space Observatory Open Time Key Program to study interstellar clouds by sampling ionized carbon. Using the first results from GOT C+ along 11 LOSs, in a sample of 53 transition clouds, Velusamy, Langer et al. (A&A 521, L18, 2010) detected an excess of CII intensities indicative of a thick H2 layer (a significant warm H2, "dark gas'' component) around the 12CO core. Here we present a much larger, statistically significant sample of a few hundred diffuse and transition clouds traced by CII, along with auxiliary HI and CO data in the inner Galaxy between l=-30° and +30°. Our new and more extensive sample of transition clouds is used to elucidate the time dependent physical and carbon chemical evolution of diffuse to transition clouds, and transition layers. We consider the C+ to CO conversion pathways such as H++ O and C+ + H2 chemistry for CO production to constrain the physical parameters such as the FUV intensity and cosmic ray ionization rate that drive the CO chemistry in the diffuse transition clouds.

Thick discs, and an outflow, of dense gas in the nuclei of nearby Seyfert galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, Ming-Yi; Davies, R. I.; Burtscher, L.; Contursi, A.; Genzel, R.; González-Alfonso, E.; Graciá-Carpio, J.; Janssen, A.; Lutz, D.; Orban de Xivry, G.; Rosario, D.; Schnorr-Müller, A.; Sternberg, A.; Sturm, E.; Tacconi, L.

2016-05-01

We discuss the dense molecular gas in central regions of nearby Seyfert galaxies, and report new arcsec resolution observations of HCN (1-0) and HCO+ (1-0) for three objects. In NGC 3079, the lines show complex profiles as a result of self-absorption and saturated continuum absorption. H13CN reveals the continuum absorption profile, with a peak close to the galaxy's systemic velocity that traces disc rotation, and a second feature with a blue wing extending to -350 km s-1 that most likely traces a nuclear outflow. The morphological and spectral properties of the emission lines allow us to constrain the dense gas dynamics. We combine our kinematic analysis for these three objects, as well as another with archival data, with a previous comparable analysis of four other objects, to create a sample of eight Seyferts. In seven of these, the emission line kinematics imply thick disc structures on radial scales of ˜100 pc, suggesting such structures are a common occurrence. We find a relation between the circum-nuclear LHCN and Mdyn that can be explained by a gas fraction of 10 per cent and a conversion factor αHCN ˜ 10 between gas mass and HCN luminosity. Finally, adopting a different perspective to probe the physical properties of the gas around active galactic nuclei, we report on an analysis of molecular line ratios which indicates that the clouds in this region are not self-gravitating.

On the Inference of the Cosmic-ray Ionization Rate ζ from the HCO+-to-DCO+ Abundance Ratio: The Effect of Nuclear Spin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shingledecker, Christopher N.; Bergner, Jennifer B.; Le Gal, Romane; Öberg, Karin I.; Hincelin, Ugo; Herbst, Eric

2016-10-01

The chemistry of dense interstellar regions was analyzed using a time-dependent gas-grain astrochemical simulation and a new chemical network that incorporates deuterated chemistry, taking into account nuclear spin states for the hydrogen chemistry and its deuterated isotopologues. With this new network, the utility of the [HCO+]/[DCO+] abundance ratio as a probe of the cosmic-ray ionization rate has been re-examined, with special attention paid to the effect of the initial value of the ortho-to-para ratio (OPR) of molecular hydrogen. After discussing the use of the probe for cold cores, we compare our results with previous theoretical and observational results for a molecular cloud close to the supernova remnant W51C, which is thought to have an enhanced cosmic-ray ionization rate ζ caused by the nearby γ-ray source. In addition, we attempt to use our approach to estimate the cosmic-ray ionization rate for L1174, a dense core with an embedded star. Beyond the previously known sensitivity of [HCO+]/[DCO+] to ζ, we demonstrate its additional dependence on the initial OPR and, secondarily, on the age of the source, its temperature, and its density. We conclude that the usefulness of the [HCO+]/[DCO+] abundance ratio in constraining the cosmic-ray ionization rate in dense regions increases with the age of the source and the ionization rate as the ratio becomes far less sensitive to the initial value of the OPR.

Point Cloud Classification of Tesserae from Terrestrial Laser Data Combined with Dense Image Matching for Archaeological Information Extraction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Poux, F.; Neuville, R.; Billen, R.

2017-08-01

Reasoning from information extraction given by point cloud data mining allows contextual adaptation and fast decision making. However, to achieve this perceptive level, a point cloud must be semantically rich, retaining relevant information for the end user. This paper presents an automatic knowledge-based method for pre-processing multi-sensory data and classifying a hybrid point cloud from both terrestrial laser scanning and dense image matching. Using 18 features including sensor's biased data, each tessera in the high-density point cloud from the 3D captured complex mosaics of Germigny-des-prés (France) is segmented via a colour multi-scale abstraction-based featuring extracting connectivity. A 2D surface and outline polygon of each tessera is generated by a RANSAC plane extraction and convex hull fitting. Knowledge is then used to classify every tesserae based on their size, surface, shape, material properties and their neighbour's class. The detection and semantic enrichment method shows promising results of 94% correct semantization, a first step toward the creation of an archaeological smart point cloud.

Two γ-ray bursts from dusty regions with little molecular gas.

PubMed

Hatsukade, B; Ohta, K; Endo, A; Nakanishi, K; Tamura, Y; Hashimoto, T; Kohno, K

2014-06-12

Long-duration γ-ray bursts are associated with the explosions of massive stars and are accordingly expected to reside in star-forming regions with molecular gas (the fuel for star formation). Previous searches for carbon monoxide (CO), a tracer of molecular gas, in burst host galaxies did not detect any emission. Molecules have been detected as absorption in the spectra of γ-ray burst afterglows, and the molecular gas is similar to the translucent or diffuse molecular clouds of the Milky Way. Absorption lines probe the interstellar medium only along the line of sight, so it is not clear whether the molecular gas represents the general properties of the regions where the bursts occur. Here we report spatially resolved observations of CO line emission and millimetre-wavelength continuum emission in two galaxies hosting γ-ray bursts. The bursts happened in regions rich in dust, but not particularly rich in molecular gas. The ratio of molecular gas to dust (<9-14) is significantly lower than in star-forming regions of the Milky Way and nearby star-forming galaxies, suggesting that much of the dense gas where stars form has been dissipated by other massive stars.

First stars of the ρ Ophiuchi dark cloud. XMM-Newton view of ρ Oph and its neighbors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pillitteri, I.; Wolk, S. J.; Chen, H. H.; Goodman, A.

2016-08-01

Star formation in molecular clouds can be triggered by the dynamical action of winds from massive stars. Furthermore, X-ray and UV fluxes from massive stars can influence the life time of surrounding circumstellar disks. We present the results of a 53 ks XMM-Newton observation centered on the ρ Ophiuchi A+B binary system. ρ Ophiuchi lies in the center of a ring of dust, likely formed by the action of its winds. This region is different from the dense core of the cloud (L1688 Core F) where star formation is at work. X-rays are detected from ρ Ophiuchi as well as a group of surrounding X-ray sources. We detected 89 X-ray sources, 47 of them have at least one counterpart in 2MASS+All-WISE catalogs. Based on IR and X-ray properties, we can distinguish between young stellar objects (YSOs) belonging to the cloud and background objects. Among the cloud members, we detect three debris-disk objects and 22 disk-less - Class III young stars.We show that these stars have ages in 5-10 Myr, and are significantly older than the YSOs in L1688. We speculate that they are the result of an early burst of star formation in the cloud. An X-ray energy of ≥5 × 1044 erg has been injected into the surrounding mediumover the past 5 Myr, we discuss the effects of such energy budget in relation to the cloud properties and dynamics.

Morphology and kinematics of filaments in Serpens and Perseus molecular clouds: a high resolution study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dhabal, Arnab; Mundy, Lee; Rizzo, Maxime; Storm, Shaye; Teuben, Peter; CLASSy Collaboration

2018-01-01

Filamentary structures are prevalent in molecular clouds over a wide range of scales, and are often associated with active star formation. The study of filament morphology and kinematics provide insights into the physical processes leading to core formation in clustered environments. As part of the CARMA Large Area Star Formation Survey (CLASSy) follow-up, we observed five Herschel filaments in the Serpens Main, Serpens South and NGC1333 molecular clouds using the J=1-0 transitions of dense gas tracers H13CO+, HNC and H13CN. Of these, H13CO+ and H13CN are optically thin and serve as a test of the kinematics previously seen by the CLASSy in N2H+. The observations have an angular resolution of 7'' and a spectral resolution of 0.16 km/s. Although the large scale structure compares well with the CARMA N2H+ (J=1-0) maps and Herschel dust continuum maps, we resolve finer structure within the filaments identified by Herschel. Most regions are found to have multiple structures and filaments partially overlapping in the line-of-sight. In two regions overlapping structures have velocity differences as high as 1.4 km/s. We identify 8 individual filaments with typical widths of 0.03-0.06 pc in these tracers, which is significantly less than widths observed in the Herschel dust column density maps. At least 50% of the filaments have distinct velocity gradients perpendicular to their major axis with average values in the range 4-10 km s-1 pc-1. These findings are in support of the theoretical models of filament formation by 2-D inflow in the shock layer created by colliding turbulent cells. We also find evidence of velocity gradients along the length of two filaments; the gradients suggest that these filaments are inflowing towards the cloud core.

Formation of massive, dense cores by cloud-cloud collisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takahira, Ken; Shima, Kazuhiro; Habe, Asao; Tasker, Elizabeth J.

2018-03-01

We performed sub-parsec (˜ 0.014 pc) scale simulations of cloud-cloud collisions of two idealized turbulent molecular clouds (MCs) with different masses in the range of (0.76-2.67) × 104 M_{⊙} and with collision speeds of 5-30 km s-1. Those parameters are larger than in Takahira, Tasker, and Habe (2014, ApJ, 792, 63), in which study the colliding system showed a partial gaseous arc morphology that supports the NANTEN observations of objects indicated to be colliding MCs using numerical simulations. Gas clumps with density greater than 10-20 g cm-3 were identified as pre-stellar cores and tracked through the simulation to investigate the effects of the mass of colliding clouds and the collision speeds on the resulting core population. Our results demonstrate that the smaller cloud property is more important for the results of cloud-cloud collisions. The mass function of formed cores can be approximated by a power-law relation with an index γ = -1.6 in slower cloud-cloud collisions (v ˜ 5 km s-1), and is in good agreement with observation of MCs. A faster relative speed increases the number of cores formed in the early stage of collisions and shortens the gas accretion phase of cores in the shocked region, leading to the suppression of core growth. The bending point appears in the high-mass part of the core mass function and the bending point mass decreases with increase in collision speed for the same combination of colliding clouds. The higher-mass part of the core mass function than the bending point mass can be approximated by a power law with γ = -2-3 that is similar to the power index of the massive part of the observed stellar initial mass function. We discuss implications of our results for the massive-star formation in our Galaxy.

Formation of massive, dense cores by cloud-cloud collisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takahira, Ken; Shima, Kazuhiro; Habe, Asao; Tasker, Elizabeth J.

2018-05-01

We performed sub-parsec (˜ 0.014 pc) scale simulations of cloud-cloud collisions of two idealized turbulent molecular clouds (MCs) with different masses in the range of (0.76-2.67) × 104 M_{⊙} and with collision speeds of 5-30 km s-1. Those parameters are larger than in Takahira, Tasker, and Habe (2014, ApJ, 792, 63), in which study the colliding system showed a partial gaseous arc morphology that supports the NANTEN observations of objects indicated to be colliding MCs using numerical simulations. Gas clumps with density greater than 10-20 g cm-3 were identified as pre-stellar cores and tracked through the simulation to investigate the effects of the mass of colliding clouds and the collision speeds on the resulting core population. Our results demonstrate that the smaller cloud property is more important for the results of cloud-cloud collisions. The mass function of formed cores can be approximated by a power-law relation with an index γ = -1.6 in slower cloud-cloud collisions (v ˜ 5 km s-1), and is in good agreement with observation of MCs. A faster relative speed increases the number of cores formed in the early stage of collisions and shortens the gas accretion phase of cores in the shocked region, leading to the suppression of core growth. The bending point appears in the high-mass part of the core mass function and the bending point mass decreases with increase in collision speed for the same combination of colliding clouds. The higher-mass part of the core mass function than the bending point mass can be approximated by a power law with γ = -2-3 that is similar to the power index of the massive part of the observed stellar initial mass function. We discuss implications of our results for the massive-star formation in our Galaxy.

Morphological diagnostics of star formation in molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beaumont, Christopher Norris

Molecular clouds are the birth sites of all star formation in the present-day universe. They represent the initial conditions of star formation, and are the primary medium by which stars transfer energy and momentum back to parsec scales. Yet, the physical evolution of molecular clouds remains poorly understood. This is not due to a lack of observational data, nor is it due to an inability to simulate the conditions inside molecular clouds. Instead, the physics and structure of the interstellar medium are sufficiently complex that interpreting molecular cloud data is very difficult. This dissertation mitigates this problem, by developing more sophisticated ways to interpret morphological information in molecular cloud observations and simulations. In particular, I have focused on leveraging machine learning techniques to identify physically meaningful substructures in the interstellar medium, as well as techniques to inter-compare molecular cloud simulations to observations. These contributions make it easier to understand the interplay between molecular clouds and star formation. Specific contributions include: new insight about the sheet-like geometry of molecular clouds based on observations of stellar bubbles; a new algorithm to disambiguate overlapping yet morphologically distinct cloud structures; a new perspective on the relationship between molecular cloud column density distributions and the sizes of cloud substructures; a quantitative analysis of how projection effects affect measurements of cloud properties; and an automatically generated, statistically-calibrated catalog of bubbles identified from their infrared morphologies.

Life and Death in a Star-Forming Cloud

NASA Image and Video Library

2012-11-14

W44 is located around 10,000 light-years away, within a forest of dense star-forming clouds in the constellation of Aquila, the Eagle. This image combines data from ESA Herschel and XXM-Newton space observatories.

AzTEC Survey of the Central Molecular Zone: Modeling Dust SEDs and N-PDF with Hierarchical Bayesian Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, Yuping; Wang, Daniel; Wilson, Grant; Gutermuth, Robert; Heyer, Mark

2018-01-01

We present the AzTEC/LMT survey of dust continuum at 1.1mm on the central ˜ 200pc (CMZ) of our Galaxy. A joint SED analysis of all existing dust continuum surveys on the CMZ is performed, from 160µm to 1.1mm. Our analysis follows a MCMC sampling strategy incorporating the knowledge of PSFs in different maps, which provides unprecedented spacial resolution on distributions of dust temperature, column density and emissivity index. The dense clumps in the CMZ typically show low dust temperature ( 20K), with no significant sign of buried star formation, and a weak evolution of higher emissivity index toward dense peak. A new model is proposed, allowing for varying dust temperature inside a cloud and self-shielding of dust emission, which leads to similar conclusions on dust temperature and grain properties. We further apply a hierarchical Bayesian analysis to infer the column density probability distribution function (N-PDF), while simultaneously removing the Galactic foreground and background emission. The N-PDF shows a steep power-law profile with α > 3, indicating that formation of dense structures are suppressed.

Interstellar Ice and Dust: The Feedstock of the Solar System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Allamandola, L. J.; Morrison, David (Technical Monitor)

1994-01-01

Studying the chemical and isotopic composition of interstellar ice and dust provides insight into the composition and chemical history of the solid bodies in the solar nebula and the nature of the material subsequently brought into the inner part of the solar system by comets and meteorites. It is now possible to probe the composition of these microscopic interstellar particles (some hundreds of light years away), thanks to substantial progress in two areas: astronomical spectroscopic techniques in the middle-infrared, the spectral region most diagnostic of composition; and laboratory simulations which realistically reproduce the critical conditions in various interstellar environments. High quality infrared spectra of many different astronomical sources, some associated with dark molecular clouds, and others in the diffuse interstellar medium (DISM) are now available. What comparisons of these spectra with laboratory spectra tell us about the complex organic components of these materials is the subject of this talk. Most interstellar material is concentrated in large molecular clouds where simple molecules are formed by gas phase and dust grain surface reactions. Gaseous species (except H2) striking the cold (10K) dust will stick, forming an icy grain mantle. This accretion, coupled with energetic particle bombardment and UV photolysis, will produce a complex chemical mixture containing volatile, non-volatile, and isotopically fractionated species. One can compare spectra of the diffuse and dense interstellar medium with the spectra of analogs produced in the laboratory under conditions which mimic those in these different environments. In this way one can determine the composition and abundances of the major constituents present and place general constraints on the types and relative abundances of organics coating the grains. Ices in dense clouds contain H2O, CH3OH, CO, perhaps some NH3 and H2CO, as well as nitriles and ketones or esters. There is some evidence that the later, more complex species, are also present on the grains in the DISM. The evidence for these materials, in addition to carbon rich materials such as amorphous carbon, microdiamonds, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons will be reviewed and the possible connection with meteoritic organics will be discussed.

Suzaku spectra of a Type-II supernova remnant, Kes 79

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sato, Tamotsu; Koyama, Katsuji; Lee, Shiu-Hang; Takahashi, Tadayuki

2016-06-01

This paper reports on results of a Suzaku observation of the supernova remnant (SNR) Kes 79 (G33.6+0.1). The X-ray spectrum is best fitted by a two-temperature model: a non-equilibrium ionization (NEI) plasma and a collisional ionization equilibrium (CIE) plasma. The NEI plasma is spatially confined within the inner radio shell with kT ˜ 0.8 keV, while the CIE plasma is found in more spatially extended regions associated with the outer radio shell with kT ˜0.2 keV and solar abundance. Therefore, the NEI plasma is attributable to the SN ejecta, and the CIE plasma is the forward shocked interstellar medium. In the NEI plasma, we discovered K-shell lines of Al, Ar, and Ca for the first time. The abundance pattern and estimated mass of the ejecta are consistent with a core-collapse supernova explosion of a ˜30-40M⊙ progenitor star. An Fe line with a center energy of ˜6.4 keV is also found in the southeast (SE) portion of the SNR, a close peripheral region around dense molecular clouds. One possibility is that the line is associated with the ejecta. However, the centroid energy of ˜6.4 keV and the spatial distribution of enhancement near the SE peripheral do not favor this scenario. Since the ˜6.4 keV emitting region coincides with the molecular clouds, we propose another possibility, that the Fe line is due to K-shell ionization of neutral Fe by the interaction of locally accelerated protons (LECRp) with the surrounding molecular cloud. Both of these possibilities, heated ejecta or LECRp origin, are discussed based on the observational facts.

CHANGE OF MAGNETIC FIELD-GAS ALIGNMENT AT THE GRAVITY-DRIVEN ALFVÉNIC TRANSITION IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS: IMPLICATIONS FOR DUST POLARIZATION OBSERVATIONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Che-Yu; King, Patrick K.; Li, Zhi-Yun

Diffuse striations in molecular clouds are preferentially aligned with local magnetic fields, whereas dense filaments tend to be perpendicular to them. When and why this transition occurs remain uncertain. To explore the physics behind this transition, we compute the histogram of relative orientation (HRO) between the density gradient and the magnetic field in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of prestellar core formation in shock-compressed regions within giant molecular clouds. We find that, in the magnetically dominated (sub-Alfvénic) post-shock region, the gas structure is preferentially aligned with the local magnetic field. For overdense sub-regions with super-Alfvénic gas, their elongation becomes preferentially perpendicularmore » to the local magnetic field. The transition occurs when self-gravitating gas gains enough kinetic energy from the gravitational acceleration to overcome the magnetic support against the cross-field contraction, which results in a power-law increase of the field strength with density. Similar results can be drawn from HROs in projected two-dimensional maps with integrated column densities and synthetic polarized dust emission. We quantitatively analyze our simulated polarization properties, and interpret the reduced polarization fraction at high column densities as the result of increased distortion of magnetic field directions in trans- or super-Alfvénic gas. Furthermore, we introduce measures of the inclination and tangledness of the magnetic field along the line of sight as the controlling factors of the polarization fraction. Observations of the polarization fraction and angle dispersion can therefore be utilized in studying local magnetic field morphology in star-forming regions.« less

Fibers in the NGC 1333 proto-cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hacar, A.; Tafalla, M.; Alves, J.

2017-10-01

Are the initial conditions for clustered star formation the same as for non-clustered star formation? To investigate the initial gas properties in young proto-clusters we carried out a comprehensive and high-sensitivity study of the internal structure, density, temperature, and kinematics of the dense gas content of the NGC 1333 region in Perseus, one of the nearest and best studied embedded clusters. The analysis of the gas velocities in the position-position-velocity space reveals an intricate underlying gas organization both in space and velocity. We identified a total of 14 velocity-coherent, (tran-)sonic structures within NGC 1333, with similar physical and kinematic properties than those quiescent, star-forming (aka fertile) fibers previously identified in low-mass star-forming clouds. These fibers are arranged in a complex spatial network, build-up the observed total column density, and contain the dense cores and protostars in this cloud. Our results demonstrate that the presence of fibers is not restricted to low-mass clouds but can be extended to regions of increasing mass and complexity. We propose that the observational dichotomy between clustered and non-clustered star-forming regions might be naturally explained by the distinct spatial density of fertile fibers in these environments. Based on observations carried out under project number 169-11 with the IRAM 30 m Telescope. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain).Based on observations with the 100-m telescope of the MPIfR (Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie) at Effelsberg.Molecular line observations (spectral cubes) are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/606/A123

Radiative Hydrodynamic Simulations of In Situ Star Formation in the Galactic Center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frazer, Chris; Heitsch, Fabian

2018-01-01

Many stars observed in the Galactic Center (GC) orbit the supermassive black hole (SMBH), Sagittarius A*, in a region where the extreme gravitational field is expected to inhibit star formation. Yet, many of these stars are young which favors an in situ formation scenario. Previous numerical work on this topic has focused on two possible solutions. First, the tidal capture of a > 10^4 Msun infalling molecular cloud by an SMBH may result in the formation of a surrounding gas disk which then rapidly cools and forms stars. This process results in stellar populations that are consistent with the observed stellar disk in the GC. Second, dense gas clumps of approximately 100 Msun on highly eccentric orbits about an SMBH can experience sparks of star formation via orbital compressions occurring during pericenter passage. In my dissertation, I build upon these models using a series of grid-based radiative hydrodynamic simulations, including the effects of both ionizing ultraviolet light from existing stars as well as X-ray radiation emanating from the central black hole. Radiation is treated with an adaptive ray-tracing routine, including appropriate heating and cooling for both neutral and ionized gas. These models show that ultraviolet radiation is sufficiently strong to heat low mass gas clouds, thus suppressing star formation from clump compression. Gas disks that form from cloud capture become sufficiently dense to provide shielding from the radiation of existing central stars, thus allowing star formation to continue. Conversely, X-rays easily penetrate and heat the potentially star forming gas. For sufficiently high radiation fields, this provides a mechanism to disrupt star formation for both scenarios considered above.

Blowin in the Stellar Wind

NASA Image and Video Library

2011-06-13

This image of the Elephant Trunk nebula from NASA Wide-field Survey Explorer shows clouds of dust and gas being pushed and eroded by a massive star. The bright trunk of the nebula near the center is an especially dense cloud.

Giant Molecular Cloud Structure and Evolution

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hollenbach, David (Technical Monitor); Bodenheimer, P. H.

2003-01-01

Bodenheimer and Burkert extended earlier calculations of cloud core models to study collapse and fragmentation. The initial condition for an SPH collapse calculation is the density distribution of a Bonnor-Ebert sphere, with near balance between turbulent plus thermal energy and gravitational energy. The main parameter is the turbulent Mach number. For each Mach number several runs are made, each with a different random realization of the initial turbulent velocity field. The turbulence decays on a dynamical time scale, leading the cloud into collapse. The collapse proceeds isothermally until the density has increased to about 10(exp 13) g cm(exp -3). Then heating is included in the dense regions. The nature of the fragmentation is investigated. About 15 different runs have been performed with Mach numbers ranging from 0.3 to 3.5 (the typical value observed in molecular cloud cores is 0.7). The results show a definite trend of increasing multiplicity with increasing Mach number (M), with the number of fragments approximately proportional to (1 + M). In general, this result agrees with that of Fisher, Klein, and McKee who published three cases with an AMR grid code. However our results show that there is a large spread about this curve. For example, for M=0.3 one case resulted in no fragmentation while a second produced three fragments. Thus it is not only the value of M but also the details of the superposition of the various velocity modes that play a critical role in the formation of binaries. Also, the simulations produce a wide range of separations (10-1000 AU) for the multiple systems, in rough agreement with observations. These results are discussed in two conference proceedings.

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Glenn, Jason; Aguirre, James; Bally, John; Battersby, Cara; Bradley, Eric Todd; Cyganowski, Claudia; Dowell, Darren; Drosback, Meredith; Dunham, Miranda K.; Evans, Neal J., II;

Comparison of roadway roughness derived from LIDAR and SFM 3D point clouds.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-10-01

This report describes a short-term study undertaken to investigate the potential for using dense three-dimensional (3D) point : clouds generated from light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and photogrammetry to assess roadway roughness. Spatially : cont...

Magnetic Fields and Multiple Protostar Formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boss, A. P.

2001-12-01

Recent observations of star-forming regions suggest that binary and multiple young stars are the rule rather than the exception, and implicate fragmentation as the likely mechanism for their formation. Most numerical hydrodynamical calculations of fragmentation have neglected the possibly deleterious effects of magnetic fields, in spite of ample evidence for the importance of magnetic support of pre-collapse clouds. We present here the first numerical hydrodynamical survey of the full effects of magnetic fields on the collapse and fragmentation of dense cloud cores. The models are calculated with a three dimensional, finite differences code which solves the equations of hydrodynamics, gravitation, and radiative transfer in the Eddington and diffusion approximations. Magnetic field effects are included through two simple approximations: magnetic pressure is added to the gas pressure, and magnetic tension is approximated by gravity dilution once collapse is well underway. Ambipolar diffusion of the magnetic field leading to cloud collapse is treated approximately as well. Models are calculated for a variety of initial cloud density profiles, shapes, and rotation rates. We find that in spite of the inclusion of magnetic field effects, dense cloud cores are capable of fragmenting into binary and multiple protostar systems. Initially prolate clouds tend to fragment into binary protostars, while initially oblate clouds tend to fragment into multiple protostar systems containing a small number (of order four) of fragments. The latter are likely to be subject to rapid orbital evolution, with close encounters possibly leading to the ejection of fragments. Contrary to expectation, magnetic tension effects appear to enhance fragmentation, allowing lower mass fragments to form than would otherwise be possible, because magnetic tension helps to prevent a central density singularity from forming and producing a dominant single object. Magnetically-supported dense cloud cores thus seem to be capable of collapsing and fragmenting into sufficient numbers of binary and multiple protostar systems to be compatible with observations of the relative rarity of single protostars. This work was partially supported by NSF grants AST-9983530 and MRI-9976645.

ROSAT X-ray sources embedded in the rho Ophiuchi cloud core

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casanova, Sophie; Montmerle, Thierry; Feigelson, Eric D.; Andre, Philippe

1995-02-01

We present a deep ROSAT Position Sensitive Proportional Counter (PSPC) image of the central region of the rho Oph star-forming region. The selected area, about 35 x 35 arcmins in size, is rich with dense molecular cores and young stellar objects (YSOs). Fifty-five reliable X-ray sources are detected (and up to 50 more candidates may be present) above approximately 1 keV,, doubling the number of Einstein sources in this area. These sources are cross-identified with an updated list of 88 YSOs associated with the rho Oph cloud core. A third of the reliable X-ray sources do not have optical counterparts on photographic plates. Most can be cross-identified wth Class II and Class III infrared (IR) sources, which are embedded T Tauri stars, but three reliable X-ray sources and up to seven candidate sources are tentatively identified with Class I protostars. Eighteen reliable, and up to 20 candidate, X-ray sources are probably new cloud members. The overall detection rate of the bona fide cloud population is very high (73% for the Class II and Class III objects). The spatial distribution of the X-ray sources closely follows that of the moleclar gas. The visual extinctions Av estimated from near-IR data) of the ROSAT sources can be as high as 50 or more, confirming that most are embedded in the cloud core and are presumably very young. Using bolometric luminosities Lbol estimated from J-magnitudes a tight correlation between Lx and Lbol is found, similar to that seen for older T Tauri stars in the Cha I cloud: Lx approximately 10-4 Lbol. A general relation Lxproportional to LbolLj seems to apply to all T Tauri-like YSOs. The near equality of the extintion in the IR J band and in the keV X-ray rage implies that this relation is valid for the detected fluxes as well as for the dereddened fluxes. The X-ray luminosity function of the embedded sourced in rho Oph spans a range of Lx approximately 1028.5 to approximately equal to or greater than 1031.5 ergs/s and is statistically indistinguishable from that of X-ray-detected visile T Tauri stars. We estimate a total X-ray luminosity Lx, Oph approximately equal to or greater than 6 x 10 32 ergs/s from approximately equal to 200 X-ray sources in the cloud core, down to Lbol approximately 0.1 solar luminosity or Mstar approximately 0.3 solar mass. We discuss several consequences of in situ irradiation of molecular clouds by X-rays from embedded YSOs. These X-rays must partially ionize the inner regions of circumstellar disk coronae, possibly playing an important role in coupling magnetic ionize the fields and wind or bipolar outflows. Photon-stimulated deportion of large molecules by YSO X-rays may be partly responsible for the bright 12 micrometer halos seen in some molecular clouds.

Masses, luminosities and dynamics of galactic molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Solomon, P. M.; Rivolo, A. R.; Mooney, T. J.; Barrett, J. W.; Sage, L. J.

1987-01-01

Star formation in galaxies takes place in molecular clouds and the Milky Way is the only galaxy in which it is possible to resolve and study the physical properties and star formation activity of individual clouds. The masses, luminosities, dynamics, and distribution of molecular clouds, primarily giant molecular clouds in the Milky Way are described and analyzed. The observational data sets are the Massachusetts-Stony Brook CO Galactic Plane Survey and the IRAS far IR images. The molecular mass and infrared luminosities of glactic clouds are then compared with the molecular mass and infrared luminosities of external galaxies.

A population of isolated hard X-ray sources near the supernova remnant Kes 69

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bocchino, F.; Bykov, A. M.; Chen, Y.; Krassilchtchikov, A. M.; Levenfish, K. P.; Miceli, M.; Pavlov, G. G.; Uvarov, Yu. A.; Zhou, X.

2012-05-01

Recent X-ray observations of the supernova remnant (SNR) IC 443 interacting with molecular clouds detected a new population of hard X-ray sources related to the remnant itself, which has been proposed to be fast ejecta fragments propagating within the dense environment. Encouraged by these studies, we obtained a deep XMM-Newton observation of the SNR Kes 69, which also shows signs of a shock-cloud interaction. We report on the detection of 18 hard X-ray sources in the field of Kes 69, which is a number sognificantly higher than expected for the Galactic source population in the field. The sources are spatially correlated with CO emission from the cloud in the remnant environment. The spectra of 3 of the 18 sources can be described as hard power-laws with photon indices smaller than two plus line emission associated with K-shell transitions. We discuss the two most promising scenarios for the interpretation of the sources, namely fast ejecta fragments (as in IC 443) and cataclysmic variables. While most of the observational evidence is consistent with the former interpretation, we cannot rule out the latter.

Characteristics of fog and fogwater fluxes in a Puerto Rican elfin cloud forest.

Treesearch

Werner Eugster; Reto Burkard; Friso Holwerda; Frederick N. Scatena; L.A.(Sampurno) Bruijnzeel

2006-01-01

The Luquillo Mountains of northeastern Puerto Rico harbours important fractions of tropical montane cloud forests. Although it is well known that the frequent occurrence of dense fog is a common climatic characteristic of cloud forests around the world, it is poorly understood how fog processes shape and influence these ecosystems. Our study focuses on the physical...

Propagation of light through small clouds of cold interacting atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jennewein, S.; Sortais, Y. R. P.; Greffet, J.-J.; Browaeys, A.

2016-11-01

We demonstrate experimentally that a dense cloud of cold atoms with a size comparable to the wavelength of light can induce large group delays on a laser pulse when the laser is tightly focused on it and is close to an atomic resonance. Delays as large as -10 ns are observed, corresponding to "superluminal" propagation with negative group velocities as low as -300 m /s . Strikingly, this large delay is associated with a moderate extinction owing to the very small size of the dense cloud. It implies that a large phase shift is imprinted on the continuous laser beam. Our system may thus be useful for applications to quantum technologies, such as variable delay line for individual photons or phase imprint between two beams at the single-photon level.

STABILITY OF GAS CLOUDS IN GALACTIC NUCLEI: AN EXTENDED VIRIAL THEOREM

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chen, Xian; Cuadra, Jorge; Amaro-Seoane, Pau, E-mail: xchen@astro.puc.cl, E-mail: jcuadra@astro.puc.cl, E-mail: Pau.Amaro-Seoane@aei.mpg.de

2016-03-10

Cold gas entering the central 1–10{sup 2} pc of a galaxy fragments and condenses into clouds. The stability of the clouds determines whether they will be turned into stars or can be delivered to the central supermassive black hole (SMBH) to turn on an active galactic nucleus (AGN). The conventional criteria to assess the stability of these clouds, such as the Jeans criterion and Roche (or tidal) limit, are insufficient here, because they assume the dominance of self-gravity in binding a cloud, and neglect external agents, such as pressure and tidal forces, which are common in galactic nuclei. We formulatemore » a new scheme for judging this stability. We first revisit the conventional Virial theorem, taking into account an external pressure, to identify the correct range of masses that lead to stable clouds. We then extend the theorem to further include an external tidal field, which is equally crucial for the stability in the region of our interest—in dense star clusters, around SMBHs. We apply our extended Virial theorem to find new solutions to controversial problems, namely, the stability of the gas clumps in AGN tori, the circum-nuclear disk in the Galactic Center, and the central molecular zone of the Milky Way. The masses we derive for these structures are orders of magnitude smaller than the commonly used Virial masses (equivalent to the Jeans mass). Moreover, we prove that these clumps are stable, contrary to what one would naively deduce from the Roche (tidal) limit.« less

Reconciling the Census of Forming Stars in Gould's Belt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gutermath, Robert

We seek funding to construct a set of new, publicly available, value-enhanced data products for the 37 deg2 of archival Spitzer IRAC 3-8 micron and MIPS 24 micron imaging from the Spitzer Legacy surveys From Molecular Cores to Planet-forming Disks (PI Evans) and the subsequent Gould's Belt: Star Formation in the Solar Neighborhood (PI Allen; c2d/GB hereafter). These surveys comprise our canonical view of low-mass star formation, encompassing most of the nearest (<400pc) molecular clouds other than Taurus. From the proposed c2d/GB reprocessing, we will produce and deliver the following products to the Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) at IPAC for community access: - Artifact-mitigated, astrometrically-refined Spitzer mosaics at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, and 24 microns for all 18 clouds in c2d/GB; - Complete, band-merged, point source catalogs in all five Spitzer bands considered, combined with 2MASS and WISE photometry where available, and a census of young stellar objects (YSOs) with excess infrared emission that are selected via the Gutermuth et al. (2009; G09) YSO identification and classification techniques from the full catalogs; - Point source completeness decay data cubes at 30'' resolution for all Spitzer mosaics, and midIR luminosity completeness images built from the five-band completeness cubes for a wide range of mid-IR spectral energy distribution (SED) shapes. Our overarching goal is to provide a precise observational product that contains the means to test ever more detailed simulations of star formation and guide and supplement future observations of nearby star-forming regions and clouds at all wavelengths. A complete, internally consistent census of all YSOs exhibiting excess infrared emission and a detailed mapping of the limits of non-detections by YSO evolutionary stage for all molecular clouds and star-forming complexes observed by Spitzer within 2 kpc will have incredible value for both goals. With a full YSO census and a clearer understanding of how to interpret any lack of YSOs spatially within a wide range of clouds, we will address three fundamental lines of inquiry across a wide range of local star-forming environments: - What is the protostellar phase lifetime? How does it correlate with the star formation efficiency of molecular gas? - What is the shape of the protostellar luminosity function? Does it vary with molecular gas properties? - Which dense pre-stellar gas cores are starless ? More specifically, what YSO luminosity limits can we exclude in starless cores with the Spitzer surveys? Most of the c2d/GB cloud surveys have been analyzed and published by the original teams, and they have now largely dispersed (two of this proposal's investigators were members of one or both surveys). In parallel, the G09 techniques that were developed for a survey of 36 nearby starforming clusters and groups were adopted for a wide array of YSO surveys of more distant starforming molecular clouds (400-2000pc). These are observed similarly to the c2d/GB surveys, and thus the G09 techniques are readily applicable to the nearest clouds. Indeed, the c2d/GB YSO census overlaps with several clusters in the original G09 clusters survey, and substantial inconsistencies have been found between the corresponding YSO catalogs. Attempts to conduct broad comparisons and interpretation among c2d/GB and G09-family catalogs have been clearly limited by method-dependent differences. Reconciliation of these discrepancies is essential to establish a consistent census of YSOs and enable further scientific progress on these topics.

IONIZED GAS KINEMATICS AT HIGH RESOLUTION. V. [Ne ii], MULTIPLE CLUSTERS, HIGH EFFICIENCY STAR FORMATION, AND BLUE FLOWS IN HE 2–10

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Beck, Sara; Turner, Jean; Lacy, John

2015-11-20

We measured the 12.8 μm [Ne ii] line in the dwarf starburst galaxy He 2–10 with the high-resolution spectrometer TEXES on the NASA IRTF. The data cube has a diffraction-limited spatial resolution of ∼1″ and a total velocity resolution, including thermal broadening, of ∼5 km s{sup −1}. This makes it possible to compare the kinematics of individual star-forming clumps and molecular clouds in the three dimensions of space and velocity, and allows us to determine star formation efficiencies. The kinematics of the ionized gas confirm that the starburst contains multiple dense clusters. From the M/R of the clusters and themore » ≃30%–40% star formation efficiencies, the clusters are likely to be bound and long lived, like globulars. Non-gravitational features in the line profiles show how the ionized gas flows through the ambient molecular material, as well as a narrow velocity feature, which we identify with the interface of the H ii region and a cold dense clump. These data offer an unprecedented view of the interaction of embedded H ii regions with their environment.« less

The Wasp-Waist Nebula: VLA Ammonia Observations of the Molecular Core Envelope In a Unique Class 0 Protostellar System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wiseman, Jennifer

2010-01-01

The Wasp-Waist Nebula was discovered in the IRAC c2d survey of the Ophiuchus starforming clouds. It is powered by a well-isolated, low-luminosity, low-mass Class 0 object. Its weak outflow has been mapped in the CO (3-2) transition with the JCMT, in 2.12 micron H2 emission with WIRC (the Wide-Field Infrared Camera) on the Hale 5-meter, and, most recently, in six H2 mid-infrared lines with the IRS (InfraRed Spectrograph) on-board the Spitzer Space Telescope; possible jet twisting structure may be evidence of unique core dynamics. Here, we report results of recent VLA ammonia mapping observations of the dense gas envelope feeding the central core protostellar system. We describe the morphology, kinematics, and angular momentum characteristics of this unique system. The results are compared with the envelope structure deduced from IRAC 8-micron absorption of the PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon) background emission from the cloud.

Dust temperature distributions in star-forming condensations

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Xie, Taoling; Goldsmith, Paul F.; Snell, Ronald L.; Zhou, Weimin

1993-01-01

The FIR spectra of the central IR condensations in the dense cores of molecular clouds AFGL 2591. B335, L1551, Mon R2, and Sgr B2 are reanalyzed here in terms of the distribution of dust mass as a function of temperature. FIR spectra of these objects can be characterized reasonably well by a given functional form. The general shapes of the dust temperature distributions of these objects are similar and closely resemble the theoretical computations of de Muizon and Rouan (1985) for a sample of 'hot centered' clouds with active star formation. Specifically, the model yields a 'cutoff' temperature below which essentially no dust is needed to interpret the dust emission spectra, and most of the dust mass is distributed in a broad temperature range of a few tens of degrees above the cutoff temperature. Mass, luminosity, average temperature, and column density are obtained, and it is found that the physical quantities differ considerably from source to source in a meaningful way.

Fundamental data on the desorption of pure interstellar ices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, Wendy A.; Bolina, Amandeep S.

2007-01-01

The desorption of molecular ices from grain surfaces is important in a number of astrophysical environments including dense molecular clouds, cometary nuclei and the surfaces and atmospheres of some planets. With this in mind, we have performed a detailed investigation of the desorption of pure water, pure methanol and pure ammonia ices from a model dust-grain surface. We have used these results to determine the desorption energy, order of desorption and the pre-exponential factor for the desorption of these molecular ices from our model surface. We find good agreement between our desorption energies and those determined previously; however, our values for the desorption orders, and hence also the pre-exponential factors, are different to those reported previously. The kinetic parameters derived from our data have been used to model desorption on time-scales relevant to astrophysical processes and to calculate molecular residence times, given in terms of population half-life as a function of temperature. These results show the importance of laboratory data for the understanding of astronomical situations whereby icy mantles are warmed by nearby stars and by other dynamical events.

ON THE INFERENCE OF THE COSMIC-RAY IONIZATION RATE ζ FROM THE HCO{sup +}-to-DCO{sup +} ABUNDANCE RATIO: THE EFFECT OF NUCLEAR SPIN

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shingledecker, Christopher N.; Le Gal, Romane; Hincelin, Ugo

2016-10-20

The chemistry of dense interstellar regions was analyzed using a time-dependent gas–grain astrochemical simulation and a new chemical network that incorporates deuterated chemistry, taking into account nuclear spin states for the hydrogen chemistry and its deuterated isotopologues. With this new network, the utility of the [HCO{sup +}]/[DCO{sup +}] abundance ratio as a probe of the cosmic-ray ionization rate has been re-examined, with special attention paid to the effect of the initial value of the ortho-to-para ratio (OPR) of molecular hydrogen. After discussing the use of the probe for cold cores, we compare our results with previous theoretical and observational resultsmore » for a molecular cloud close to the supernova remnant W51C, which is thought to have an enhanced cosmic-ray ionization rate ζ caused by the nearby γ -ray source. In addition, we attempt to use our approach to estimate the cosmic-ray ionization rate for L1174, a dense core with an embedded star. Beyond the previously known sensitivity of [HCO{sup +}]/[DCO{sup +}] to ζ , we demonstrate its additional dependence on the initial OPR and, secondarily, on the age of the source, its temperature, and its density. We conclude that the usefulness of the [HCO{sup +}]/[DCO{sup +}] abundance ratio in constraining the cosmic-ray ionization rate in dense regions increases with the age of the source and the ionization rate as the ratio becomes far less sensitive to the initial value of the OPR.« less

Shocked Clouds in the Vela Supernova Remnant

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nichols, Joy S.; Slavin, Jonathan D.

2004-01-01

Unusually strong high-excitation C I has been detected in eleven lines of sight through the Vela supernova remnant by means of UV absorption-line studies of IUE data. Most of these lines of sight lie near the western edge of the X-ray bright region of the supernova remnant in a spatially distinct band approximately 1deg by 4deg oriented approximately north/south. The high-excitation C I (denoted C I*) is interpreted as evidence of a complex of shocked dense clouds inside the supernova remnant, due to the high pressures indicated in this region. To further analyze the properties of this region of C I*, we present new HIRES-processed IRAS data of the entire Vela SNR. A temperature map calculated from the HIRES IRAS data, based on a two-component dust model, reveals the signature of hot dust at several locations in the SNR. The hot dust is anti-correlated spatially with X-ray emission as revealed by ROSAT, as would be expected for a dusty medium interacting with a shock wave. The regions of hot dust are strongly correlated with optical filaments, supporting a scenario of dense clouds interior to the SNR that have been shocked and are now cooling behind the supernova blast wave. With few exceptions, the lines of sight to the strong C I* pass through regions of hot dust and optical filaments. Possible mechanisms for the production of the anomalously large columns of C I and C I* are discussed. Dense clouds on the back western hemisphere of the remnant may explain the relatively low X-ray emission in the western portion of the Vela supernova remnant due to the slower forward shock velocity in regions where the shock has encountered the dense clouds. An alternate explanation for the presence of neutral, excited state, and ionized species along the same line of sight may be a magnetic precusor that heats and compresses the gas ahead of the shock.

Star Formation in the Filamentary Dark Cloud GF-9: a Multi-Wavelength Intra-Cloud Comparative Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ciardi, David Robert

Filamentary dark clouds (FDCs) are a subclass of small molecular clouds containing small numbers of somewhat regularly spaced dense cores connected by lower density gas and dust. Most of the previous work performed on FDCs has concerned the star formation properties of individual dense cores within the FDCs and has not concerned the FDCs as entities of their own. As a result little is known about the general star formation properties of FDCs. The primary question addressed in this work is 'Within filamentary dark clouds, how does the star formation process within a core region compare to that within a filamentary region?' In order to address the above question, a multi-wavelength observational comparative study has been performed upon a representative dense core (hereafter, GF9-Core) and filamentary region (hereafter, GF9-Fila) within the FDC GF-9 (LDN 1082). At the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory, the core and filamentary region were observed in the rotational transitions of 12CO/ (J=1/to0),/ 13CO/ (J=1/to0)/ and/ CS/ (J=2/to1) covering a region of 10' x 8'. The temperature, density and kinematic structures of the two regions were deduced from the radio imaging spectroscopy data and were used to estimate the energy balance of the regions. We also obtained 70, 100, 135 and 200 μm images from the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) covering approximately 12' x 9' which were used to investigate the temperature and density distributions of the dust within the two regions. Finally, at the Wyoming Infrared Observatory using the Aerospace Corporation NICMOS3 camera, the core and filament were imaged in the near-infrared broadband filters J, H, and K-short covering a slightly smaller region of 7' x 7'. The near-infrared survey data were used to search for embedded Class I and Class II protostars and to investigate the density distribution of the dust. We have found that the evolutionary processes of the core region and the filament region proceed along similar evolutionary paths but are governed by the amount of mass within each region. GF9-Core has a greater mass and density than GF9-Fila, and therefore, gravity has a stronger influence on the fate of the dust and gas. Because of the larger mass, GF9-Core has proceeded along the star formation path and is currently engaged at the Class 0 protostar stage. In contrast, GF9-Fila is still in the earlier stages of contraction through ambipolar diffusion and may form a star sometime in the future.

A Nearly Complete Census Of Young Stars Distribution In The Nearest Molecular Clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myers, Philip C.

2001-01-01

Under this grant we prepared a program of observations based on our previous plans for observations with the WIRE satellite. Our main effort was to use our WIRE plans to prepare estimates for a SIRTF Legacy Science proposal, From Molecular Cores to Planets (N. Evans, PI). For this purpose, L. Allen compiled catalogs of dense cores with and without associated stars, of stars in the youngest evolutionary stages (Class 0, I, and II), and of embedded clusters observed in the near infrared. Further, Tyler Bourke, Mario van den Ancker, and Chang Won Lee compiled and edited a refined lists of 150 isolated cores in the nearest star-forming regions within several hundred pc of the Sun, suitable for surveying with SIRTF. Our SIRTF Legacy Science proposal was selected for funding, and we are continuing with our planning for the observations.

Starless Cores as Fundamental Physics Labs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mignano, Arturo; Molaro, Paolo; Levshakov, Sergei; Centurión, Miriam; Maccaferri, Giuseppe; Lapinov, Alexander

We present high resolution observations in the starless dense molecular core L1512 performed with the Medicina 32m radio telescope. The resolved hfs components of HC3N and NH3 show no kinematic sub-structure and consist of an apparently symmetric peak profile without broadened line wings or self-absorption features suggesting that they sample the same material. The velocity dispersion is 101( ± 1) m s - 1for NH3 and 85( ± 2) m s - 1 for HC3N. The kinetic temperature of the cloud is estimated at 9.2 ( ± 1.2) K and the turbulence is of 76 m s - 1in a subsonic regime. This places L1512 among the most quiescent dark cores and makes it an ideal laboratory to study variations of the electron-to-proton mass ratio, μ = {m}e/{m}p by means of observations of inversion lines of NH3 combined with rotational lines of other molecular species.

Grain Surface Chemistry and the Composition of Interstellar Ices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tielens, A. G. G. M.

2006-01-01

Submicron sized dust grains are an important component of the interstellar medium. In particular they provide surface where active chemistry can take place. At the low temperatures (-10 K) of the interstellar medium, colliding gas phase species will stick, diffuse, react, and form an icy mantle on these dust grains. This talk will review the principles of grain surface chemistry and delineate important grain surface routes, focusing on reactions involving H, D, and O among each other and with molecules such as CO. Interstellar ice mantles can be studied through the fundamental vibrations of molecular species in the mid-infrared spectra of sources embedded in or located behind dense molecular clouds. Analysis of this type of data has provided a complex view of the composition of these ices and the processes involved. Specifically, besides grain surface chemistry, the composition of interstellar ices is also affected by thermal processing due to nearby newly formed stars. This leads to segregation between different ice components as well as outgassing. The latter results in the formation of a so-called Hot Core region with a gas phase composition dominated by evaporated mantle species. Studies of such regions provide thus a different view on the ice composition and the chemical processes involved. Interstellar ices can also be processed by FUV photons and high energy cosmic ray ions. Cosmic ray processing likely dominates the return of accreted species to the gas phase where further gas phase reactions can take place. These different chemical routes towards molecular complexity in molecular clouds and particularly regions of star formation will be discussed.

Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+ (GOT C+): First Results: Inner Galaxy Survey

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Langer, William; Velusamy, T.; Pineda, J. L.; Goldsmith, P. F.; Li, D.; Yorke, H. W.

2010-05-01

To understand the lifecycle of the interstellar gas and star formation we need detailed information about the diffuse atomic and diffuse molecular gas cloud properties. The ionized carbon [CII] 1.9 THz fine structure line is an important tracer of the atomic gas in the diffuse regions and the interface regions of atomic gas to molecular clouds. Furthermore, C+ is a major ISM coolant and among the Galaxy's strongest far-IR emission lines, and thus controls the thermal conditions throughout large parts of the Galaxy. Until now our knowledge of interstellar gas has been limited to the diffuse atomic phase traced by HI and to the dense molecular H2 phase traced by CO. However, we are missing an important phase of the ISM called "dark gas” in which there is no or little, HI, and mostly molecular hydrogen but with insufficient shielding of UV to allow CO to form. C+ emission and absorption lines at 1.9 THz have the potential to trace this gas. Galactic Observations of the Terahertz C+ Line (GOT C+) is a Herschel Space Observatory Open Time Key Program to study the diffuse interstellar medium by sampling [CII] 1.9 THz line emission throughout the Galactic disk. We discuss the broader perspective of this survey and the first results of GOT C+ obtained during the Science Demonstration Phase (SDP) and Priority Science Phase (PSP) of HIFI, which focus on approximately 100 lines of sight in the inner galaxy. This research was conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The extinction law from photometric data: linear regression methods

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ascenso, J.; Lombardi, M.; Lada, C. J.; Alves, J.

2012-04-01

Context. The properties of dust grains, in particular their size distribution, are expected to differ from the interstellar medium to the high-density regions within molecular clouds. Since the extinction at near-infrared wavelengths is caused by dust, the extinction law in cores should depart from that found in low-density environments if the dust grains have different properties. Aims: We explore methods to measure the near-infrared extinction law produced by dense material in molecular cloud cores from photometric data. Methods: Using controlled sets of synthetic and semi-synthetic data, we test several methods for linear regression applied to the specific problem of deriving the extinction law from photometric data. We cover the parameter space appropriate to this type of observations. Results: We find that many of the common linear-regression methods produce biased results when applied to the extinction law from photometric colors. We propose and validate a new method, LinES, as the most reliable for this effect. We explore the use of this method to detect whether or not the extinction law of a given reddened population has a break at some value of extinction. Based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile (ESO programmes 069.C-0426 and 074.C-0728).

HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRON IRRADIATION OF INTERSTELLAR CARBONACEOUS DUST ANALOGS: COSMIC-RAY EFFECTS ON THE CARRIERS OF THE 3.4 μ m ABSORPTION BAND

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maté, Belén; Molpeceres, Germán; Jiménez-Redondo, Miguel

2016-11-01

The effects of cosmic rays on the carriers of the interstellar 3.4 μ m absorption band have been investigated in the laboratory. This band is attributed to stretching vibrations of CH{sub 3} and CH{sub 2} in carbonaceous dust. It is widely observed in the diffuse interstellar medium, but disappears in dense clouds. Destruction of CH{sub 3} and CH{sub 2} by cosmic rays could become relevant in dense clouds, shielded from the external ultraviolet field. For the simulations, samples of hydrogenated amorphous carbon (a-C:H) have been irradiated with 5 keV electrons. The decay of the band intensity versus electron fluence reflectsmore » a-C:H dehydrogenation, which is well described by a model assuming that H{sub 2} molecules, formed by the recombination of H atoms liberated through CH bond breaking, diffuse out of the sample. The CH bond destruction rates derived from the present experiments are in good accordance with those from previous ion irradiation experiments of HAC. The experimental simplicity of electron bombardment has allowed the use of higher-energy doses than in the ion experiments. The effects of cosmic rays on the aliphatic components of cosmic dust are found to be small. The estimated cosmic-ray destruction times for the 3.4 μ m band carriers lie in the 10{sup 8} yr range and cannot account for the disappearance of this band in dense clouds, which have characteristic lifetimes of 3 × 10{sup 7} yr. The results invite a more detailed investigation of the mechanisms of CH bond formation and breaking in the intermediate region between diffuse and dense clouds.« less

Modelling CO emission - II. The physical characteristics that determine the X factor in Galactic molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shetty, Rahul; Glover, Simon C.; Dullemond, Cornelis P.; Ostriker, Eve C.; Harris, Andrew I.; Klessen, Ralf S.

2011-08-01

We investigate how the X factor, the ratio of the molecular hydrogen column density (?) to velocity-integrated CO intensity (W), is determined by the physical properties of gas in model molecular clouds (MCs). The synthetic MCs are results of magnetohydrodynamic simulations, including a treatment of chemistry. We perform radiative transfer calculations to determine the emergent CO intensity, using the large velocity gradient approximation for estimating the CO population levels. In order to understand why observations generally find cloud-averaged values of X = XGal˜ 2 × 1020 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s, we focus on a model representing a typical Milky Way MC. Using globally integrated ? and W reproduces the limited range in X found in observations and a mean value X = XGal= 2.2 × 1020 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s. However, we show that when considering limited velocity intervals, X can take on a much larger range of values due to CO line saturation. Thus, the X factor strongly depends on both the range in gas velocities and the volume densities. The temperature variations within individual MCs do not strongly affect X, as dense gas contributes most to setting the X factor. For fixed velocity and density structure, gas with higher temperatures T has higher W, yielding X ∝ T-1/2 for T ˜ 20-100 K. We demonstrate that the linewidth-size scaling relationship does not influence the X factor - only the range in velocities is important. Clouds with larger linewidths σ, regardless of the linewidth-size relationship, have a higher W, corresponding to a lower value of X, scaling roughly as X ∝σ-1/2. The 'mist' model, often invoked to explain a constant XGal consisting of optically thick cloudlets with well-separated velocities, does not accurately reflect the conditions in a turbulent MC. We propose that the observed cloud-averaged values of X ˜ XGal are simply a result of the limited range in ?, temperatures and velocities found in Galactic MCs - a nearly constant value of X therefore does not require any linewidth-size relationship, or that MCs are virialized objects. Since gas properties likely differ (albeit even slightly) from cloud to cloud, masses derived through a standard value of the X factor should only be considered as a rough first estimate. For temperatures T ˜ 10-20 K, velocity dispersions σ˜ 1-6 km s-1and ? cm-2, we find cloud-averaged values X ˜ 2-4 × 1020 cm-2 K-1 km-1 s for solar-metallicity models.

A detailed investigation of proposed gas-phase syntheses of ammonia in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herbst, Eric; Defrees, D. J.; Mclean, A. D.

1987-01-01

The initial reactions of the Herbst and Klemperer (1973) and the Dalgarno (1974) schemes (I and II, respectively) for the gas-phase synthesis of ammonia in dense interstellar clouds were investigated. The rate of the slightly endothermic reaction between N(+) and H2 to yield NH(+) and H (scheme I) under interstellar conditions was reinvestigated under thermal and nonthermal conditions based on laboratory data. It was found that the relative importance of this reaction in synthesizing ammonia is determined by how the laboratory data at low temperature are interpreted. On the other hand, the exothermic reaction between N and H3(+) to form NH2(+) + H (scheme II) was calculated to possess significant activation energy and, therefore, to have a negligible rate coefficient under interstellar conditions. Consequently, this reaction cannot take place appreciably in interstellar clouds.

CHEMICAL PROCESSING OF PURE AMMONIA AND AMMONIA-WATER ICES INDUCED BY HEAVY IONS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bordalo, V.; Da Silveira, E. F.; Lv, X. Y.

Cosmic rays are possibly the main agents to prevent the freeze-out of molecules onto grain surfaces in cold dense clouds. Ammonia (NH{sub 3}) is one of the most abundant molecules present in dust ice mantles, with a concentration of up to 15% relative to water (H{sub 2}O). FTIR spectroscopy is used to monitor pure NH{sub 3} and NH{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O ice samples as they are irradiated with Ni and Zn ion beams (500-600 MeV) at GANIL/France. New species, such as hydrazine (N{sub 2}H{sub 4}), diazene (N{sub 2}H{sub 2} isomers), molecular hydrogen (H{sub 2}), and nitrogen (N{sub 2}) were identified aftermore » irradiation of pure NH{sub 3} ices. Nitrous oxide (N{sub 2}O), nitrogen oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO{sub 2}), and hydroxylamine (NH{sub 2}OH) are some of the products of the NH{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O ice radiolysis. The spectral band at 6.85 {mu}m was observed after irradiation of both types of ice. Besides the likely contribution of ammonium (NH{sub 4}{sup +}) and amino (NH{sub 2}) radicals, data suggest a small contribution of NH{sub 2}OH to this band profile after high fluences of irradiation of NH{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O ices. The spectral shift of the NH{sub 3} ''umbrella'' mode (9.3 {mu}m) band is parameterized as a function of NH{sub 3}/H{sub 2}O ratio in amorphous ices. Ammonia and water destruction cross-sections are obtained, as well as the rate of NH{sub 3}-H{sub 2}O (1:10) ice compaction, measured by the OH dangling bond destruction cross-section. Ammonia destruction is enhanced in the presence of H{sub 2}O in the ice and a power law relationship between stopping power and NH{sub 3} destruction cross-section is verified. Such results may provide relevant information for the evolution of molecular species in dense molecular clouds.« less

Triggered star-formation in the bright rimmed globule IC1396A

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Patel, Nimesh A.; Sicilia-Aguilar, Aurora; Goldsmith, Paul

2015-01-01

IC1396 is a well known HII region and molecular cloud complex surrounding the Trumpler 37 cluster of OB stars in the Cepheus OB2 association. The dense, elephant trunk shaped globules in this region typically show bright rims facing the central exciting O6 star HD~206267. This region, at a distance of 870 pc, is an excellent astrophysical laboratory for studying the feedback effects of massive stars on neighboring molecular clouds. Triggered star formation occurs when dense cores (which would otherwise remain stable) are compressed and made unstable by the sustained energy input from the OB association. Observationally it remains challenging to prove whether the onset of star-formation in such globules is triggered or spontaneous.Using the Submillimeter Array (SMA), we observed IC1396 globule A (Pottasch 1958 nomenclature), targeting four newly discovered protostars from recent Herschel PACS observations. Here we present 230 GHz molecular line (CO, 13CO, C18O, N2D+ and H2CO) and continuum results for the source IC1396A-PACS-1 (Sicilia-Aguilar et al. 2014). This is a Class 0 source very close to the edge of the ionization front and Herschel observations show this to be a most promisingcase of triggered star-formation. The SMA 230 GHz continuum source has a flux density of 280 mJy. We estimate a dust mass of about 0.1 Msun in this source which appears very compact in our 5" beam. CO, 13CO and C18O emission is largely resolved out by the interferometer and will require combined imaging with single-dish observations. (We have a parallel ongoing study being carried out with the IRAM 30m telescope). SMA N2D+ emission peaks on the continuum sourceand is partially resolved. H2CO emission appears to avoid the peak of continuum and N2D+, suggesting depletion. Both the morphology and kinematics in H2CO emission are indicative of internal disturbance, away from the PDR region into the globule.

Interstellar medium around supernova remnants associated with gamma-ray sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duvidovich, L.; Petriella, A.; Giacani, E.; Dubner, G.

2017-07-01

Supernova remnants (SNRs) are potential sources of gamma-rays, either through inverse Compton scattering of electrons off ambient photons or through the decay of neutral pions created by the collision of energetic protons with dense ambient gas. The SNRs G298.6-0.0 and G298.5-0.3 are proposed to be associated to the gamma-ray sources 3FGL J1214.0-6236 and 3FGL J1212.2-6251, respectively. They are located in a complex portion of the Galactic plane, also containing sources of powerful stellar winds such as the star Wolf Rayet HD104994 and the HII regions G298.559-00.114, G298.868-00.432 and G298.228-00.331 with ongoing star formation. We present a study of the neutral hydrogen distribution towards the mentioned SNRs. We found a structure with ellipsoidal morphology that encloses a region containing G298.5-0.3, G298.6-0.0, HD104994, G298.559-00.114 and G298.228-00.331. This HI feature is detected in the velocity range 89-100 km s-1. We propose that the neutral gas would be the accelerated portion (which would explain its high radial velocity) of a gas shell swept up by a series of expansive and explosive events. The rest of this shell (at radial velocities compatible with the systemic velocity of the objects) is not visible because of confusion with galactic emission. We also inspected the distribution of the 12CO gas and found a dense molecular cloud at the systemic velocity of ˜ 22 km s-1 corresponding to the kinematical distance of ˜ 10.4 kpc, compatible with the distance to the SNR G298.6-0.0. This molecular cloud is in spatial coincidence, projected in the sky plane, with the very high energy source associated with the remnant. This fact, suggesting a possible hadronic origin for the gamma-rays emission. Regarding to the SNR G298.5-0.3, smaller and fainter than the previous one, the angular resolution of the molecular data is insufficient to draw meaningful conclusions.

Carbon Dioxide Clouds at High Altitude in the Tropics and in an Early Dense Martian Atmosphere

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Colaprete, Anthony; Toon, Owen B.

2001-01-01

We use a time dependent, microphysical cloud model to study the formation of carbon dioxide clouds in the Martian atmosphere. Laboratory studies by Glandor et al. show that high critical supersaturations are required for cloud particle nucleation and that surface kinetic growth is not limited. These conditions, which are similar to those for cirrus clouds on Earth, lead to the formation of carbon dioxide ice particles with radii greater than 500 micrometers and concentrations of less than 0.1 cm(exp -3) for typical atmospheric conditions. Within the current Martian atmosphere, CO2 cloud formation is possible at the poles during winter and at high altitudes in the tropics during periods of increased atmospheric dust loading. In both cases, temperature perturbations of several degrees below the CO2 saturation temperature are required to nucleate new cloud particles suggesting that dynamical processes are the most common initiators of carbon dioxide clouds rather than diabatic cooling. The microphysical cloud model, coupled to a two-stream radiative transfer model, is used to reexamine the impact of CO2 clouds on the surface temperature within a dense CO2 atmosphere. The formation of carbon dioxide clouds leads to a warmer surface than what would be expected for clear sky conditions. The amount of warming is sensitive to the presence of dust and water vapor in the atmosphere, both of which act to dampen cloud effects. The radiative warming associated with cloud formation, as well as latent heating, work to dissipate the clouds when present. Thus, clouds never last for periods much longer than several days, limiting their overall effectiveness for warming the surface. The time average cloud optical depth is approximately unity leading to a 5-10 K warming, depending on the surface pressure. However, the surface temperature does not rise about the freezing point of liquid water even for pressures as high as 5 bars, at a solar luminosity of 75% the current value.

A FAR-INFRARED OBSERVATIONAL TEST OF THE DIRECTIONAL DEPENDENCE IN RADIATIVE GRAIN ALIGNMENT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vaillancourt, John E.; Andersson, B.-G., E-mail: jvaillancourt@sofia.usra.edu, E-mail: bg@sofia.usra.edu

The alignment of interstellar dust grains with magnetic fields provides a key method for measuring the strength and morphology of the fields. In turn, this provides a means to study the role of magnetic fields from diffuse gas to dense star-forming regions. The physical mechanism for aligning the grains has been a long-term subject of study and debate. The theory of radiative torques, in which an anisotropic radiation field imparts sufficient torques to align the grains while simultaneously spinning them to high rotational velocities, has passed a number of observational tests. Here we use archival polarization data in dense regionsmore » of the Orion molecular cloud (OMC-1) at 100, 350, and 850 μm to test the prediction that the alignment efficiency is dependent upon the relative orientations of the magnetic field and radiation anisotropy. We find that the expected polarization signal, with a 180-degree period, exists at all wavelengths out to radii of 1.5 arcmin centered on the Becklin–Neugebauer Kleinmann-Low (BNKL) object in OMC-1. The probabilities that these signals would occur due to random noise are low (≲1%), and are lowest toward BNKL compared to the rest of the cloud. Additionally, the relative magnetic field to radiation anisotropy directions accord with theoretical predictions in that they agree to better than 15° at 100 μm and 4° at 350 μm.« less

ALMA Detection of Bipolar Outflows: Evidence for Low-mass Star Formation within 1 pc of Sgr A*

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yusef-Zadeh, F.; Wardle, M.; Kunneriath, D.; Royster, M.; Wootten, A.; Roberts, D. A.

2017-12-01

We report the discovery of 11 bipolar outflows within a projected distance of 1 pc from Sgr A* based on deep ALMA observations of 13CO, H30α, and SiO (5-4) lines with subarcsecond and ˜1.3 km s-1 resolutions. These unambiguous signatures of young protostars manifest as approaching and receding lobes of dense gas swept up by the jets created during the formation and early evolution of stars. The lobe masses and momentum transfer rates are consistent with young protostellar outflows found throughout the disk of the Galaxy. The mean dynamical age of the outflow population is estimated to be {6.5}-3.6+8.1× {10}3 years. The rate of star formation is ˜5 × 10-4 {M}⊙ yr-1 assuming a mean stellar mass of ˜0.3 {M}⊙ . This discovery provides evidence that star formation is taking place within clouds surprisingly close to Sgr A*, perhaps due to events that compress the host cloud, creating condensations with sufficient self-gravity to resist tidal disruption by Sgr A*. Low-mass star formation over the past few billion years at this level would contribute significantly to the stellar mass budget in the central few parsecs of the Galaxy. The presence of many dense clumps of molecular material within 1 pc of Sgr A* suggests that star formation could take place in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes in the nuclei of external galaxies.

THE YOUNG STELLAR POPULATION OF THE CYGNUS-X DR15 REGION

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rivera-Gálvez, S.; Román-Zúñiga, C. G.; Jiménez-Bailón, E.

We present a multi-wavelength study of the young stellar population in the Cygnus-X DR15 region. We studied young stars that were forming or recently formed at and around the tip of a prominent molecular pillar and an infrared dark cloud. Using a combination of ground-based near-infrared, space-based infrared, and X-ray data, we constructed a point source catalog from which we identified 226 young stellar sources, which we classified into evolutionary classes. We studied their spatial distributions across the molecular gas structures and identified several groups that possibly belong to distinct young star clusters. We obtained samples of these groups andmore » constructed K-band luminosity functions that we compared with those of artificial clusters, allowing us to make first order estimates of the mean ages and age spreads of the groups. We used a {sup 13}CO(1-0) map to investigate the gas kinematics at the prominent gaseous envelope of the central cluster in DR15, and we inferred that the removal of this envelope is relatively slow compared to other cluster regions, in which the gas dispersal timescale could be similar or shorter than the circumstellar disk dissipation timescale. The presence of other groups with slightly older ages, associated with much less prominent gaseous structures, may imply that the evolution of young clusters in this part of the complex proceeds in periods that last 3–5 Myr, perhaps after a slow dissipation of their dense molecular cloud birthplaces.« less

Object Detection using the Kinect

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-01

Kinect camera and point cloud data from the Kinect’s structured light stereo system (figure 1). We obtain reasonable results using a single prototype...same manner we present in this report. For example, at Willow Garage , Steder uses a 3-D feature he developed to classify objects directly from point...detecting backpacks using the data available from the Kinect sensor. 4 3.1 Point Cloud Filtering Dense point clouds derived from stereo are notoriously

Ionization compression impact on dense gas distribution and star formation. Probability density functions around H II regions as seen by Herschel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tremblin, P.; Schneider, N.; Minier, V.; Didelon, P.; Hill, T.; Anderson, L. D.; Motte, F.; Zavagno, A.; André, Ph.; Arzoumanian, D.; Audit, E.; Benedettini, M.; Bontemps, S.; Csengeri, T.; Di Francesco, J.; Giannini, T.; Hennemann, M.; Nguyen Luong, Q.; Marston, A. P.; Peretto, N.; Rivera-Ingraham, A.; Russeil, D.; Rygl, K. L. J.; Spinoglio, L.; White, G. J.

2014-04-01

Aims: Ionization feedback should impact the probability distribution function (PDF) of the column density of cold dust around the ionized gas. We aim to quantify this effect and discuss its potential link to the core and initial mass function (CMF/IMF). Methods: We used Herschel column density maps of several regions observed within the HOBYS key program in a systematic way: M 16, the Rosette and Vela C molecular clouds, and the RCW 120 H ii region. We computed the PDFs in concentric disks around the main ionizing sources, determined their properties, and discuss the effect of ionization pressure on the distribution of the column density. Results: We fitted the column density PDFs of all clouds with two lognormal distributions, since they present a "double-peak" or an enlarged shape in the PDF. Our interpretation is that the lowest part of the column density distribution describes the turbulent molecular gas, while the second peak corresponds to a compression zone induced by the expansion of the ionized gas into the turbulent molecular cloud. Such a double peak is not visible for all clouds associated with ionization fronts, but it depends on the relative importance of ionization pressure and turbulent ram pressure. A power-law tail is present for higher column densities, which are generally ascribed to the effect of gravity. The condensations at the edge of the ionized gas have a steep compressed radial profile, sometimes recognizable in the flattening of the power-law tail. This could lead to an unambiguous criterion that is able to disentangle triggered star formation from pre-existing star formation. Conclusions: In the context of the gravo-turbulent scenario for the origin of the CMF/IMF, the double-peaked or enlarged shape of the PDF may affect the formation of objects at both the low-mass and the high-mass ends of the CMF/IMF. In particular, a broader PDF is required by the gravo-turbulent scenario to fit the IMF properly with a reasonable initial Mach number for the molecular cloud. Since other physical processes (e.g., the equation of state and the variations among the core properties) have already been said to broaden the PDF, the relative importance of the different effects remains an open question. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Spitzer Telescope Sends Rose for Valentine Day

NASA Image and Video Library

2004-02-12

A cluster of newborn stars herald their birth in this interstellar Valentine Day commemorative picture obtained with NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. These bright young stars are found in a rosebud-shaped and rose-colored nebulosity known as NGC 7129. The star cluster and its associated nebula are located at a distance of 3300 light-years in the constellation Cepheus. A recent census of the cluster reveals the presence of 130 young stars. The stars formed from a massive cloud of gas and dust that contains enough raw materials to create a thousand Sun-like stars. In a process that astronomers still poorly understand, fragments of this molecular cloud became so cold and dense that they collapsed into stars. Most stars in our Milky Way galaxy are thought to form in such clusters. The Spitzer Space Telescope image was obtained with an infrared array camera that is sensitive to invisible infrared light at wavelengths that are about ten times longer than visible light. In this four-color composite, emission at 3.6 microns is depicted in blue, 4.5 microns in green, 5.8 microns in orange, and 8.0 microns in red. The image covers a region that is about one quarter the size of the full moon. As in any nursery, mayhem reigns. Within the astronomically brief period of a million years, the stars have managed to blow a large, irregular bubble in the molecular cloud that once enveloped them like a cocoon. The rosy pink hue is produced by glowing dust grains on the surface of the bubble being heated by the intense light from the embedded young stars. Upon absorbing ultraviolet and visible-light photons produced by the stars, the surrounding dust grains are heated and re-emit the energy at the longer infrared wavelengths observed by Spitzer. The reddish colors trace the distribution of molecular material thought to be rich in hydrocarbons. The cold molecular cloud outside the bubble is mostly invisible in these images. However, three very young stars near the center of the image are sending jets of supersonic gas into the cloud. The impact of these jets heats molecules of carbon monoxide in the cloud, producing the intricate green nebulosity that forms the stem of the rosebud. Not all stars are formed in clusters. Away from the main nebula and its young cluster are two smaller nebulae, to the left and bottom of the central 'rosebud,'each containing a stellar nursery with only a few young stars. Astronomers believe that our own Sun may have formed billions of years ago in a cluster similar to NGC 7129. Once the radiation from new cluster stars destroys the surrounding placental material, the stars begin to slowly drift apart. http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA05266

Ultra-High Spectral Resolution Observations of Fragmentation in Dark Cloud Cores

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Velusamy, T.; Langer, W.; Kuiper, T; Levin, S.; Olsen, E.

1993-01-01

This paper presents new evidence of the fragmentary structure of dense cores in dark clouds using the high resolution spectra of the carbon chain molecule CCS transition (J subscript N = 2 subscript 1 - 1 subscript o) at 22.344033 GHz with 0.008 km s superscript -1 resolution.

Single-photon nonlinearities in the propagation of focused beams through dense atomic clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Yidan; Gorshkov, Alexey; Gullans, Michael

2017-04-01

We theoretically study single-photon nonlinearities realized when a highly focused Gaussian beam passes through a dense atomic cloud. In this system, strong dipole-dipole interactions arise between closely spaced atoms and significantly affect light propagation. We find that the highly focused Gaussian beam can be treated as an effective one-dimensional waveguide, which simplifies the calculation of photon transmission and correlation functions. The formalism we develop is also applicable to the case where additional atom-atom interactions, such as interactions between Rydberg atoms, are involved. This work was supported by the ARL, NSF PFC at the JQI, AFOSR, NSF PIF, ARO, and AFOSR MURI.

Accuracy Analysis of a Dam Model from Drone Surveys

PubMed Central

Buffi, Giulia; Venturi, Sara

2017-01-01

This paper investigates the accuracy of models obtained by drone surveys. To this end, this work analyzes how the placement of ground control points (GCPs) used to georeference the dense point cloud of a dam affects the resulting three-dimensional (3D) model. Images of a double arch masonry dam upstream face are acquired from drone survey and used to build the 3D model of the dam for vulnerability analysis purposes. However, there still remained the issue of understanding the real impact of a correct GCPs location choice to properly georeference the images and thus, the model. To this end, a high number of GCPs configurations were investigated, building a series of dense point clouds. The accuracy of these resulting dense clouds was estimated comparing the coordinates of check points extracted from the model and their true coordinates measured via traditional topography. The paper aims at providing information about the optimal choice of GCPs placement not only for dams but also for all surveys of high-rise structures. The knowledge a priori of the effect of the GCPs number and location on the model accuracy can increase survey reliability and accuracy and speed up the survey set-up operations. PMID:28771185

Accuracy Analysis of a Dam Model from Drone Surveys.

PubMed

Ridolfi, Elena; Buffi, Giulia; Venturi, Sara; Manciola, Piergiorgio

2017-08-03

This paper investigates the accuracy of models obtained by drone surveys. To this end, this work analyzes how the placement of ground control points (GCPs) used to georeference the dense point cloud of a dam affects the resulting three-dimensional (3D) model. Images of a double arch masonry dam upstream face are acquired from drone survey and used to build the 3D model of the dam for vulnerability analysis purposes. However, there still remained the issue of understanding the real impact of a correct GCPs location choice to properly georeference the images and thus, the model. To this end, a high number of GCPs configurations were investigated, building a series of dense point clouds. The accuracy of these resulting dense clouds was estimated comparing the coordinates of check points extracted from the model and their true coordinates measured via traditional topography. The paper aims at providing information about the optimal choice of GCPs placement not only for dams but also for all surveys of high-rise structures. The knowledge a priori of the effect of the GCPs number and location on the model accuracy can increase survey reliability and accuracy and speed up the survey set-up operations.

Enhancement of Feedback Efficiency by Active Galactic Nucleus Outflows via the Magnetic Tension Force in the Inhomogeneous Interstellar Medium

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Asahina, Yuta; Ohsuga, Ken; Nomura, Mariko, E-mail: asahina@cfca.jp

By performing three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations of subrelativistic jets and disk winds propagating into the magnetized inhomogeneous interstellar medium (ISM), we investigate the magnetic effects on the active galactic nucleus feedback. Our simulations reveal that the magnetic tension force promotes the acceleration of the dense gas clouds, since the magnetic field lines, which are initially straight, bend around the gas clouds. In the jet models, the velocity dispersion of the clouds increases with an increase in the initial magnetic fields. The increment of the kinetic energy of the clouds is proportional to the initial magnetic fields, implying that the magnetic tensionmore » force increases the energy conversion efficiency from the jet to the gas clouds. Through simulations of the mildly collimated disk wind and the funnel-shaped disk wind, we confirm that such an enhancement of the energy conversion efficiency via the magnetic fields appears even if the energy is injected via the disk winds. The enhancement of the acceleration of the dense part of the magnetized ISM via the magnetic tension force will occur wherever the magnetized inhomogeneous matter is blown away.« less

Flash photoionization of gamma-ray burst environments

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Band, David L.; Hartmann, Dieter H.

1992-01-01

The H-alpha line emission that a flash-photoionized region emits is calculated. Archival transients, as well as various theoretical predictions, suggest that there may be significant ionizing flux. The limits on the line flux which might be observable indicate that the density must be fairly high for the recombination radiation to be observable. The intense burst radiation is insufficient to melt the dust which will be present in such a dense medium. This dust may attenuate the observable line emission, but does not attenuate the ionizing radiation before it ionizes the neutral medium surrounding the burst source. The dust can also produce a light echo. If there are indeed gamma-ray bursts in dense clouds, then it is possible that the burst was triggered by Bondi-Hoyle accretion from the dense medium, although it is unlikely on statistical grounds that all bursts occur in clouds.

Terrestrial laser scanning point clouds time series for the monitoring of slope movements: displacement measurement using image correlation and 3D feature tracking

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bornemann, Pierrick; Jean-Philippe, Malet; André, Stumpf; Anne, Puissant; Julien, Travelletti

2016-04-01

Dense multi-temporal point clouds acquired with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) have proved useful for the study of structure and kinematics of slope movements. Most of the existing deformation analysis methods rely on the use of interpolated data. Approaches that use multiscale image correlation provide a precise and robust estimation of the observed movements; however, for non-rigid motion patterns, these methods tend to underestimate all the components of the movement. Further, for rugged surface topography, interpolated data introduce a bias and a loss of information in some local places where the point cloud information is not sufficiently dense. Those limits can be overcome by using deformation analysis exploiting directly the original 3D point clouds assuming some hypotheses on the deformation (e.g. the classic ICP algorithm requires an initial guess by the user of the expected displacement patterns). The objective of this work is therefore to propose a deformation analysis method applied to a series of 20 3D point clouds covering the period October 2007 - October 2015 at the Super-Sauze landslide (South East French Alps). The dense point clouds have been acquired with a terrestrial long-range Optech ILRIS-3D laser scanning device from the same base station. The time series are analyzed using two approaches: 1) a method of correlation of gradient images, and 2) a method of feature tracking in the raw 3D point clouds. The estimated surface displacements are then compared with GNSS surveys on reference targets. Preliminary results tend to show that the image correlation method provides a good estimation of the displacement fields at first order, but shows limitations such as the inability to track some deformation patterns, and the use of a perspective projection that does not maintain original angles and distances in the correlated images. Results obtained with 3D point clouds comparison algorithms (C2C, ICP, M3C2) bring additional information on the displacement fields. Displacement fields derived from both approaches are then combined and provide a better understanding of the landslide kinematics.

Photoionization-regulated star formation and the structure of molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mckee, Christopher F.

1989-01-01

A model for the rate of low-mass star formation in Galactic molecular clouds and for the influence of this star formation on the structure and evolution of the clouds is presented. The rate of energy injection by newly formed stars is estimated, and the effect of this energy injection on the size of the cloud is determined. It is shown that the observed rate of star formation appears adequate to support the observed clouds against gravitational collapse. The rate of photoionization-regulated star formation is estimated and it is shown to be in agreement with estimates of the observed rate of star formation if the observed molecular cloud parameters are used. The mean cloud extinction and the Galactic star formation rate per unit mass of molecular gas are predicted theoretically from the condition that photionization-regulated star formation be in equilibrium. A simple model for the evolution of isolated molecular clouds is developed.

The Destructive Birth of Massive Stars and Massive Star Clusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rosen, Anna; Krumholz, Mark; McKee, Christopher F.; Klein, Richard I.; Ramirez-Ruiz, Enrico

2017-01-01

Massive stars play an essential role in the Universe. They are rare, yet the energy and momentum they inject into the interstellar medium with their intense radiation fields dwarfs the contribution by their vastly more numerous low-mass cousins. Previous theoretical and observational studies have concluded that the feedback associated with massive stars' radiation fields is the dominant mechanism regulating massive star and massive star cluster (MSC) formation. Therefore detailed simulation of the formation of massive stars and MSCs, which host hundreds to thousands of massive stars, requires an accurate treatment of radiation. For this purpose, we have developed a new, highly accurate hybrid radiation algorithm that properly treats the absorption of the direct radiation field from stars and the re-emission and processing by interstellar dust. We use our new tool to perform a suite of three-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of the formation of massive stars and MSCs. For individual massive stellar systems, we simulate the collapse of massive pre-stellar cores with laminar and turbulent initial conditions and properly resolve regions where we expect instabilities to grow. We find that mass is channeled to the massive stellar system via gravitational and Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instabilities. For laminar initial conditions, proper treatment of the direct radiation field produces later onset of RT instability, but does not suppress it entirely provided the edges of the radiation-dominated bubbles are adequately resolved. RT instabilities arise immediately for turbulent pre-stellar cores because the initial turbulence seeds the instabilities. To model MSC formation, we simulate the collapse of a dense, turbulent, magnetized Mcl = 106 M⊙ molecular cloud. We find that the influence of the magnetic pressure and radiative feedback slows down star formation. Furthermore, we find that star formation is suppressed along dense filaments where the magnetic field is amplified. Our results suggest that the combined effect of turbulence, magnetic pressure, and radiative feedback from massive stars is responsible for the low star formation efficiencies observed in molecular clouds.

Dynamics of charge clouds ejected from laser-induced warm dense gold nanofilms

DOE PAGES

Zhou, Jun; Li, Junjie; Correa, Alfredo A.; ...

2014-10-24

We report the first systematic study of the ejected charge dynamics surrounding laser-produced 30-nm warm dense gold films using single-shot femtosecond electron shadow imaging and deflectometry. The results reveal a two-step dynamical process of the ejected electrons under the high pump fluence conditions: an initial emission and accumulation of a large amount of electrons near the pumped surface region followed by the formation of hemispherical clouds of electrons on both sides of the film, which are escaping into the vacuum at a nearly isotropic and constant velocity with an unusually high kinetic energy of more than 300 eV. We alsomore » developed a model of the escaping charge distribution that not only reproduces the main features of the observed charge expansion dynamics but also allows us to extract the number of ejected electrons remaining in the cloud.« less

Dynamics of charge clouds ejected from laser-induced warm dense gold nanofilms

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhou, Jun; Li, Junjie; Correa, Alfredo A.

We report the first systematic study of the ejected charge dynamics surrounding laser-produced 30-nm warm dense gold films using single-shot femtosecond electron shadow imaging and deflectometry. The results reveal a two-step dynamical process of the ejected electrons under the high pump fluence conditions: an initial emission and accumulation of a large amount of electrons near the pumped surface region followed by the formation of hemispherical clouds of electrons on both sides of the film, which are escaping into the vacuum at a nearly isotropic and constant velocity with an unusually high kinetic energy of more than 300 eV. We alsomore » developed a model of the escaping charge distribution that not only reproduces the main features of the observed charge expansion dynamics but also allows us to extract the number of ejected electrons remaining in the cloud.« less

The Physics and Chemistry of Small Translucent Molecular Clouds. VIII. HCN and HNC

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, B. E.; Pirogov, L.; Minh, Y. C.

1997-07-01

We have conducted a survey of HCN and HNC (two rotational transitions each) in our standard sample of 11 cirrus cores and 27 Clemens-Barvainis translucent cores whose structures and chemistry have been studied earlier in this series. Both species are seen in all 38 objects. HCNH+ has been searched in three objects. These results are modeled in terms of our previous hydrostatic equilibrium and n ~ r-α structures together with other chemical and physical properties derived earlier. A detailed program has been written to handle the complex radiative transfer of the hyperfine splitting (hfs) of HCN. It is shown that serious errors are made in deriving HCN abundances by methods that ignore the hfs. Both HCN and HNC abundances are high, typically 1(-8) in most sources. The chemically important ratio HCN/HNC is found to be ~2.5 if these species are spatially centrally peaked and ~6 if not. Both species abundances increase monotonically with increasing extinction in the 1.2-2.7 mag range (edge to center), thus displaying the same characteristic transition between diffuse and dense cloud chemistry as do most other species we have studied. HCN/HNC decreases with increasing extinction to a value of 1.3 at Av0 ~ 10, approaching the expected value of 1.0 for dense clouds. Two types of ion-molecule chemistry models have been carried out: a full model using the Standard Model rate file and comprising 409 species (by Lee and Herbst), and a simplified model comprising 21 nitrogen-bearing species for conditions relevant to translucent clouds. Good agreement between observations and chemistry models is achieved throughout the translucent extinction range. Important conclusions are that (1) neutral-neutral reactions such as N + CH2 dominate the chemistry of HCN; (2) low ion-polar reaction rates are strongly favored over high ones; (3) the reaction C+ + NH3 --> H2NC+ --> HNC is unimportant, thus largely uncoupling the CN and NH chemistries; (4) the ratio HCN/HNC is not a particularly important diagnostic of the CN chemistry; (5) model NH3 abundances are at least a factor 100 lower than observed in translucent clouds, even if the reaction N+H+3-->NH+2 is permitted at Langevin rate.

Newly detected molecules in dense interstellar clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irvine, William M.; Avery, L. W.; Friberg, P.; Matthews, H. E.; Ziurys, L. M.

Several new interstellar molecules have been identified including C2S, C3S, C5H, C6H and (probably) HC2CHO in the cold, dark cloud TMC-1; and the discovery of the first interstellar phosphorus-containing molecule, PN, in the Orion "plateau" source. Further results include the observations of 13C3H2 and C3HD, and the first detection of HCOOH (formic acid) in a cold cloud.

Chemical Evolution of Interstellar Dust into Planetary Materials

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Fomenkova, M. N.; Chang, S.; DeVincenzi, Donald L. (Technical Monitor)

1995-01-01

Comets are believed to retain some interstellar materials, stored in fairly pristine conditions since-their formation. The composition and properties of cometary dust grains should reflect those of grains in the outer part of the protosolar nebula which, at least in part, were inherited from the presolar molecular cloud. However, infrared emission features in comets differ from their interstellar counterparts. These differences imply processing of interstellar material on its way to incorporation in comets, but C and N appear to be retained. Overall dust evolution from the interstellar medium (ISM) to planetary materials is accompanied by an increase in proportion of complex organics and a decrease in pure carbon phases. The composition of cometary dust grains was measured in situ during fly-by missions to comet Halley in 1986. The mass spectra of about 5000 cometary dust grains with masses of 5 x 10(exp -17) - 5 x 10(exp -12) g provide data about the presence and relative abundances of the major elements H, C, N, O,Na, Mg, Al, Si, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni. The bulk abundances of major rock-forming elements integrated over all spectra were found to be solar within a factor of 2, while the volatile elements H, C, N, O in dust are depleted in respect to their total cosmic abundances. The abundances of C and N in comet dust are much closer to interstellar than to meteoritic and are higher than those of dust in the diffuse ISM. In dense molecular clouds dust grains are covered by icy mantles, the average composition of which is estimated to be H:C:N:O = 96:14:1:34. Up to 40% of elemental C and O may be sequestered in mantles. If we use this upper limit to add H, C, N and O as icy mantle material to the abundances residing in dust in the diffuse ISM, then the resulting values for H. C, and N match cometary abundances. Thus, ice mantles undergoing chemical evolution on grains in the dense ISM appear to have been transformed into less volatile and more complex organic residues wherein the H, C and N are largely retained and ultimately accreted in cometary dust. The abundance of O is about the same for cometary dust, meteorites and interstellar dust. In all these samples, most of O in a solid phase is bonded to silicates. In dense molecular clouds, the abundance of O in dust+mantles is significantly higher then in cometary dust. This difference may reflect the greater lability of oxygenated species toward astrophysical processing. Laboratory studies show that O-bearing functional groups in organic compounds tend to be relatively easily removed by heating and/or UV and particle irradiation . In Halley's coma, O-containing organic grains, being unstable, were located closest to the nucleus. The decomposition of the organic grain component in the coma provided a significant extended source contribution to O-containing gaseous species such as CO and H2CO.

AceCloud: Molecular Dynamics Simulations in the Cloud.

PubMed

Harvey, M J; De Fabritiis, G

2015-05-26

We present AceCloud, an on-demand service for molecular dynamics simulations. AceCloud is designed to facilitate the secure execution of large ensembles of simulations on an external cloud computing service (currently Amazon Web Services). The AceCloud client, integrated into the ACEMD molecular dynamics package, provides an easy-to-use interface that abstracts all aspects of interaction with the cloud services. This gives the user the experience that all simulations are running on their local machine, minimizing the learning curve typically associated with the transition to using high performance computing services.

Kinematic Study of Ionized and Molecular Gases in Ultracompact HII Region in Monoceros R2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Hwihyun; Lacy, John H.; Jaffe, Daniel Thomas

2017-06-01

Monoceros R2 (Mon R2) is an UltraCompact HII region (UCHII) surrounded by several PhotoDissociation Regions (PDRs). It is an excellent example to investigate the chemistry and physics of early stage of massive star formation due to its proximity (830pc) and brightness. Previous studies suggest that the wind from the star holds the ionized gas up against the dense molecular core and the higher pressure at the head drives the ionized gas along the shell. In order for the model to work, there should be evidence for dense molecular gas along the shell walls, irradiated by the UCHII region and perhaps entrained into the flow along the walls.We obtained the Immersion Grating INfrared Spectrograph (IGRINS) spectra of Mon R2 to study the kinematic patterns in the areas where ionized and molecular gases interact. The position-velocity maps from the high resolution (R~45,000) H- and K-band (1.4-2.5μm) IGRINS spectra demonstrate that the ionized gases (Brackett and Pfund series, He and Fe emission lines; Δv ≈ 40km/s) flow along the walls of the surrounding clouds. This is consistent with the model by Zhu et al. (2008). In the PV maps of the H2 emission lines there is no obvious motion (Δv ≈ 10km/s) of the molecular hydrogen right at the ionization boundary. This implies that the molecular gas is not taking part in the flow as the ionized gas is moving along the cavity walls.This work used the Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrograph (IGRINS) that was developed under a collaboration between the University of Texas at Austin and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) with the financial support of the US National Science Foundation (NSF; grant AST-1229522), of the University of Texas at Austin, and of the Korean GMTProject of KASI.

49 CFR 193.2059 - Flammable vapor-gas dispersion protection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... Dispersion Model.” Alternatively, in order to account for additional cloud dilution which may be caused by..., subject to the Administrator's approval. (b) The following dispersion parameters must be used in computing... if it can be shown that the terrain both upwind and downwind of the vapor cloud has dense vegetation...

49 CFR 193.2059 - Flammable vapor-gas dispersion protection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... Dispersion Model.” Alternatively, in order to account for additional cloud dilution which may be caused by..., subject to the Administrator's approval. (b) The following dispersion parameters must be used in computing... if it can be shown that the terrain both upwind and downwind of the vapor cloud has dense vegetation...

49 CFR 193.2059 - Flammable vapor-gas dispersion protection.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... Dispersion Model.” Alternatively, in order to account for additional cloud dilution which may be caused by..., subject to the Administrator's approval. (b) The following dispersion parameters must be used in computing... if it can be shown that the terrain both upwind and downwind of the vapor cloud has dense vegetation...

On the formation and confinement of dense clouds in QSOs and active galactic nuclei

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marscher, A. P.; Weaver, R. P.

1979-01-01

A model for the formation and confinement of dense (at least about 1 billion per cu cm) clouds in QSOs and active galactic nuclei is presented wherein thermal instabilities behind radiative shocks cause the collapse of regions where the preshock density is enhanced over that of the surrounding medium. Such shocks (of total energy around 10 to the 51st ergs) are likely to occur if the frequent optical outbursts observed in many of these objects are accompanied by mass ejections of comparable energy. It is found that clouds quite similar to those thought to exist in QSOs etc. can be created in this manner at radii of the order of 10 to the 17th cm. The clouds can be subsequently accelerated to observed bulk velocities by either radiation pressure or a collision with a much stronger (total energy around 10 to the 53 ergs) shock. Alternatively, their high observed velocities could be caused by gravitational infall or rotation. The mass production required at inner radii by the outflow models can be supplied through a mechanism previously discussed by Shields (1977).

Analysis of interstellar cloud structure based on IRAS images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Scalo, John M.

1992-01-01

The goal of this project was to develop new tools for the analysis of the structure of densely sampled maps of interstellar star-forming regions. A particular emphasis was on the recognition and characterization of nested hierarchical structure and fractal irregularity, and their relation to the level of star formation activity. The panoramic IRAS images provided data with the required range in spatial scale, greater than a factor of 100, and in column density, greater than a factor of 50. In order to construct densely sampled column density maps of star-forming clouds, column density images of four nearby cloud complexes were constructed from IRAS data. The regions have various degrees of star formation activity, and most of them have probably not been affected much by the disruptive effects of young massive stars. The largest region, the Scorpius-Ophiuchus cloud complex, covers about 1000 square degrees (it was subdivided into a few smaller regions for analysis). Much of the work during the early part of the project focused on an 80 square degree region in the core of the Taurus complex, a well-studied region of low-mass star formation.

THE INFLUENCE OF NONUNIFORM CLOUD COVER ON TRANSIT TRANSMISSION SPECTRA

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Line, Michael R.; Parmentier, Vivien, E-mail: mrline@ucsc.edu

2016-03-20

We model the impact of nonuniform cloud cover on transit transmission spectra. Patchy clouds exist in nearly every solar system atmosphere, brown dwarfs, and transiting exoplanets. Our major findings suggest that fractional cloud coverage can exactly mimic high mean molecular weight atmospheres and vice versa over certain wavelength regions, in particular, over the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) bandpass (1.1–1.7 μm). We also find that patchy cloud coverage exhibits a signature that is different from uniform global clouds. Furthermore, we explain analytically why the “patchy cloud-high mean molecular weight” degeneracy exists. We also explore the degeneracy ofmore » nonuniform cloud coverage in atmospheric retrievals on both synthetic and real planets. We find from retrievals on a synthetic solar composition hot Jupiter with patchy clouds and a cloud-free high mean molecular weight warm Neptune that both cloud-free high mean molecular weight atmospheres and partially cloudy atmospheres can explain the data equally well. Another key finding is that the HST WFC3 transit transmission spectra of two well-observed objects, the hot Jupiter HD 189733b and the warm Neptune HAT-P-11b, can be explained well by solar composition atmospheres with patchy clouds without the need to invoke high mean molecular weight or global clouds. The degeneracy between high molecular weight and solar composition partially cloudy atmospheres can be broken by observing the molecular Rayleigh scattering differences between the two. Furthermore, the signature of partially cloudy limbs also appears as a ∼100 ppm residual in the ingress and egress of the transit light curves, provided that the transit timing is known to seconds.« less

Dense cores of GMAs in M51

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Egusa, Fumi; Koda, J.; Scoville, N. Z.

2010-01-01

We present sensitive and high angular resolution CO(1-0) data obtained by CARMA observations toward the nearby grand-design spiral galaxy M51. From the data, Giant Molecular Associations (GMAs) in a spiral arm are found to be resolved into a few small clumps with mass of 106 Msun and size of 40 pc. As the densities of these clumps are estimated to be larger than 300 cm-3, we regard them as dense cores of GMAs. If GMAs were just confusion of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) whose typical mass and size are almost the same as those of the detected clumps, we should have detected tens or more of them per each GMA considering the sensitivity of our data. However, only one or two cores are found in each GMA, indicating that GMAs are not ensembles of GMCs but are discrete smooth structures. This result is consistent with the conclusion by Koda et al. (2009), who worked on lower resolution CO data of M51. In addition, we have found that these cores are located downstream of the spiral arm. This suggests that the core formation of GMAs and their evolution are triggered by the spiral structure, or density waves. Our high resolution data reveal the inner structure of GMAs and its relationships to the global structure for the first time in grand-design spiral galaxies.

INFRARED SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY OF THE QUIESCENT MEDIUM OF NEARBY CLOUDS. I. ICE FORMATION AND GRAIN GROWTH IN LUPUS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boogert, A. C. A.; Chiar, J. E.; Knez, C.

2013-11-01

Infrared photometry and spectroscopy (1-25 μm) of background stars reddened by the Lupus molecular cloud complex are used to determine the properties of grains and the composition of ices before they are incorporated into circumstellar envelopes and disks. H{sub 2}O ices form at extinctions of A{sub K} = 0.25 ± 0.07 mag (A{sub V} = 2.1 ± 0.6). Such a low ice formation threshold is consistent with the absence of nearby hot stars. Overall, the Lupus clouds are in an early chemical phase. The abundance of H{sub 2}O ice (2.3 ± 0.1 × 10{sup –5} relative to N{sub H}) ismore » typical for quiescent regions, but lower by a factor of three to four compared to dense envelopes of young stellar objects. The low solid CH{sub 3}OH abundance (<3%-8% relative to H{sub 2}O) indicates a low gas phase H/CO ratio, which is consistent with the observed incomplete CO freeze out. Furthermore it is found that the grains in Lupus experienced growth by coagulation. The mid-infrared (>5 μm) continuum extinction relative to A{sub K} increases as a function of A{sub K}. Most Lupus lines of sight are well fitted with empirically derived extinction curves corresponding to R{sub V} ∼ 3.5 (A{sub K} = 0.71) and R{sub V} ∼ 5.0 (A{sub K} = 1.47). For lines of sight with A{sub K} > 1.0 mag, the τ{sub 9.7}/A{sub K} ratio is a factor of two lower compared to the diffuse medium. Below 1.0 mag, values scatter between the dense and diffuse medium ratios. The absence of a gradual transition between diffuse and dense medium-type dust indicates that local conditions matter in the process that sets the τ{sub 9.7}/A{sub K} ratio. This process is likely related to grain growth by coagulation, as traced by the A{sub 7.4}/A{sub K} continuum extinction ratio, but not to ice mantle formation. Conversely, grains acquire ice mantles before the process of coagulation starts.« less

The carbon budget in the outer solar nebula

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simonelli, Damon P.; Pollack, James B.; Mckay, Christopher P.; Reynolds, Ray T.; Summers, Audrey L.

1989-01-01

The compositional contrast between the giant-planet satellites and the significantly rockier Pluto/Charon system is indicative of different formation mechanisms; cosmic abundance calculations, in conjunction with an assumption of the Pluto/Charon system's direct formation from solar nebula condensates, strongly suggest that most of the carbon in the outer solar nebula was in CO form, in keeping with both the inheritance from the dense molecular clouds in the interstellar medium, and/or the Lewis and Prinn (1980) kinetic-inhibition model of solar nebula chemistry. Laboratory studies of carbonaceous chondrites and Comet Halley flyby studies suggest that condensed organic material, rather than elemental carbon, is the most likely candidate for the small percentage of the carbon-bearing solid in the outer solar nebula.

Molecular clouds without detectable CO

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blitz, Leo; Bazell, David; Desert, F. Xavier

1990-01-01

The clouds identified by Desert, Bazell, and Boulanger (DBB clouds) in their search for high-latitude molecular clouds were observed in the CO (J = 1-0) line, but only 13 percent of the sample was detected. The remaining 87 percent are diffuse molecular clouds with CO abundances of about 10 to the -6th, a typical value for diffuse clouds. This hypothesis is shown to be consistent with Copernicus data. The DBB clouds are shown to ben an essentially complete catalog of diffuse molecular clouds in the solar vicinity. The total molecular surface density in the vicinity of the sun is then only about 20 percent greater than the 1.3 solar masses/sq pc determined by Dame et al. (1987). Analysis of the CO detections indicates that there is a sharp threshold in extinction of 0.25 mag before CO is detectable and is derived from the IRAS I(100) micron threshold of 4 MJy/sr. This threshold is presumably where the CO abundance exhibits a sharp increase

Molecular clouds without detectable CO

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Blitz, L.; Bazell, D.; Desert, F.X.

1990-03-01

The clouds identified by Desert, Bazell, and Boulanger (DBB clouds) in their search for high-latitude molecular clouds were observed in the CO (J = 1-0) line, but only 13 percent of the sample was detected. The remaining 87 percent are diffuse molecular clouds with CO abundances of about 10 to the -6th, a typical value for diffuse clouds. This hypothesis is shown to be consistent with Copernicus data. The DBB clouds are shown to be an essentially complete catalog of diffuse molecular clouds in the solar vicinity. The total molecular surface density in the vicinity of the sun is thenmore » only about 20 percent greater than the 1.3 solar masses/sq pc determined by Dame et al. (1987). Analysis of the CO detections indicates that there is a sharp threshold in extinction of 0.25 mag before CO is detectable and is derived from the IRAS I(100) micron threshold of 4 MJy/sr. This threshold is presumably where the CO abundance exhibits a sharp increase 18 refs.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zardecki, A.

The effect of multiple scattering on the validity of the Beer-Lambert law is discussed for a wide range of particle-size parameters and optical depths. To predict the amount of received radiant power, appropriate correction terms are introduced. For particles larger than or comparable to the wavelength of radiation, the small-angle approximation is adequate; whereas for small densely packed particles, the diffusion theory is advantageously employed. These two approaches are used in the context of the problem of laser-beam propagation in a dense aerosol medium. In addition, preliminary results obtained by using a two-dimensional finite-element discrete-ordinates transport code are described. Multiple-scatteringmore » effects for laser propagation in fog, cloud, rain, and aerosol cloud are modeled.« less

STELLAR 'EGGS' EMERGE FROM MOLECULAR CLOUD (Star-Birth Clouds in M16)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

This eerie, dark structure, resembling an imaginary sea serpent's head, is a column of cool molecular hydrogen gas (two atoms of hydrogen in each molecule) and dust that is an incubator for new stars. The stars are embedded inside finger-like protrusions extending from the top of the nebula. Each 'fingertip' is somewhat larger than our own solar system. The pillar is slowly eroding away by the ultraviolet light from nearby hot stars, a process called 'photoevaporation'. As it does, small globules of especially dense gas buried within the cloud is uncovered. These globules have been dubbed 'EGGs' -- an acronym for 'Evaporating Gaseous Globules'. The shadows of the EGGs protect gas behind them, resulting in the finger-like structures at the top of the cloud. Forming inside at least some of the EGGs are embryonic stars -- stars that abruptly stop growing when the EGGs are uncovered and they are separated from the larger reservoir of gas from which they were drawing mass. Eventually the stars emerge, as the EGGs themselves succumb to photoevaporation. The stellar EGGS are found, appropriately enough, in the 'Eagle Nebula' (also called M16 -- the 16th object in Charles Messier's 18th century catalog of 'fuzzy' permanent objects in the sky), a nearby star-forming region 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Serpens. The picture was taken on April 1, 1995 with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color image is constructed from three separate images taken in the light of emission from different types of atoms. Red shows emission from singly-ionized sulfur atoms. Green shows emission from hydrogen. Blue shows light emitted by doubly- ionized oxygen atoms. Credit: Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen (Arizona State University), and NASA Image files in GIF and JPEG format and captions may be accessed on Internet via anonymous ftp from oposite.stsci.edu in /pubinfo:

Scrutiny of the Core of the Galactic Center by H_3^+ and Co: Gcirs 3 and Gcirs 1W

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goto, M.; Usuda, T.; Geballe, T. R.; Indriolo, N.; McCall, B. J.; Oka, T.

2011-06-01

Out of the over two dozen sightlines toward the Central Molecular Zone of the Galactic center so far observed by infrared spectra of H_3^+ and CO, sightlines toward GCIRS 3 and Iota stand out as exceptional since they show cloud components with clear R(2,2)^l absorption indicating that their unstable (J,K) = (2,2) levels are well populated. Those two sightlines toward the Galactic core and Sgr B, respectively, must pass through hot and dense gas. The cloud component at ˜ 60 km S-1 toward GCIRS 3 is particularly intriguing since GCIRS 1W, which is separated from it only by 5".8 (0.23 pc if the same distance to the Galactic center of 8 k pc is assumed), barely shows the R(2,2)^l absorption. The cloud must be compact and this calls for a high ionization rate. To further study this problem the sightlines toward GCIRS 3 and GCIRS 1W have been observed by VLT under high spectral resolution. The observed R(3,3)^l absorption is extraordinarily deep and the R(2,2)^l absorption is clearly observable at ˜ 60 km S-1 for GCIRS 3 indicating unusually high temperature and high density of the cloud. In contrast, toward GCIRS 1W, the R(3,3)^l absorption is of ordinary depth and the R(2,2)^l absorptions is marginal if any indicating the well known warm and diffuse gas observed toward other regions of the Central Molecular Zone. Their analysis and comparison with radio HCN emission observed in the area will be discussed. M. Goto, T. Usuda, T. Nagata, T. R. Geballe, B. J. McCall, N. Indriolo, H. Suto, Th. Henning, C. P. Morong, and T. Oka, ApJ, 688, 306 (2008). Goto, Usuda, Geballe, Indriolo, McCall, Henning, Oka, PASJ (2011) in press.

Terahertz Spectroscopy of Deuterated Methylene Bi-Radical CD_2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ozeki, Hiroyuki; Bailleux, Stephane

2015-06-01

Methylene, the parent of the carbene compounds, plays a crucial role in many chemical reactions. This bi-radical is a known interstellar molecule that has been detected towards hot cores in dense interstellar clouds. CH_2 is also thought to be present in cometary atmospheres. In the gas phase chemical models of both dense and diffuse molecular clouds, CH_2 is a key intermediate in interstellar carbon chemistry which is produced primarily by dissociative recombination of the methyl ion, CH^+_3. Recently tentative detection of the mono-deuterated methyl ion, CH_2D^+ has been reported toward an infrared source in the vicinity of Orion. Deuterated methylene CHD and CD_2 can be produced from this ion or its counterpart CHD^+_2 by dissociative recombination with an electron: CH2D+ + e- → CHD+ H or {CH2 + D}, CHD2+ ~+ e- → CHD+ D or CD2 + H. Thus, both CHD and CD_2 can be observed in warm interstellar clouds, where the deuterium fractionation process is important. Precise laboratory reference data are desirable for radioastronomical observation of these molecules. Here we report on our high-resolution spectroscopic investigation on the deuterated methylene radical, CD_2 (X ^3B_1) up to 1.45 THz. At present time, eleven out of the twelve fine-structure components of four pure rotational transitions have been newly recorded, and these measurements double the number of previously observed transitions. CD_2 was generated in a discharge in CD_2CO which was obtained from the flash pyrolysis of acetic anhydride-d6 ((CD_3CO)_2O). Effort is currently made to measure the astronomically important 111 - 000 transition whose fine-structure components are predicted to occur at 1.224,1.228 and 1.234 THz. D. C. Lis, P. F. Goldsmith, E. A. Bergin et al. 2009, in Submillimeter Astrophysics and Technology, ASP Conf. Ser., 417, 23. H. Ozeki and S. Saito J. Chem. Phys. 1996, 104, 2167.

Time Evolution of the Giant Molecular Cloud Mass Functions across Galactic Disks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kobayashi, Masato I. N.; Inutsuka, Shu-Ichiro; Kobayashi, Hiroshi; Hasegawa, Kenji

2017-01-01

We formulate and conduct the time-integration of time evolution equation for the giant molecular cloud mass function (GMCMF) including the cloud-cloud collision (CCC) effect. Our results show that the CCC effect is only limited in the massive-end of the GMCMF and indicate that future high resolution and sensitivity radio observations may constrain giant molecular cloud (GMC) timescales by observing the GMCMF slope in the lower mass regime.

The Galactic Distribution of OB Associations in Molecular Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williams, Jonathan P.; McKee, Christopher F.

1997-02-01

Molecular clouds account for half of the mass of the interstellar medium interior to the solar circle and for all current star formation. Using cloud catalogs of two CO surveys of the first quadrant, we have fitted the mass distribution of molecular clouds to a truncated power law in a similar manner as the luminosity function of OB associations in the companion paper to this work. After extrapolating from the first quadrant to the entire inner Galaxy, we find that the mass of cataloged clouds amounts to only 40% of current estimates of the total Galactic molecular mass. Following Solomon & Rivolo, we have assumed that the remaining molecular gas is in cold clouds, and we normalize the distribution accordingly. The predicted total number of clouds is then shown to be consistent with that observed in the solar neighborhood where cloud catalogs should be more complete. Within the solar circle, the cumulative form of the distribution is \\Nscrc(>M)=105[(Mu/M)0.6-1], where \\Nscrc is the number of clouds, and Mu = 6 × 106 M⊙ is the upper mass limit. The large number of clouds near the upper cutoff to the distribution indicates an underlying physical limit to cloud formation or destruction processes. The slope of the distribution corresponds to d\\Nscrc/dM~M-1.6, implying that although numerically most clouds are of low mass, most of the molecular gas is contained within the most massive clouds. The distribution of cloud masses is then compared to the Galactic distribution of OB association luminosities to obtain statistical estimates of the number of massive stars expected in any given cloud. The likelihood of massive star formation in a cloud is determined, and it is found that the median cloud mass that contains at least one O star is ~105 M⊙. The average star formation efficiency over the lifetime of an association is about 5% but varies by more than 2 orders of magnitude from cloud to cloud and is predicted to increase with cloud mass. O stars photoevaporate their surrounding molecular gas, and even with low rates of formation, they are the principal agents of cloud destruction. Using an improved estimate of the timescale for photoevaporation and our statistics on the expected numbers of stars per cloud, we find that 106 M⊙ giant molecular clouds (GMCs) are expected to survive for about 3 × 107 yr. Smaller clouds are disrupted, rather than photoionized, by photoevaporation. The porosity of H II regions in large GMCs is shown to be of order unity, which is consistent with self-regulation of massive star formation in GMCs. On average, 10% of the mass of a GMC is converted to stars by the time it is destroyed by photoevaporation.

Optically thin cirrus clouds over oceans and possible impact on sea surface temperature of warm pool in western Pacific

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prabhakara, C.; Yoo, J.-M.; Dalu, G.; Kratz, P.

1991-01-01

Over the convectively active tropical ocean regions, the measurement made from space in the IR and visible spectrum have revealed the presence of optically thin cirrus clouds, which are quite transparent in the visible and nearly opaque in the IR. The Nimbus-4 IR Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS), which has a field of view (FOV) of approximately 100 km, was utilized to examine the IR optical characteristics of these cirrus clouds. From the IRIS data, it was observed that these optically thin cirrus clouds prevail extensively over the warm pool region of the equatorial western Pacific, surrounding Indonesia. It is found that the seasonal cloud cover caused by these thin cirrus clouds exceeds 50 percent near the central regions of the warm pool. For most of these clouds, the optical thickness in the IR is less than or = 2. It is deduced that the dense cold anvil clouds associated with deep convection spread extensively and are responsible for the formation of the thin cirrus clouds. This is supported by the observation that the coverage of the dense anvil clouds is an order of magnitude less than that of the thin cirrus clouds. From these observations, together with a simple radiative-convective model, it is inferred that the optically thin cirrus can provide a greenhouse effect, which can be a significant factor in maintaining the warm pool. In the absence of fluid transports, it is found that these cirrus clouds could lead to a runaway greenhouse effect. The presence of fluid transport processes, however, act to moderate this effect. Thus, if a modest 20 W/sq m energy input is considered to be available to warm the ocean, then it is found that the ocean mixed-layer of a 50-m depth will be heated by approximately 1 C in 100 days.

Nitrogen chemistry on dust grains: the formation of hydroxylamine, precursor to glycine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vidali, Gianfranco; Lemaire, Jean Louis; Shi, Jianming; Hopkins, Tyler; Garrod, Rob; He, Jiao

2015-08-01

In ices coating dust grains in molecular clouds, nitrogen-containing molecules - mostly NH3 - are present in sizable quantity, up to 15-20% with respect to water ice, the largest component. We studied the oxidation of ammonia in a series of experiments using beams of oxygen and ammonia in various configurations (co-deposition and sequential deposition with various NH3:O ratios). We detected the formation of hydroxylamine (NH2OH) and other products, depending on the degree of oxidation. A simulation of a dense cloud with input from experimental data shows that on and in ices at 14 K and with modest activation energy for reaction, NH2OH is easily formed and its abundance never falls below a tenth of the NH3 abundance. Strategies for detection of hydroxylamine in the ISM will be presented.This work is supported by the NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Division (grant No.1311958 to G.V.). R.T.G. acknowledges the support of the NASA Astrophysics Theory Program (grant No. NNX11AC38G).

Fermi-LAT Observations of Supernova Remnants Kesteven 79

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Auchettl, Katie; Slane, Patrick; Castro, Daniel

2014-03-01

In this paper, we report on the detection of γ-ray emission coincident with the Galactic supernova remnant (SNR) Kesteven 79 (Kes 79). We analyzed approximately 52 months of data obtained with the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Kes 79 is thought to be interacting with adjacent molecular clouds, based on the presence of strong 12CO J = 1 → 0 and HCO+ J = 1 → 0 emission and the detection of 1720 MHz line emission toward the east of the remnant. Acceleration of cosmic rays is expected to occur at SNR shocks, and SNRs interacting with dense molecular clouds provide a good testing ground for detecting and analyzing the production of γ-rays from the decay of π0 into two γ-ray photons. This analysis investigates γ-ray emission coincident with Kes 79, which has a detection significance of ~7σ. Additionally, we present an investigation of the spatial and spectral characteristics of Kes 79 using multiple archival XMM-Newton observations of this remnant. We determine the global X-ray properties of Kes 79 and estimate the ambient density across the remnant. We also performed a similar analysis for Galactic SNR Kesteven 78 (Kes 78), but due to large uncertainties in the γ-ray background model, no conclusion can be made about an excess of GeV γ-ray associated with the remnant.

Analysis of Extreme Star Formation Environments in the Large Magellanic Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nayak, Omnarayani

2018-01-01

My thesis is on three extreme star forming environments in the Large Magellanic Cloud: 30 Doradus, N159, and N79. These three regions are at different evolutionary stage of forming stars. N79 is at a very young stage, just starting its star formation activity. N159 is currently actively forming several massive YSOs. And 30 Doradus has already passed it peak star formation, and several protostars are no longer shrouded by gas and dust, and are starting to be more visible in the optical wavelengths. I analyze the CO molecular gas clouds with ALMA in 30 Doradus, N159, and N79. I identify all massive YSOs within the ALMA footprint of all three regions. My thesis is on relating the star formation activity in 30 Doradus, N159, and N79 to the high density gas in which these protostars form. I find that not all massive young stellar objects are associated with CO gas, higher mass clumps tend to form higher mass stars, and lower mass clumps tend to not be gravitationally bound however the larger clouds are bound. I use ancillary SOFIA data and Magellan FIRE data to place constraints on the outflow rate from the massive protostars, constrain the temperature of the gas, determine the spectral type of the young stellar objects, and estimate the extinction. Looking at the interplay between dense molecular gas and the newly forming stars in a stellar nursery will shed light on how these stars formed: filamentary collision, monolithic collapse, or competitive accretion. The Large Magellanic Cloud has been the subject of star formation studies for decades due to its proximity to the Milky Way (50 kpc), a nearly face-on orientation, and a low metallicity (0.5 solar) similar to that of galaxies at the peak of star formation in the universe (z~2). Thus, my thesis probes the chemical and physical conditions necessary for massive star formation in an environment more typical of the peak of star formation in the universe.

Radio Observations of Sgr B2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mao, Xin-Jie; Su, Jiang-Tao

2001-10-01

The 13CO (J=1-0) map of the molecular cloud Sgr B2 reveals that the mass center of the molecular cloud nucleus does not coincide with that of compact HII regions which are likely to be the outcome of a shock on the cloud. We find evidence of cloud contraction probably resulting from cloud-cloud collision at subsonic speed.

Design of laboratory experiments to study radiation-driven implosions

DOE PAGES

Keiter, P. A.; Trantham, M.; Malamud, G.; ...

2017-02-03

The interstellar medium is heterogeneous with dense clouds amid an ambient medium. Radiation from young OB stars asymmetrically irradiate the dense clouds. Bertoldi (1989) developed analytic formulae to describe possible outcomes of these clouds when irradiated by hot, young stars. One of the critical parameters that determines the cloud’s fate is the number of photon mean free paths in the cloud. For the extreme cases where the cloud size is either much greater than or much less than one mean free path, the radiation transport should be well understood. However, as one transitions between these limits, the radiation transport ismore » much more complex and is a challenge to solve with many of the current radiation transport models implemented in codes. In this paper, we present the design of laboratory experiments that use a thermal source of x-rays to asymmetrically irradiate a low-density plastic foam sphere. The experiment will vary the density and hence the number of mean free paths of the sphere to study the radiation transport in different regimes. Finally, we have developed dimensionless parameters to relate the laboratory experiment to the astrophysical system and we show that we can perform the experiment in the same transport regime.« less

Externally fed star formation: a numerical study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mohammadpour, Motahareh; Stahler, Steven W.

2013-08-01

We investigate, through a series of numerical calculations, the evolution of dense cores that are accreting external gas up to and beyond the point of star formation. Our model clouds are spherical, unmagnetized configurations with fixed outer boundaries, across which gas enters subsonically. When we start with any near-equilibrium state, we find that the cloud's internal velocity also remains subsonic for an extended period, in agreement with observations. However, the velocity becomes supersonic shortly before the star forms. Consequently, the accretion rate building up the protostar is much greater than the benchmark value c_s^3/G, where cs is the sound speed in the dense core. This accretion spike would generate a higher luminosity than those seen in even the most embedded young stars. Moreover, we find that the region of supersonic infall surrounding the protostar races out to engulf much of the cloud, again in violation of the observations, which show infall to be spatially confined. Similar problematic results have been obtained by all other hydrodynamic simulations to date, regardless of the specific infall geometry or boundary conditions adopted. Low-mass star formation is evidently a quasi-static process, in which cloud gas moves inward subsonically until the birth of the star itself. We speculate that magnetic tension in the cloud's deep interior helps restrain the infall prior to this event.

Stormy Clouds of Star Birth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2004-01-01

Hidden behind a shroud of dust in the constellation Cygnus is an exceptionally bright source of radio emission called DR21. Visible light images reveal no trace of what is happening in this region because of heavy dust obscuration. In fact, visible light is attenuated in DR21 by a factor of more than 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000 (ten thousand trillion heptillion).

New images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope allow us to peek behind the cosmic veil and pinpoint one of the most massive natal stars yet seen in our Milky Way galaxy. The never-before-seen star is 100,000 times as bright as the Sun. Also revealed for the first time is a powerful outflow of hot gas emanating from this star and bursting through a giant molecular cloud.

This image shows a 24-micron image mosaic, obtained with the Multiband Imaging Photometer aboard Spitzer (MIPS). This image maps the cooler infrared emission from interstellar dust found throughout the interstellar medium. The DR21 complex is clearly seen near the center of the strip, which covers about twice the area of the IRAC image.

Perhaps the most fascinating feature in this image is a long and shadowy linear filament extending towards the 10 o'clock position of DR21. This jet of cold and dense gas, nearly 50 light-years in extent, appears in silhouette against a warmer background. This filament is too long and massive to be a stellar jet and may have formed from a pre-existing molecular cloud core sculpted by DR21's strong winds. Regardless of its true nature, this jet and the numerous other arcs and wisps of cool dust signify the interstellar turbulence normally unseen by the human eye.

Chemical evolution of the gas in C-type shocks in dark clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nesterenok, A. V.

2018-07-01

A magnetohydrodynamic model of a steady, transverse C-type shock in a dense molecular cloud is presented. A complete gas-grain chemical network is taken into account: the gas-phase chemistry, the adsorption of gas species on dust grains, various desorption mechanisms, the grain surface chemistry, the ion neutralization on dust grains, the sputtering of grain mantles. The population densities of energy levels of ions CI, CII and OI and molecules H2, CO, H2O are computed in parallel with the dynamical and chemical rate equations. The large velocity gradient approximation is used in the line radiative transfer calculations. The simulations consist of two steps: (i) modelling of the chemical and thermal evolution of a static molecular cloud and (ii) shock simulations. A comparison is made with the results of publicly available models of similar physical systems. The focus of the paper is on the chemical processing of gas material and ice mantles of dust grains by the shock. Sputtering of ice mantles takes place in the shock region close to the temperature peak of the neutral gas. At high shock speeds, molecules ejected from ice mantles are effectively destroyed in hot gas, and their survival time is low—of the order of dozens of years. After a passage of high-speed C-type shock, a zone of high abundance of atomic hydrogen appears in the cooling postshock gas that triggers formation of complex organic species such as methanol. It is shown that abundances of some complex organic molecules (COMs) in the postshock region can be much higher than in the preshock gas. These results are important for interpretation of observations of COMs in protostellar outflows.

Kinetic temperature of massive star-forming molecular clumps measured with formaldehyde. III. The Orion molecular cloud 1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, X. D.; Henkel, C.; Menten, K. M.; Wyrowski, F.; Brinkmann, N.; Zheng, X. W.; Gong, Y.; Lin, Y. X.; Esimbek, J.; Zhou, J. J.; Yuan, Y.; Li, D. L.; He, Y. X.

2018-01-01

We mapped the kinetic temperature structure of the Orion molecular cloud 1 (OMC-1) with para-H2CO (JKaKc = 303-202, 322-221, and 321-220) using the APEX 12 m telescope. This is compared with the temperatures derived from the ratio of the NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1) inversion lines and the dust emission. Using the RADEX non-LTE model, we derive the gas kinetic temperature modeling the measured averaged line ratios of para-H2CO 322-221/303-202 and 321-220/303-202. The gas kinetic temperatures derived from the para-H2CO line ratios are warm, ranging from 30 to >200 K with an average of 62 ± 2 K at a spatial density of 105 cm-3. These temperatures are higher than those obtained from NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1) and CH3CCH (6-5) in the OMC-1 region. The gas kinetic temperatures derived from para-H2CO agree with those obtained from warm dust components measured in the mid infrared (MIR), which indicates that the para-H2CO (3-2) ratios trace dense and warm gas. The cold dust components measured in the far infrared (FIR) are consistent with those measured with NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1) and the CH3CCH (6-5) line series. With dust at MIR wavelengths and para-H2CO (3-2) on one side, and dust at FIR wavelengths, NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1), and CH3CCH (6-5) on the other, dust and gas temperatures appear to be equivalent in the dense gas (n(H2) ≳ 104 cm-3) of the OMC-1 region, but provide a bimodal distribution, one more directly related to star formation than the other. The non-thermal velocity dispersions of para-H2CO are positively correlated with the gas kinetic temperatures in regions of strong non-thermal motion (Mach number ≳ 2.5) of the OMC-1, implying that the higher temperature traced by para-H2CO is related to turbulence on a 0.06 pc scale. Combining the temperature measurements with para-H2CO and NH3 (2, 2)/(1, 1) line ratios, we find direct evidence for the dense gas along the northern part of the OMC-1 10 km s-1 filament heated by radiation from the central Orion nebula. The reduced datacubes are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/609/A16

Molecular Gas toward the Gemini OB1 Molecular Cloud Complex. II. CO Outflow Candidates with Possible WISE Associations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Yingjie; Li, Fa-Cheng; Xu, Ye; Wang, Chen; Du, Xin-Yu; Yang, Wenjin; Yang, Ji

2018-03-01

We present a large-scale survey of CO outflows in the Gem OB1 molecular cloud complex and its surroundings, using the Purple Mountain Observatory Delingha 13.7 m telescope. A total of 198 outflow candidates were identified over a large area (∼58.5 square degrees), of which 193 are newly detected. Approximately 68% (134/198) are associated with the Gem OB1 molecular cloud complex, including clouds GGMC 1, GGMC 2, BFS 52, GGMC 3, and GGMC 4. Other regions studied are: the Local arm (Local Lynds, West Front), Swallow, Horn, and Remote cloud. Outflow candidates in GGMC 1, BFS 52, and Swallow are mainly located at ring-like or filamentary structures. To avoid excessive uncertainty in distant regions (≳3.8 kpc), we only estimated the physical parameters for clouds in the Gem OB1 molecular cloud complex and in the Local arm. In those clouds, the total kinetic energy and the energy injection rate of the identified outflow candidates are ≲1% and ≲3% of the turbulent energy and the turbulent dissipation rate of each cloud, indicating that the identified outflow candidates cannot provide enough energy to balance turbulence of their host cloud at the scale of the entire cloud (several to dozens of parsecs). The gravitational binding energy of each cloud is ≳135 times the total kinetic energy of the identified outflow candidates within the corresponding cloud, indicating that the identified outflow candidates cannot cause major disruptions to the integrity of their host cloud at the scale of the entire cloud.

X-ray and IR Surveys of the Orion Molecular Clouds and the Cepheus OB3b Cluster

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Megeath, S. Thomas; Wolk, Scott J.; Pillitteri, Ignazio; Allen, Tom

2014-08-01

X-ray and IR surveys of molecular clouds between 400 and 700 pc provide complementary means to map the spatial distribution of young low mass stars associated with the clouds. We overview an XMM survey of the Orion Molecular Clouds, at a distance of 400 pc. By using the fraction of X-ray sources with disks as a proxy for age, this survey has revealed three older clusters rich in diskless X-ray sources. Two are smaller clusters found at the northern and southern edges of the Orion A molecular cloud. The third cluster surrounds the O-star Iota Ori (the point of Orion's sword) and is in the foreground to the Orion molecular cloud. In addition, we present a Chandra and Spitzer survey of the Cep OB3b cluster at 700 pc. These data show a spatially variable disk fraction indicative of age variations within the cluster. We discuss the implication of these results for understanding the spread of ages in young clusters and the star formation histories of molecular clouds.

Biogenic, urban, and wildfire influences on the molecular composition of dissolved organic compounds in cloud water

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cook, Ryan D.; Lin, Ying-Hsuan; Peng, Zhuoyu; Boone, Eric; Chu, Rosalie K.; Dukett, James E.; Gunsch, Matthew J.; Zhang, Wuliang; Tolic, Nikola; Laskin, Alexander; Pratt, Kerri A.

2017-12-01

Organic aerosol formation and transformation occurs within aqueous aerosol and cloud droplets, yet little is known about the composition of high molecular weight organic compounds in cloud water. Cloud water samples collected at Whiteface Mountain, New York, during August-September 2014 were analyzed by ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry to investigate the molecular composition of dissolved organic carbon, with a focus on sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds. Organic molecular composition was evaluated in the context of cloud water inorganic ion concentrations, pH, and total organic carbon concentrations to gain insights into the sources and aqueous-phase processes of the observed high molecular weight organic compounds. Cloud water acidity was positively correlated with the average oxygen : carbon ratio of the organic constituents, suggesting the possibility for aqueous acid-catalyzed (prior to cloud droplet activation or during/after cloud droplet evaporation) and/or radical (within cloud droplets) oxidation processes. Many tracer compounds recently identified in laboratory studies of bulk aqueous-phase reactions were identified in the cloud water. Organosulfate compounds, with both biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compound precursors, were detected for cloud water samples influenced by air masses that had traveled over forested and populated areas. Oxidation products of long-chain (C10-12) alkane precursors were detected during urban influence. Influence of Canadian wildfires resulted in increased numbers of identified sulfur-containing compounds and oligomeric species, including those formed through aqueous-phase reactions involving methylglyoxal. Light-absorbing aqueous-phase products of syringol and guaiacol oxidation were observed in the wildfire-influenced samples, and dinitroaromatic compounds were observed in all cloud water samples (wildfire, biogenic, and urban-influenced). Overall, the cloud water molecular composition depended on air mass source influence and reflected aqueous-phase reactions involving biogenic, urban, and biomass burning precursors.

Deuteration of ammonia in the starless core Ophiuchus/H-MM1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Harju, J.; Daniel, F.; Sipilä, O.; Caselli, P.; Pineda, J. E.; Friesen, R. K.; Punanova, A.; Güsten, R.; Wiesenfeld, L.; Myers, P. C.; Faure, A.; Hily-Blant, P.; Rist, C.; Rosolowsky, E.; Schlemmer, S.; Shirley, Y. L.

2017-04-01

Context. Ammonia and its deuterated isotopologues probe physical conditions in dense molecular cloud cores. The time-dependence of deuterium fractionation and the relative abundances of different nuclear spin modifications are supposed to provide a means of determining the evolutionary stages of these objects. Aims: We aim to test the current understanding of spin-state chemistry of deuterated species by determining the abundances and spin ratios of NH2D, NHD2 and ND3 in a quiescent, dense cloud. Methods: Spectral lines of NH3, NH2D, NHD2, ND3 and N2D+ were observed towards a dense, starless core in Ophiuchus with the APEX, GBT and IRAM 30-m telescopes. The observations were interpreted using a gas-grain chemistry model combined with radiative transfer calculations. The chemistry model distinguishes between the different nuclear spin states of light hydrogen molecules, ammonia and their deuterated forms. Different desorption schemes can be considered. Results: High deuterium fractionation ratios with NH2D/NH3 0.4, NHD2/ NH2D 0.2 and ND3/ NHD2 0.06 are found in the core. The observed ortho/para ratios of NH2D and NHD2 are close to the corresponding nuclear spin statistical weights. The chemistry model can approximately reproduce the observed abundances, but consistently predicts too low ortho/para-NH2D, and too large ortho/para-NHD2 ratios. The longevity of N2H+ and NH3 in dense gas, which is prerequisite to their strong deuteration, can be attributed to the chemical inertia of N2 on grain surfaces. Conclusions: The discrepancies between the chemistry model and the observations are likely to be caused by the fact that the model assumes complete scrambling in principal gas-phase deuteration reactions of ammonia, which means that all the nuclei are mixed in reactive collisions. If, instead, these reactions occur through proton hop/hydrogen abstraction processes, statistical spin ratios are to be expected. The present results suggest that while the deuteration of ammonia changes with physical conditions and time, the nuclear spin ratios of ammonia isotopologues do not probe the evolutionary stage of a cloud. Based on observations carried out with The Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), and the IRAM 30 m Telescope. APEX is a collaboration between Max-Planck Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR), Onsala Space Observatory (OSO), and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). GBT is managed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany), and IGN (Spain).

The Earliest Phases of Star Formation (EPoS): a Herschel key project. The thermal structure of low-mass molecular cloud cores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Launhardt, R.; Stutz, A. M.; Schmiedeke, A.; Henning, Th.; Krause, O.; Balog, Z.; Beuther, H.; Birkmann, S.; Hennemann, M.; Kainulainen, J.; Khanzadyan, T.; Linz, H.; Lippok, N.; Nielbock, M.; Pitann, J.; Ragan, S.; Risacher, C.; Schmalzl, M.; Shirley, Y. L.; Stecklum, B.; Steinacker, J.; Tackenberg, J.

2013-03-01

Context. The temperature and density structure of molecular cloud cores are the most important physical quantities that determine the course of the protostellar collapse and the properties of the stars they form. Nevertheless, density profiles often rely either on the simplifying assumption of isothermality or on observationally poorly constrained model temperature profiles. The instruments of the Herschel satellite provide us for the first time with both the spectral coverage and the spatial resolution that is needed to directly measure the dust temperature structure of nearby molecular cloud cores. Aims: With the aim of better constraining the initial physical conditions in molecular cloud cores at the onset of protostellar collapse, in particular of measuring their temperature structure, we initiated the guaranteed time key project (GTKP) "The Earliest Phases of Star Formation" (EPoS) with the Herschel satellite. This paper gives an overview of the low-mass sources in the EPoS project, the Herschel and complementary ground-based observations, our analysis method, and the initial results of the survey. Methods: We study the thermal dust emission of 12 previously well-characterized, isolated, nearby globules using FIR and submm continuum maps at up to eight wavelengths between 100 μm and 1.2 mm. Our sample contains both globules with starless cores and embedded protostars at different early evolutionary stages. The dust emission maps are used to extract spatially resolved SEDs, which are then fit independently with modified blackbody curves to obtain line-of-sight-averaged dust temperature and column density maps. Results: We find that the thermal structure of all globules (mean mass 7 M⊙) is dominated by external heating from the interstellar radiation field and moderate shielding by thin extended halos. All globules have warm outer envelopes (14-20 K) and colder dense interiors (8-12 K) with column densities of a few 1022 cm-2. The protostars embedded in some of the globules raise the local temperature of the dense cores only within radii out to about 5000 AU, but do not significantly affect the overall thermal balance of the globules. Five out of the six starless cores in the sample are gravitationally bound and approximately thermally stabilized. The starless core in CB 244 is found to be supercritical and is speculated to be on the verge of collapse. For the first time, we can now also include externally heated starless cores in the Lsmm/Lbol vs. Tbol diagram and find that Tbol < 25 K seems to be a robust criterion to distinguish starless from protostellar cores, including those that only have an embedded very low-luminosity object. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.Partially based on observations carried out with the IRAM 30 m Telescope, with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), and with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain). APEX is a collaboration between Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie (MPIfR), Onsala Space Observatory (OSO), and the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The JCMT is operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands Association for Scientific Research, and the National Research Council of Canada.Appendices A, B and C are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

Ice Chemistry in Interstellar Dense Molecular Clouds, Protostellar Disks, and Comets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sandford, Scott A.

2015-01-01

Despite the low temperatures (T less than 20K), low pressures, and low molecular densities found in much of the cosmos, considerable chemistry is expected to occur in many astronomical environments. Much of this chemistry happens in icy grain mantles on dust grains and is driven by ionizing radiation. This ionizing radiation breaks chemical bonds of molecules in the ices and creates a host of ions and radicals that can react at the ambient temperature or when the parent ice is subsequently warmed. Experiments that similar these conditions have demonstrated a rich chemistry associated with these environments that leads to a wide variety of organic products. Many of these products are of considerable interest to astrobiology. For example, the irradiation of simple ices has been shown to abiotically produce amino acids, nucleobases, quinones, and amphiphiles, all compounds that play key roles in modern biochemistry. This suggests extraterrestrial chemistry could have played a role in the origin of life on Earth and, by extension, do so on planets in other stellar systems.

Cometary compact H II regions are stellar-wind bow shocks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Van Buren, Dave; Mac Low, Mordecai-Mark; Wood, Douglas O. S.; Churchwell, ED

1990-01-01

Comet-shaped H II regions, like G34.3 + 0.2, are easily explained as bow shocks created by wind-blowing massive stars moving supersonically through molecular clouds. The required velocities of the stars through dense clumps are less than about 10 km/s, comparable to the velocity dispersion of stars in OB associations. An analytic model of bow shocks matches the gross characteristics seen in the radio continuum and the velocity structure inferred from hydrogen recombination and molecular line observations. The champagne flow model cannot account for these structures. VLBI observations of masers associated with the shells of cometary compact H II regions should reveal tailward proper motions predominantly parallel to the shell, rather than perpendicular. It is predicted that over a decade baseline, high signal-to-noise VLA observations of this class of objects will show headward pattern motion in the direction of the symmetry axis, but not expansion. Finally, shock-generated and coronal infrared lines are also predicted.

Molecular gas excitation in Kleinmann-Low nebula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Callejo, Gonzague; Lemaire, Jean-Louis; Le Petit, F.; Pineau Des Forets, Guillaume; Field, David

2004-12-01

The Orion molecular cloud OMC-1 is the perfect object for the study of the dense interstellar medium accounting for active star formation; the intrinsic complexity of this region serves as a stallion, both for observing techniques and for interstellar medium modelling. A detailed dynamic and spectroscopic study has been performed using VLT and CFHT observations of the infrared Kleinmann-Low nebula; yielding a complete small-scale structure in velocity and most importantly powerful diagnosis tools in order to put a new light into the gas behaviour. These results allow to build up a consistent model of the gas excitation, and a clear dynamical view of the region. The crucial action of the shock waves is confirmed, and the discrepancies between the observations and the standard models are discussed. The consequences of this modelling will be discussed in terms of extinction, magnetic field, and other quantities related to induced star formation. The goodness of the models used for the interpretations will be also discussed and some future directions of investigation enhanced.

Collapse and Fragmentation Models of Tidally Interacting Molecular Cloud Cores. IV. Initial Slow Rotation and Magnetic Field Support

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sigalotti, Leonardo Di G.; Klapp, Jaime

2000-03-01

Fragmentation has long been advocated as the primary mechanism for explaining the observed binary frequency among pre-main-sequence stars and, more recently, for explaining the emerging evidence for binary and multiple protostellar systems. The role of magnetic fields and ambipolar diffusion is essential to understand how dense cloud cores begin dynamic collapse and eventually fragment into protostars. Here we consider new numerical models of the gravitational collapse and fragmentation of slowly rotating molecular cloud cores, including the effects of magnetic support and ambipolar diffusion. The starting point of the evolution is provided by a magnetically stable (subcritical) condensation that results from adding a magnetic field pressure, B2/8π [with the field strength given by the scaling relation B=B0(ρ/ρ0)1/2], to a reference state consisting of a thermally supercritical (α~0.36), slowly rotating (β~0.037), Gaussian cloud core of prolate shape and central density ρ0. The effects of ambipolar diffusion are approximated by allowing the reference field strength B0 to gradually decrease over a timescale of 10 free-fall times. The models also include the effects of tidal interaction due to a gravitational encounter with another protostar, and so they may apply to low-mass star formation within a cluster-forming environment. The results indicate that the magnetic forces delay the onset of dynamic collapse, and hence of fragmentation, by an amount of time that depends on the initial central mass-to-flux ratio. Compared with previous magnetic collapse calculations of rapidly rotating (β=0.12) clouds, lower initial rotation (β~0.037) is seen to result in much shorter delay periods, thus anticipating binary fragmentation. In general, the results show that the models are still susceptible to fragment into binary systems. Intermediate magnetic support (η~0.285) and low tidal forces (τ<~0.201) may lead to final triple or quadruple protostellar systems, while increasing the size of η and τ always results in final binary protostellar cores. The formed binary systems have separations of ~200-350 AU, suggesting that the recently observed peaks around ~90 AU and 215 AU for T Tauri stars may be explained by the collapse and fragmentation of initially slowly rotating magnetic cloud cores with β<~0.04.

Excitation and Disruption of a Giant Molecular Cloud by the Sepurnova Remnant 3C 391

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reach, W. T.; Rho, J.

1998-01-01

The ambient molecular gas at the distance of the remnant comprises a giant molecular cloud whose edge is closely parallel to a ridge of bright non-thermal radio continuum, which evidently delineates the blast-wave into the cloud.

LNG vapor barrier and obstacle evaluation: Wind-tunnel simulation of 1987 Falcon Spill Series. Final report, July 1987-February 1991

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Shin, S.H.; Meroney, R.N.; Neff, D.E.

1991-03-01

Measurements of the behavior of simulated liquefied natural gas clouds dispersing over small-scale model placed in environmental wind tunnels permits evaluations of the fluid physics of dense cloud movement and dispersion in a controlled environment. A large data base on the interaction of simulated LNG plumes with the Falcon test configuration of vapor barrier fences and vortex generators was obtained. The purpose of the reported test program is to provide post-field-spill wind tunnel experiments to augment the LNG Vapor Fence Field Program data obtained during the Falcon Test Series in 1987. The goal of the program is to determine themore » probable response of a dense LNG Vapor cloud to vortex inducer obstacles and fences, examine the sensitivity of results to various scaling arguments which might augment limit, or extend the value of the field and wind-tunnel tests, and identify important details of the spill behavior which were not predicted during the pretest planning phase.« less

Coherent scattering of near-resonant light by a dense, microscopic cloud of cold two-level atoms: Experiment versus theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jennewein, Stephan; Brossard, Ludovic; Sortais, Yvan R. P.; Browaeys, Antoine; Cheinet, Patrick; Robert, Jacques; Pillet, Pierre

2018-05-01

We measure the coherent scattering of low-intensity, near-resonant light by a cloud of laser-cooled two-level rubidium atoms with a size comparable to the wavelength of light. We isolate a two-level atomic structure by applying a 300-G magnetic field. We measure both the temporal and the steady-state coherent optical response of the cloud for various detunings of the laser and for atom numbers ranging from 5 to 100. We compare our results to a microscopic coupled-dipole model and to a multimode, paraxial Maxwell-Bloch model. In the low-intensity regime, both models are in excellent agreement, thus validating the Maxwell-Bloch model. Comparing to the data, the models are found in very good agreement for relatively low densities (n /k3≲0.1 ), while significant deviations start to occur at higher density. This disagreement indicates that light scattering in dense, cold atomic ensembles is still not quantitatively understood, even in pristine experimental conditions.

Organic Chemistry in Interstellar Ices: Connection to the Comet Halley Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schutte, W. A.; Agarwal, V. K.; deGroot, M. S.; Greenberg, J. M.; McCain, P.; Ferris, J. P.; Briggs, R.

1997-01-01

Mass spectroscopic measurements on the gas and dust in the coma of Comet Halley revealed the presence of considerable amounts of organic species. Greenberg (1973) proposed that prior to the formation of the comet UV processing of the ice mantles on grains in dense clouds could lead to the formation of complex organic molecules. Theoretical predictions of the internal UV field in dense clouds as well as the discovery in interstellar ices of species like OCS and OCN- which have been formed in simulation experiments by photoprocessing of interstellar ice analogues point to the importance of such processing. We undertook a laboratory simulation study of the formation of organic molecules in interstellar ices and their possible relevance to the Comet Halley results.

DUST AND GAS IN THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS FROM THE HERITAGE HERSCHEL KEY PROJECT. II. GAS-TO-DUST RATIO VARIATIONS ACROSS INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM PHASES

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Roman-Duval, Julia; Gordon, Karl D.; Meixner, Margaret

2014-12-20

The spatial variations of the gas-to-dust ratio (GDR) provide constraints on the chemical evolution and lifecycle of dust in galaxies. We examine the relation between dust and gas at 10-50 pc resolution in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) based on Herschel far-infrared (FIR), H I 21 cm, CO, and Hα observations. In the diffuse atomic interstellar medium (ISM), we derive the GDR as the slope of the dust-gas relation and find GDRs of 380{sub −130}{sup +250} ± 3 in the LMC, and 1200{sub −420}{sup +1600} ± 120 in the SMC, not including helium. The atomic-to-molecular transition is locatedmore » at dust surface densities of 0.05 M {sub ☉} pc{sup –2} in the LMC and 0.03 M {sub ☉} pc{sup –2} in the SMC, corresponding to A {sub V} ∼ 0.4 and 0.2, respectively. We investigate the range of CO-to-H{sub 2} conversion factor to best account for all the molecular gas in the beam of the observations, and find upper limits on X {sub CO} to be 6 × 10{sup 20} cm{sup –2} K{sup –1} km{sup –1} s in the LMC (Z = 0.5 Z {sub ☉}) at 15 pc resolution, and 4 × 10{sup 21} cm{sup –2} K{sup –1} km{sup –1} s in the SMC (Z = 0.2 Z {sub ☉}) at 45 pc resolution. In the LMC, the slope of the dust-gas relation in the dense ISM is lower than in the diffuse ISM by a factor ∼2, even after accounting for the effects of CO-dark H{sub 2} in the translucent envelopes of molecular clouds. Coagulation of dust grains and the subsequent dust emissivity increase in molecular clouds, and/or accretion of gas-phase metals onto dust grains, and the subsequent dust abundance (dust-to-gas ratio) increase in molecular clouds could explain the observations. In the SMC, variations in the dust-gas slope caused by coagulation or accretion are degenerate with the effects of CO-dark H{sub 2}. Within the expected 5-20 times Galactic X {sub CO} range, the dust-gas slope can be either constant or decrease by a factor of several across ISM phases. Further modeling and observations are required to break the degeneracy between dust grain coagulation, accretion, and CO-dark H{sub 2}. Our analysis demonstrates that obtaining robust ISM masses remains a non-trivial endeavor even in the local Universe using state-of-the-art maps of thermal dust emission.« less

Refrigeration of the 18.3 GHz C_3H_2 Transition in Dark Clouds G1.6-0.25

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kuiper, T. B. H.; Whiteoak, J. B.; Peng, R. -S.; Peters, W. L., III; Reynolds, J. E.

1993-01-01

We have observed the 1_(10)-1_(01) (18.3 GHz) transition of orthocyclopropenylidene, C_(-3)H_(-2), at 24 positions in the unusual dense cloud G1.6- 0.025. Except for one position, the transition is refrigerated, a phenomenon which has not been seen in this transition before.

Infrared observations and laboratory simulations of interstellar CH_4_ and SO_2_.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boogert, A. C. A.; Schutte, W. A.; Helmich, F. P.; Tielens, A. G. G. M.; Wooden, D. H.

1997-02-01

Interstellar CH_4_ may consume a fair amount of the carbon budget in dense molecular clouds, but probably less than CO, CH_3_OH, and CO_2_. However, it can only be observed at wavelength regions in the infrared that are heavily affected by the earth atmosphere. With new space and airborne missions (e.g. ISO, SOFIA) in mind we have studied the near infrared absorption spectra of solid and gaseous CH_4_. We obtained laboratory spectra of the ν_4_ deformation mode (1302cm^-1^, 7.68μm) of solid CH_4_ in astrophysically relevant mixtures. We found that the peak position and width of this absorption band vary strongly as a function of molecular environment, compared to temperature and particle shape effects. Hence, observations of this feature will provide a powerful probe of the molecular composition of interstellar ices. Also the gas phase CH_4_ ro-vibrational spectrum of the same band has been calculated. Using observed physical conditions around the protostar W 33A, we show that unresolved gaseous CH_4_ lines are detectable (at the 2-5% level) at a resolution R>1000, when the column density N>=10^16^ cm^-2^. An astrophysically relevant molecule with a very strong transition in the same wavelength regime, is SO_2_. We studied the ν _3_ asymmetric stretching mode (1319 cm^-1^, 7.58 μm) of solid SO_2_ in several mixtures, revealing that the peak position, width and detailed profile of this band are very sensitive to the molecular environment. Besides probing the composition of ice mantles, observations of solid SO_2_ will provide important information on the sulfur budget locked up in grain mantles, which is currently poorly known. We compare the laboratory and calculated spectra of CH_4_ and SO_2_ with previously published ground based spectra and new airborne observations of young stellar objects in the 7-8μm region. W 33A, NGC 7538 : IRS1 and IRS9 show a feature near 7.68μm that is consistent with absorption by solid CH_4_ or the Q-branch of gaseous CH_4_. The column density of solid CH_4_ would be 0.3-4% of solid H_2_O, indicating that solid CH_4_ consumes 0.5+/-0.3% of the cosmic carbon abundance. A gaseous origin would imply a column density of at least this amount, being highly dependent on the assumed temperature of the absorbing gas. A second absorption feature is detected toward W 33A and NGC 7538 : IRS1 at 7.58 μm. The peak position and width of this feature are consistent with the ν_3_ mode of solid SO_2_ in a matrix of solid CH_3_OH or pure SO_2_. The derived column density is 0.1-1% of solid H_2_O, indicating that solid SO_2_ locks up 0.6-6% of the cosmic sulfur abundance. This study shows that 7-8μm spectroscopy of dense molecular clouds, using new airborne and space-based platforms, will provide valuable information on the composition of icy grain mantles and molecular cloud chemistry.

Physical conditions in molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Evans, Neal J., II

1989-01-01

Recent developments have complicated the picture of the physical conditions in molecular clouds. The discoveries of widespread emission from high-J lines of CD and 12-micron IRAS emission have revealed the presence of considerably hotter gas and dust near the surfaces of molecular clouds. These components can complicate interpretation of the bulk of the cloud gas. Commonly assumed relations between column density or mean density and cloud size are called into question by conflicting results and by consideration of selection effects. Analysis of density and density structure through molecular excitation has shown that very high densities exist in star formation regions, but unresolved structure and possible chemical effects complicate the interpretation. High resolution far-IR and submillimeter observations offer a complementary approach and are beginning to test theoretical predictions of density gradients in clouds.

RE-EXAMINING LARSON'S SCALING RELATIONSHIPS IN GALACTIC MOLECULAR CLOUDS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Heyer, Mark; Krawczyk, Coleman; Duval, Julia

The properties of Galactic molecular clouds tabulated by Solomon et al. (SRBY) are re-examined using the Boston University-FCRAO Galactic Ring Survey of {sup 13}CO J = 1-0 emission. These new data provide a lower opacity tracer of molecular clouds and improved angular and spectral resolution compared with previous surveys of molecular line emission along the Galactic Plane. We calculate giant molecular cloud (GMC) masses within the SRBY cloud boundaries assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) conditions throughout the cloud and a constant H{sub 2} to {sup 13}CO abundance, while accounting for the variation of the {sup 12}C/{sup 13}C with galactocentric radius.more » The LTE-derived masses are typically five times smaller than the SRBY virial masses. The corresponding median mass surface density of molecular hydrogen for this sample is 42 M{sub sun} pc{sup -2}, which is significantly lower than the value derived by SRBY (median 206 M{sub sun} pc{sup -2}) that has been widely adopted by most models of cloud evolution and star formation. This discrepancy arises from both the extrapolation by SRBY of velocity dispersion, size, and CO luminosity to the 1 K antenna temperature isophote that likely overestimates the GMC masses and our assumption of constant {sup 13}CO abundance over the projected area of each cloud. Owing to the uncertainty of molecular abundances in the envelopes of clouds, the mass surface density of GMCs could be larger than the values derived from our {sup 13}CO measurements. From velocity dispersions derived from the {sup 13}CO data, we find that the coefficient of the cloud structure functions, v{sup 0} = {sigma}{sub v}/R {sup 1/2}, is not constant, as required to satisfy Larson's scaling relationships, but rather systematically varies with the surface density of the cloud as {approx}{sigma}{sup 0.5} as expected for clouds in self-gravitational equilibrium.« less

Star formation in evolving molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Völschow, M.; Banerjee, R.; Körtgen, B.

2017-09-01

Molecular clouds are the principle stellar nurseries of our universe; they thus remain a focus of both observational and theoretical studies. From observations, some of the key properties of molecular clouds are well known but many questions regarding their evolution and star formation activity remain open. While numerical simulations feature a large number and complexity of involved physical processes, this plethora of effects may hide the fundamentals that determine the evolution of molecular clouds and enable the formation of stars. Purely analytical models, on the other hand, tend to suffer from rough approximations or a lack of completeness, limiting their predictive power. In this paper, we present a model that incorporates central concepts of astrophysics as well as reliable results from recent simulations of molecular clouds and their evolutionary paths. Based on that, we construct a self-consistent semi-analytical framework that describes the formation, evolution, and star formation activity of molecular clouds, including a number of feedback effects to account for the complex processes inside those objects. The final equation system is solved numerically but at much lower computational expense than, for example, hydrodynamical descriptions of comparable systems. The model presented in this paper agrees well with a broad range of observational results, showing that molecular cloud evolution can be understood as an interplay between accretion, global collapse, star formation, and stellar feedback.

Analysis of Meteorological Data Obtained During Flight in a Supercooled Stratiform Cloud of High Liquid-Water Content

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Perkins, Porter J.; Kline, Dwight B.

1951-01-01

Flight icing-rate data obtained in a dense and. abnormally deep supercooled stratiform cloud system indicated the existence of liquid-water contents generally exceeding values in amount and extent previously reported over the midwestern sections of the United States. Additional information obtained during descent through a part of the cloud system indicated liquid-water contents that significantly exceeded theoretical values, especially near the middle of the cloud layer.. The growth of cloud droplets to sizes that resulted in sedimentation from the upper portions of the cloud is considered to be a possible cause of the high water contents near the center of the cloud layer. Flight measurements of the vertical temperature distribution in the cloud layer indicated a rate of change of temperature with altitude exceeding that of the moist adiabatic lapse rate. This excessive rate of change is considered to have contributed to the severity of the condition.

Kinetic temperature of massive star-forming molecular clumps measured with formaldehyde. II. The Large Magellanic Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tang, X. D.; Henkel, C.; Chen, C.-H. R.; Menten, K. M.; Indebetouw, R.; Zheng, X. W.; Esimbek, J.; Zhou, J. J.; Yuan, Y.; Li, D. L.; He, Y. X.

2017-04-01

Context. The kinetic temperature of molecular clouds is a fundamental physical parameter affecting star formation and the initial mass function. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the closest star-forming galaxy with a low metallicity and provides an ideal laboratory for studying star formation in such an environment. Aims: The classical dense molecular gas thermometer NH3 is seldom available in a low-metallicity environment because of photoionization and a lack of nitrogen atoms. Our goal is to directly measure the gas kinetic temperature with formaldehyde toward six star-forming regions in the LMC. Methods: Three rotational transitions (JKAKC = 303-202, 322-221, and 321-220) of para-H2CO near 218 GHz were observed with the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) 12 m telescope toward six star-forming regions in the LMC. These data are complemented by C18O 2-1 spectra. Results: Using non-local thermal equilibrium modeling with RADEX, we derive the gas kinetic temperature and spatial density, using as constraints the measured para-H2CO 321-220/303-202 and para-H2CO 303-202/C18O 2-1 ratios. Excluding the quiescent cloud N159S, where only one para-H2CO line could be detected, the gas kinetic temperatures derived from the preferred para-H2CO 321-220/303-202 line ratios range from 35 to 63 K with an average of 47 ± 5 K (errors are unweighted standard deviations of the mean). Spatial densities of the gas derived from the para-H2CO 303-202/C18O 2-1 line ratios yield 0.4-2.9 × 105 cm-3 with an average of 1.5 ± 0.4 × 105 cm-3. Temperatures derived from the para-H2CO line ratio are similar to those obtained with the same method from Galactic star-forming regions and agree with results derived from CO in the dense regions (n(H2) > 103 cm-3) of the LMC. A comparison of kinetic temperatures derived from para-H2CO with those from the dust also shows good agreement. This suggests that the dust and para-H2CO are well mixed in the studied star-forming regions. A comparison of kinetic temperatures derived from para-H2CO 321-220/303-202 and NH3(2, 2)/(1, 1) shows a drastic difference, however. In the star-forming region N159W, the gas temperature derived from the NH3(2, 2)/(1, 1) line ratio is 16 K (Ott et al. 2010, ApJ, 710, 105), which is only half the temperature derived from para-H2CO and the dust. Furthermore, ammonia shows a very low abundance in a 30'' beam. Apparently, ammonia only survives in the most shielded pockets of dense gas that are not yet irradiated by UV photons, while formaldehyde, less affected by photodissociation, is more widespread and also samples regions that are more exposed to the radiation of young massive stars. A correlation between the gas kinetic temperatures derived from para-H2CO and infrared luminosity, represented by the 250 μm flux, suggests that the kinetic temperatures traced by para-H2CO are correlated with the ongoing massive star formation in the LMC. The reduced spectra (FITS files) are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (http://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/600/A16

NASA's initial flight missions in the Small Explorer Program

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rasch, Nickolus O.; Brown, William W.

1989-01-01

A new component of NASA's Explorer Program has been initiated in order to provide research opportunities characterized by small, quick-turn-around, and frequent space missions. Objectives include the launching of one or two payloads per year, depending on mission cost and availability of funds and launch vehicles. The four missions chosen from the proposals solicited by the Small Explorer Announcement Opportunity are discussed in detail. These include the Solar, Anomalous, and Magnetospheric Particle Explorer (SAMPEX) designed to carry out energetic particle studies of outstanding questions in the fields of space plasma, solar, heliospheric, cosmic ray, and middle atmospheric physics; the Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite (SWAS), which will conduct both pointed and survey observations of dense galactic molecular clouds; the Fast Auroral Snapshot Explorer (FAST); and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS).

Featured Image: A Molecular Cloud Outside Our Galaxy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohler, Susanna

2018-06-01

What do molecular clouds look like outside of our own galaxy? See for yourself in the images above and below of N55, a molecular cloud located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). In a recent study led by Naslim Neelamkodan (Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Taiwan), a team of scientists explore N55 to determine how its cloud properties differ from clouds within the Milky Way. The image above reveals the distribution of infrared-emitting gas and dust observed in three bands by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Overplotted in cyan are observations from the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment tracing the clumpy, warm molecular gas. Below, new observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) reveal the sub-parsec-scale molecular clumps in greater detail, showing the correlation of massive clumps with Spitzer-identified young stellar objects (crosses). The study presented here indicates that this cloud in the LMC is the site of massive star formation, with properties similar to equivalent clouds in the Milky Way. To learn more about the authors findings, check out the article linked below.CitationNaslim N. et al 2018 ApJ 853 175. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaa5b0

A search for pre-main sequence stars in the high-latitude molecular clouds. II - A survey of the Einstein database

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caillault, Jean-Pierre; Magnani, Loris

1990-01-01

The preliminary results are reported of a survey of every EINSTEIN image which overlaps any high-latitude molecular cloud in a search for X-ray emitting pre-main sequence stars. This survey, together with complementary KPNO and IRAS data, will allow the determination of how prevalent low mass star formation is in these clouds in general and, particularly, in the translucent molecular clouds.

Chemical and physical characterization of the first stages of protoplanetary disk formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hincelin, Ugo

2012-12-01

Low mass stars, like our Sun, are born from the collapse of a molecular cloud. The matter falls in the center of the cloud, creating a protoplanetary disk surrounding a protostar. Planets and other Solar System bodies will be formed in the disk. The chemical composition of the interstellar matter and its evolution during the formation of the disk are important to better understand the formation process of these objects. I studied the chemical and physical evolution of this matter, from the cloud to the disk, using the chemical gas-grain code Nautilus. A sensitivity study to some parameters of the code (such as elemental abundances and parameters of grain surface chemistry) has been done. More particularly, the updates of rate coefficients and branching ratios of the reactions of our chemical network showed their importance, such as on the abundances of some chemical species, and on the code sensitivity to others parameters. Several physical models of collapsing dense core have also been considered. The more complex and solid approach has been to interface our chemical code with the radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic model of stellar formation RAMSES, in order to model in three dimensions the physical and chemical evolution of a young disk formation. Our study showed that the disk keeps imprints of the past history of the matter, and so its chemical composition is sensitive to the initial conditions.

Saturn's secrets revealed - A special report

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sutton, C.

1980-11-01

Scientific results of the encounter of Voyager 1 with Saturn are reported. Instruments on the Voyager spacecraft, which was launched on September 5, 1977 and flew within 124,200 km of the Saturn cloud tops on November 12, 1980, revealed the presence of several hundred rings within the six visible from earth, as well as eccentric rings, braiding and clumps within the narrow F ring, and spoke-like structures in the B ring. During its flight beneath the ring plane, Voyager 1 also discovered that the rings extend toward the visible surface of the cloud tops, and are composed of ice chunks or silicate with an icy coating about a meter in diameter. Observations of Titan revealed the satellite to have a dense atmosphere, composed primarily of molecular nitrogen, with as many as three layers of haze above the cloud tops. Three additional moons of Saturn were discovered apparently focusing ring particles, and the moon Janus, discovered from earth in 1966, was shown to be actually two moons. Close approaches to other Saturn satellites show Mimas, Tethys, Dione and Rhea to be heavily cratered, icy bodies, some with features indicating they had been struck by objects almost large enough to shatter them. Surface features on Saturn, which is covered by a deep layer of haze, and the details of the Saturn magnetosphere have also been observed.

Point-Cloud Compression for Vehicle-Based Mobile Mapping Systems Using Portable Network Graphics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohira, K.; Masuda, H.

2017-09-01

A mobile mapping system is effective for capturing dense point-clouds of roads and roadside objects Point-clouds of urban areas, residential areas, and arterial roads are useful for maintenance of infrastructure, map creation, and automatic driving. However, the data size of point-clouds measured in large areas is enormously large. A large storage capacity is required to store such point-clouds, and heavy loads will be taken on network if point-clouds are transferred through the network. Therefore, it is desirable to reduce data sizes of point-clouds without deterioration of quality. In this research, we propose a novel point-cloud compression method for vehicle-based mobile mapping systems. In our compression method, point-clouds are mapped onto 2D pixels using GPS time and the parameters of the laser scanner. Then, the images are encoded in the Portable Networking Graphics (PNG) format and compressed using the PNG algorithm. In our experiments, our method could efficiently compress point-clouds without deteriorating the quality.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bally, John; Ginsburg, Adam; Probst, Ron

We present observations of near-infrared 2.12 μm molecular hydrogen outflows emerging from 1.1 mm dust continuum clumps in the North America and Pelican Nebula (NAP) complex selected from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS). Hundreds of individual shocks powered by over 50 outflows from young stars are identified, indicating that the dusty molecular clumps surrounding the NGC 7000/IC 5070/W80 H II region are among the most active sites of ongoing star formation in the solar vicinity. A spectacular X-shaped outflow, MHO 3400, emerges from a young star system embedded in a dense clump more than a parsec from the ionizationmore » front associated with the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070). Suspected to be a binary, the source drives a pair of outflows with orientations differing by 80°. Each flow exhibits S-shaped symmetry and multiple shocks indicating a pulsed and precessing jet. The 'Gulf of Mexico', located south of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000), contains a dense cluster of molecular hydrogen objects (MHOs), Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, and over 300 young stellar objects (YSOs), indicating a recent burst of star formation. The largest outflow detected thus far in the North America and Pelican Nebula complex, the 1.6 parsec long MHO 3417 flow, emerges from a 500 M {sub ☉} BGPS clump and may be powered by a forming massive star. Several prominent outflows such as MHO 3427 appear to be powered by highly embedded YSOs only visible at λ > 70 μm. An 'activity index' formed by dividing the number of shocks by the mass of the cloud containing their source stars is used to estimate the relative evolutionary states of Bolocam clumps. Outflows can be used as indicators of the evolutionary state of clumps detected in millimeter and submillimeter dust continuum surveys.« less

The alignment of molecular cloud magnetic fields with the spiral arms in M33.

PubMed

Li, Hua-bai; Henning, Thomas

2011-11-16

The formation of molecular clouds, which serve as stellar nurseries in galaxies, is poorly understood. A class of cloud formation models suggests that a large-scale galactic magnetic field is irrelevant at the scale of individual clouds, because the turbulence and rotation of a cloud may randomize the orientation of its magnetic field. Alternatively, galactic fields could be strong enough to impose their direction upon individual clouds, thereby regulating cloud accumulation and fragmentation, and affecting the rate and efficiency of star formation. Our location in the disk of the Galaxy makes an assessment of the situation difficult. Here we report observations of the magnetic field orientation of six giant molecular cloud complexes in the nearby, almost face-on, galaxy M33. The fields are aligned with the spiral arms, suggesting that the large-scale field in M33 anchors the clouds. ©2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

A New Approach for Inspection of Selected Geometric Parameters of a Railway Track Using Image-Based Point Clouds

PubMed Central

Sawicki, Piotr

2018-01-01

The paper presents the results of testing a proposed image-based point clouds measuring method for geometric parameters determination of a railway track. The study was performed based on a configuration of digital images and reference control network. A DSLR (digital Single-Lens-Reflex) Nikon D5100 camera was used to acquire six digital images of the tested section of railway tracks. The dense point clouds and the 3D mesh model were generated with the use of two software systems, RealityCapture and PhotoScan, which have implemented different matching and 3D object reconstruction techniques: Multi-View Stereo and Semi-Global Matching, respectively. The study found that both applications could generate appropriate 3D models. Final meshes of 3D models were filtered with the MeshLab software. The CloudCompare application was used to determine the track gauge and cant for defined cross-sections, and the results obtained from point clouds by dense image matching techniques were compared with results of direct geodetic measurements. The obtained RMS difference in the horizontal (gauge) and vertical (cant) plane was RMS∆ < 0.45 mm. The achieved accuracy meets the accuracy condition of measurements and inspection of the rail tracks (error m < 1 mm), specified in the Polish branch railway instruction Id-14 (D-75) and the European technical norm EN 13848-4:2011. PMID:29509679

A New Approach for Inspection of Selected Geometric Parameters of a Railway Track Using Image-Based Point Clouds.

PubMed

Gabara, Grzegorz; Sawicki, Piotr

2018-03-06

The paper presents the results of testing a proposed image-based point clouds measuring method for geometric parameters determination of a railway track. The study was performed based on a configuration of digital images and reference control network. A DSLR (digital Single-Lens-Reflex) Nikon D5100 camera was used to acquire six digital images of the tested section of railway tracks. The dense point clouds and the 3D mesh model were generated with the use of two software systems, RealityCapture and PhotoScan, which have implemented different matching and 3D object reconstruction techniques: Multi-View Stereo and Semi-Global Matching, respectively. The study found that both applications could generate appropriate 3D models. Final meshes of 3D models were filtered with the MeshLab software. The CloudCompare application was used to determine the track gauge and cant for defined cross-sections, and the results obtained from point clouds by dense image matching techniques were compared with results of direct geodetic measurements. The obtained RMS difference in the horizontal (gauge) and vertical (cant) plane was RMS∆ < 0.45 mm. The achieved accuracy meets the accuracy condition of measurements and inspection of the rail tracks (error m < 1 mm), specified in the Polish branch railway instruction Id-14 (D-75) and the European technical norm EN 13848-4:2011.

Chemical evolution of molecular clouds

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Prasad, Sheo S.; Tarafdar, Sankar P.; Villere, Karen R.; Huntress, Wesley T., Jr.

1987-01-01

The principles behind the coupled chemical-dynamical evolution of molecular clouds are described. Particular attention is given to current problems involving the simplest species (i.e., C. CO, O2, and H2) in quiescent clouds. The results of a comparison made between the molecular abundances in the Orion ridge and the hot core (Blake, 1986) are presented.

Peering into the heart of galactic star formation: A detailed characterization of infrared-dark clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ragan, Sarah E.

2009-09-01

Everything we know about other galaxies is based on light from massive stars, yet, in our own Galaxy, it's the formation of massive stars that is the least understood. Star formation studies to date have focused on nearby, low-mass regions, but the bulk of star formation takes place in massive clusters, which takes place primarily in the inner-Galaxy, where the bulk of the molecular gas resides. To learn about the conditions under which massive clusters form, we seek out their precursors, called infrared-dark clouds (IRDCs). We present the results of a high-resolution multi-wavelength observational study of IRDCs, which vastly improves our knowledge of the initial conditions of cluster formation. Beginning with IRDC candidates identified with Midcourse Science Experiment (MSX) survey data, we map 41 IRDCs in the N 2 H + 1 [arrow right] 0, CS 2 [arrow right] 1 and C 18 O 1 [arrow right] 0 molecular transitions using the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory. We examine the stellar content and absorption structure with Spitzer Space Telescope observations of eleven IRDCs, and we use Very Large Array NH 3 observations to probe the kinematics and chemistry of six IRDCs. Our comprehensive high-resolution study of IRDCs confirms that these objects are cold and dense precursors to massive stars and clusters. For the first time. we quantify IRDC sub-structure on sub-parsec scales and show the kinematic structure of IRDCs is diverse and depends on associated local star- formation activity. Overall, IRDCs exhibit non-thermal dynamics, suggesting that turbulence and systematic motions dominate. IRDC temperatures are between 8 and 16 K and are mostly flat with hints of a rise near the edges due to external heating. This study shows that IRDCs are a unique star-forming environment, one that dominates the star formation in the Milky Way. Using high-resolution observations, we have quantified the structure, star formation, kinematics, and chemistry of infrared-dark clouds. Our study of sub- structure in particular shows that IRDCs are undergoing fragmentation and are the precursors to star clusters, and thus we have placed IRDCs in context with Galactic star formation. The characterization presented here offers new constraints on theories of molecular cloud fragmentation and clustered star formation.

Far-infrared Extinction Mapping of Infrared Dark Clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lim, Wanggi; Tan, Jonathan C.

2014-01-01

Progress in understanding star formation requires detailed observational constraints on the initial conditions, i.e., dense clumps and cores in giant molecular clouds that are on the verge of gravitational instability. Such structures have been studied by their extinction of near-infrared and, more recently, mid-infrared (MIR) background light. It has been somewhat more of a surprise to find that there are regions that appear as dark shadows at far-infrared (FIR) wavelengths as long as ~100 μm! Here we develop analysis methods of FIR images from Spitzer-MIPS and Herschel-PACS that allow quantitative measurements of cloud mass surface density, Σ. The method builds on that developed for MIR extinction mapping by Butler & Tan, in particular involving a search for independently saturated, i.e., very opaque, regions that allow measurement of the foreground intensity. We focus on three massive starless core/clumps in the Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC) G028.37+00.07, deriving mass surface density maps from 3.5 to 70 μm. A by-product of this analysis is the measurement of the spectral energy distribution of the diffuse foreground emission. The lower opacity at 70 μm allows us to probe to higher Σ values, up to ~1 g cm-2 in the densest parts of the core/clumps. Comparison of the Σ maps at different wavelengths constrains the shape of the MIR-FIR dust opacity law in IRDCs. We find that it is most consistent with the thick ice mantle models of Ossenkopf & Henning. There is tentative evidence for grain ice mantle growth as one goes from lower to higher Σ regions.

Biogenic, urban, and wildfire influences on the molecular composition of dissolved organic compounds in cloud water

DOE PAGES

Cook, Ryan D.; Lin, Ying-Hsuan; Peng, Zhuoyu; ...

2017-12-21

Organic aerosol formation and transformation occurs within aqueous aerosol and cloud droplets, yet little is known about the composition of high molecular weight organic compounds in cloud water. Cloud water samples collected at Whiteface Mountain, New York, during August-September 2014 were analyzed by ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry to investigate the molecular composition of dissolved organic carbon, with a focus on sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds. Organic molecular composition was evaluated in the context of cloud water inorganic ion concentrations, pH, and total organic carbon concentrations to gain insights into the sources and aqueous-phase processes of the observed high molecular weight organic compounds.more » Cloud water acidity was positively correlated with the average oxygen : carbon ratio of the organic constituents, suggesting the possibility for aqueous acid-catalyzed (prior to cloud droplet activation or during/after cloud droplet evaporation) and/or radical (within cloud droplets) oxidation processes. Many tracer compounds recently identified in laboratory studies of bulk aqueous-phase reactions were identified in the cloud water. Organosulfate compounds, with both biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compound precursors, were detected for cloud water samples influenced by air masses that had traveled over forested and populated areas. Oxidation products of long-chain (C 10-12) alkane precursors were detected during urban influence. Influence of Canadian wildfires resulted in increased numbers of identified sulfur-containing compounds and oligomeric species, including those formed through aqueous-phase reactions involving methylglyoxal. Light-absorbing aqueous-phase products of syringol and guaiacol oxidation were observed in the wildfire-influenced samples, and dinitroaromatic compounds were observed in all cloud water samples (wildfire, biogenic, and urban-influenced). Overall, the cloud water molecular composition depended on air mass source influence and reflected aqueous-phase reactions involving biogenic, urban, and biomass burning precursors.« less

Biogenic, urban, and wildfire influences on the molecular composition of dissolved organic compounds in cloud water

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cook, Ryan D.; Lin, Ying-Hsuan; Peng, Zhuoyu

Organic aerosol formation and transformation occurs within aqueous aerosol and cloud droplets, yet little is known about the composition of high molecular weight organic compounds in cloud water. Cloud water samples collected at Whiteface Mountain, New York, during August-September 2014 were analyzed by ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry to investigate the molecular composition of dissolved organic carbon, with a focus on sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds. Organic molecular composition was evaluated in the context of cloud water inorganic ion concentrations, pH, and total organic carbon concentrations to gain insights into the sources and aqueous-phase processes of the observed high molecular weight organic compounds.more » Cloud water acidity was positively correlated with the average oxygen : carbon ratio of the organic constituents, suggesting the possibility for aqueous acid-catalyzed (prior to cloud droplet activation or during/after cloud droplet evaporation) and/or radical (within cloud droplets) oxidation processes. Many tracer compounds recently identified in laboratory studies of bulk aqueous-phase reactions were identified in the cloud water. Organosulfate compounds, with both biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compound precursors, were detected for cloud water samples influenced by air masses that had traveled over forested and populated areas. Oxidation products of long-chain (C 10-12) alkane precursors were detected during urban influence. Influence of Canadian wildfires resulted in increased numbers of identified sulfur-containing compounds and oligomeric species, including those formed through aqueous-phase reactions involving methylglyoxal. Light-absorbing aqueous-phase products of syringol and guaiacol oxidation were observed in the wildfire-influenced samples, and dinitroaromatic compounds were observed in all cloud water samples (wildfire, biogenic, and urban-influenced). Overall, the cloud water molecular composition depended on air mass source influence and reflected aqueous-phase reactions involving biogenic, urban, and biomass burning precursors.« less

Planck early results. XXV. Thermal dust in nearby molecular clouds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Planck Collaboration; Abergel, A.; Ade, P. A. R.; Aghanim, N.; Arnaud, M.; Ashdown, M.; Aumont, J.; Baccigalupi, C.; Balbi, A.; Banday, A. J.; Barreiro, R. B.; Bartlett, J. G.; Battaner, E.; Benabed, K.; Benoît, A.; Bernard, J.-P.; Bersanelli, M.; Bhatia, R.; Bock, J. J.; Bonaldi, A.; Bond, J. R.; Borrill, J.; Bouchet, F. R.; Boulanger, F.; Bucher, M.; Burigana, C.; Cabella, P.; Cardoso, J.-F.; Catalano, A.; Cayón, L.; Challinor, A.; Chamballu, A.; Chiang, L.-Y.; Chiang, C.; Christensen, P. R.; Clements, D. L.; Colombi, S.; Couchot, F.; Coulais, A.; Crill, B. P.; Cuttaia, F.; Danese, L.; Davies, R. D.; Davis, R. J.; de Bernardis, P.; de Gasperis, G.; de Rosa, A.; de Zotti, G.; Delabrouille, J.; Delouis, J.-M.; Désert, F.-X.; Dickinson, C.; Dobashi, K.; Donzelli, S.; Doré, O.; Dörl, U.; Douspis, M.; Dupac, X.; Efstathiou, G.; Enßlin, T. A.; Eriksen, H. K.; Finelli, F.; Forni, O.; Frailis, M.; Franceschi, E.; Galeotta, S.; Ganga, K.; Giard, M.; Giardino, G.; Giraud-Héraud, Y.; González-Nuevo, J.; Górski, K. M.; Gratton, S.; Gregorio, A.; Gruppuso, A.; Guillet, V.; Hansen, F. K.; Harrison, D.; Henrot-Versillé, S.; Herranz, D.; Hildebrandt, S. R.; Hivon, E.; Hobson, M.; Holmes, W. A.; Hovest, W.; Hoyland, R. J.; Huffenberger, K. M.; Jaffe, A. H.; Jones, A.; Jones, W. C.; Juvela, M.; Keihänen, E.; Keskitalo, R.; Kisner, T. S.; Kneissl, R.; Knox, L.; Kurki-Suonio, H.; Lagache, G.; Lamarre, J.-M.; Lasenby, A.; Laureijs, R. J.; Lawrence, C. R.; Leach, S.; Leonardi, R.; Leroy, C.; Linden-Vørnle, M.; López-Caniego, M.; Lubin, P. M.; Macías-Pérez, J. F.; MacTavish, C. J.; Maffei, B.; Mandolesi, N.; Mann, R.; Maris, M.; Marshall, D. J.; Martin, P.; Martínez-González, E.; Masi, S.; Matarrese, S.; Matthai, F.; Mazzotta, P.; McGehee, P.; Meinhold, P. R.; Melchiorri, A.; Mendes, L.; Mennella, A.; Mitra, S.; Miville-Deschênes, M.-A.; Moneti, A.; Montier, L.; Morgante, G.; Mortlock, D.; Munshi, D.; Murphy, A.; Naselsky, P.; Natoli, P.; Netterfield, C. B.; Nørgaard-Nielsen, H. U.; Noviello, F.; Novikov, D.; Novikov, I.; Osborne, S.; Pajot, F.; Paladini, R.; Pasian, F.; Patanchon, G.; Perdereau, O.; Perotto, L.; Perrotta, F.; Piacentini, F.; Piat, M.; Plaszczynski, S.; Pointecouteau, E.; Polenta, G.; Ponthieu, N.; Poutanen, T.; Prézeau, G.; Prunet, S.; Puget, J.-L.; Reach, W. T.; Rebolo, R.; Reinecke, M.; Renault, C.; Ricciardi, S.; Riller, T.; Ristorcelli, I.; Rocha, G.; Rosset, C.; Rubiño-Martín, J. A.; Rusholme, B.; Sandri, M.; Santos, D.; Savini, G.; Scott, D.; Seiffert, M. D.; Shellard, P.; Smoot, G. F.; Starck, J.-L.; Stivoli, F.; Stolyarov, V.; Sudiwala, R.; Sygnet, J.-F.; Tauber, J. A.; Terenzi, L.; Toffolatti, L.; Tomasi, M.; Torre, J.-P.; Tristram, M.; Tuovinen, J.; Umana, G.; Valenziano, L.; Verstraete, L.; Vielva, P.; Villa, F.; Vittorio, N.; Wade, L. A.; Wandelt, B. D.; Yvon, D.; Zacchei, A.; Zonca, A.

2011-12-01

Planck allows unbiased mapping of Galactic sub-millimetre and millimetre emission from the most diffuse regions to the densest parts of molecular clouds. We present an early analysis of the Taurus molecular complex, on line-of-sight-averaged data and without component separation. The emission spectrum measured by Planck and IRAS can be fitted pixel by pixel using a single modified blackbody. Some systematic residuals are detected at 353 GHz and 143 GHz, with amplitudes around -7% and +13%, respectively, indicating that the measured spectra are likely more complex than a simple modified blackbody. Significant positive residuals are also detected in the molecular regions and in the 217 GHz and 100 GHz bands, mainly caused by the contribution of the J = 2 → 1 and J = 1 → 0 12CO and 13CO emission lines. We derive maps of the dust temperature T, the dust spectral emissivity index β, and the dust optical depth at 250 μm τ250. The temperature map illustrates the cooling of the dust particles in thermal equilibrium with the incident radiation field, from 16 - 17 K in the diffuse regions to 13 - 14 K in the dense parts. The distribution of spectral indices is centred at 1.78, with a standard deviation of 0.08 and a systematic error of 0.07. We detect a significant T - β anti-correlation. The dust optical depth map reveals the spatial distribution of the column density of the molecular complex from the densest molecular regions to the faint diffuse regions. We use near-infrared extinction and Hi data at 21-cm to perform a quantitative analysis of the spatial variations of the measured dust optical depth at 250 μm per hydrogen atom τ250/NH. We report an increase of τ250/NH by a factor of about 2 between the atomic phase and the molecular phase, which has a strong impact on the equilibrium temperature of the dust particles. Corresponding author: A. Abergel, e-mail: alain.abergel@ias.u-psud.fr

NARROW Na AND K ABSORPTION LINES TOWARD T TAURI STARS: TRACING THE ATOMIC ENVELOPE OF MOLECULAR CLOUDS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Pascucci, I.; Simon, M. N.; Edwards, S.

2015-11-20

We present a detailed analysis of narrow Na i and K i absorption resonance lines toward nearly 40 T Tauri stars in Taurus with the goal of clarifying their origin. The Na i λ5889.95 line is detected toward all but one source, while the weaker K i λ7698.96 line is detected in about two-thirds of the sample. The similarity in their peak centroids and the significant positive correlation between their equivalent widths demonstrate that these transitions trace the same atomic gas. The absorption lines are present toward both disk and diskless young stellar objects, which excludes cold gas within themore » circumstellar disk as the absorbing material. A comparison of Na i and CO detections and peak centroids demonstrates that the atomic gas and molecular gas are not co-located, the atomic gas being more extended than the molecular gas. The width of the atomic lines corroborates this finding and points to atomic gas about an order of magnitude warmer than the molecular gas. The distribution of Na i radial velocities shows a clear spatial gradient along the length of the Taurus molecular cloud filaments. This suggests that absorption is associated with the Taurus molecular cloud. Assuming that the gradient is due to cloud rotation, the rotation of the atomic gas is consistent with differential galactic rotation, whereas the rotation of the molecular gas, although with the same rotation axis, is retrograde. Our analysis shows that narrow Na i and K i absorption resonance lines are useful tracers of the atomic envelope of molecular clouds. In line with recent findings from giant molecular clouds, our results demonstrate that the velocity fields of the atomic and molecular gas are misaligned. The angular momentum of a molecular cloud is not simply inherited from the rotating Galactic disk from which it formed but may be redistributed by cloud–cloud interactions.« less

Cloud-cloud collision in the Galactic center 50 km s-1 molecular cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsuboi, Masato; Miyazaki, Atsushi; Uehara, Kenta

2015-12-01

We performed a search of star-forming sites influenced by external factors, such as SNRs, H II regions, and cloud-cloud collisions (CCCs), to understand the star-forming activity in the Galactic center region using the NRO Galactic Center Survey in SiO v = 0, J = 2-1, H13CO+J = 1-0, and CS J = 1-0 emission lines obtained with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope. We found a half-shell-like feature (HSF) with a high integrated line intensity ratio of ∫TB(SiO v = 0, J = 2-1)dv/∫TB(H13CO+J = 1-0)dv ˜ 6-8 in the 50 km s-1 molecular cloud; the HSF is a most conspicuous molecular cloud in the region and harbors an active star-forming site where several compact H II regions can be seen. The high ratio in the HSF indicates that the cloud contains huge shocked molecular gas. The HSF can be also seen as a half-shell feature in the position-velocity diagram. A hypothesis explaining the chemical and kinetic properties of the HSF is that the feature originates from a CCC. We analyzed the CS J = 1-0 emission line data obtained with the Nobeyama Millimeter Array to reveal the relation between the HSF and the molecular cloud cores in the cloud. We made a cumulative core mass function (CMF) of the molecular cloud cores within the HSF. The CMF in the CCC region is not truncated at least up to ˜2500 M⊙, although the CMF of the non-CCC region reaches the upper limit of ˜1500 M⊙. Most massive molecular cores with Mgas > 750 M⊙ are located only around the ridge of the HSF and adjoin the compact H II region. These may be a sign of massive star formation induced by CCCs in the Galactic center region.

VizieR Online Data Catalog: Dense cores in Taurus L1495 cloud (Marsh+, 2016)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marsh, K. A.; Kirk, J. M.; Andre, P.; Griffin, M. J.; Konyves, V.; Palmeirim, P.; Men'shchikov, A.; Ward-Thompson, D.; Benedettini, M.; Bresnahan, D. W.; di, Francesco J.; Elia, D.; Motte, F.; Peretto, N.; Pezzuto, S.; Roy, A.; Sadavoy, S.; Schneider, N.; Spinoglio, L.; White, G. J.

2017-04-01

The observational data on which the present catalogue is based consists of a set of images of the L1495 cloud in the Taurus star-forming region, made as part of the HGBS (Andre et al. 2010). The data were taken using PACS at 70, 160, 250, 350 and 500 microns in fast-scanning (60"/s) parallel mode. (2 data files).

Molecular clouds and galactic spiral structure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dame, T. M.

1984-01-01

Galactic CO line emission at 115 GHz was surveyed in order to study the distribution of molecular clouds in the inner galaxy. Comparison of this survey with similar H1 data reveals a detailed correlation with the most intense 21 cm features. To each of the classical 21 cm H1 spiral arms of the inner galaxy there corresponds a CO molecular arm which is generally more clearly defined and of higher contrast. A simple model is devised for the galactic distribution of molecular clouds. The modeling results suggest that molecular clouds are essentially transient objects, existing for 15 to 40 million years after their formation in a spiral arm, and are largely confined to spiral features about 300 pc wide.

IONIZATION AND DUST CHARGING IN PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ivlev, A. V.; Caselli, P.; Akimkin, V. V., E-mail: ivlev@mpe.mpg.de

2016-12-10

Ionization–recombination balance in dense interstellar and circumstellar environments is a key factor for a variety of important physical processes, such as chemical reactions, dust charging and coagulation, coupling of the gas with magnetic field, and development of instabilities in protoplanetary disks. We determine a critical gas density above which the recombination of electrons and ions on the grain surface dominates over the gas-phase recombination. For this regime, we present a self-consistent analytical model, which allows us to calculate exactly the abundances of charged species in dusty gas, without making assumptions on the grain charge distribution. To demonstrate the importance ofmore » the proposed approach, we check whether the conventional approximation of low grain charges is valid for typical protoplanetary disks, and discuss the implications for dust coagulation and development of the “dead zone” in the disk. The presented model is applicable for arbitrary grain-size distributions and, for given dust properties and conditions of the disk, has only one free parameter—the effective mass of the ions, shown to have a small effect on the results. The model can be easily included in numerical simulations following the dust evolution in dense molecular clouds and protoplanetary disks.« less

The role of non-ionizing radiation pressure in star formation: the stability of cores and filaments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Seo, Young Min; Youdin, Andrew N.

2016-09-01

Stars form when filaments and dense cores in molecular clouds fragment and collapse due to self-gravity. In the most basic analyses of gravitational stability, the competition between self-gravity and thermal pressure sets the critical (I.e. maximum stable) mass of spheres and the critical line density of cylinders. Previous work has considered additional support from magnetic fields and turbulence. Here, we consider the effects of non-ionizing radiation, specifically the inward radiation pressure force that acts on dense structures embedded in an isotropic radiation field. Using hydrostatic, isothermal models, we find that irradiation lowers the critical mass and line density for gravitational collapse, and can thus act as a trigger for star formation. For structures with moderate central densities, ˜103 cm-3, the interstellar radiation field in the Solar vicinity has an order unity effect on stability thresholds. For more evolved objects with higher central densities, a significant lowering of stability thresholds requires stronger irradiation, as can be found closer to the Galactic centre or near stellar associations. Even when strong sources of ionizing radiation are absent or extincted, our study shows that interstellar irradiation can significantly influence the star formation process.

Unusual July 10, 1996, rock fall at Happy Isles, Yosemite National Park, California

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wieczorek, G.F.; Snyder, J.B.; Waitt, R.B.; Morrissey, M.M.; Uhrhammer, R.A.; Harp, E.L.; Norris, R.D.; Bursik, M.I.; Finewood, L.G.

2000-01-01

Effects of the July 10, 1996, rock fall at Happy Isles in Yosemite National Park, California, were unusual compared to most rock falls. Two main rock masses fell about 14 s apart from a 665-m-high cliff southeast of Glacier Point onto a talus slope above Happy Isles in the eastern part of Yosemite Valley. The two impacts were recorded by seismographs as much as 200 km away. Although the impact area of the rock falls was not particularly large, the falls generated an airblast and an abrasive dense sandy cloud that devastated a larger area downslope of the impact sites toward the Happy Isles Nature Center. Immediately downslope of the impacts, the airblast had velocities exceeding 110 m/s and toppled or snapped about 1000 trees. Even at distances of 0.5 km from impact, wind velocities snapped or toppled large trees, causing one fatality and several serious injuries beyond the Happy Isles Nature Center. A dense sandy cloud trailed the airblast and abraded fallen trunks and trees left standing. The Happy Isles rock fall is one of the few known worldwide to have generated an airblast and abrasive dense sandy cloud. The relatively high velocity of the rock fall at impact, estimated to be 110-120 m/s, influenced the severity and areal extent of the airblast at Happy Isles. Specific geologic and topographic conditions, typical of steep glaciated valleys and mountainous terrain, contributed to the rock-fall release and determined its travel path, resulting in a high velocity at impact that generated the devastating airblast and sandy cloud. The unusual effects of this rock fall emphasize the importance of considering collateral geologic hazards, such as airblasts from rock falls, in hazard assessment and planning development of mountainous areas.

Space Science

NASA Image and Video Library

2002-08-01

This sturning image, taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), is an image of the center of the Omega Nebula. It is a hotbed of newly born stars wrapped in colorful blankets of glowing gas and cradled in an enormous cold, dark hydrogen cloud. The region of nebula shown in this photograph is about 3,500 times wider than our solar system. The nebula, also called M17 and the Swan Nebula, resides 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. The Swan Nebula is illuminated by ultraviolet radiation from young, massive stars, located just beyond the upper-right corner of the image. The powerful radiation from these stars evaporates and erodes the dense cloud of cold gas within which the stars formed. The blistered walls of the hollow cloud shine primarily in the blue, green, and red light emitted by excited atoms of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. Particularly striking is the rose-like feature, seen to the right of center, which glows in the red light emitted by hydrogen and sulfur. As the infant stars evaporate the surrounding cloud, they expose dense pockets of gas that may contain developing stars. One isolated pocket is seen at the center of the brightest region of the nebula. Other dense pockets of gas have formed the remarkable feature jutting inward from the left edge of the image. The color image is constructed from four separate images taken in these filters: blue, near infrared, hydrogen alpha, and doubly ionized oxygen. Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (USCS/LO), M. Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA.

Hubble Space Telescope Image of Omega Nebula

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

This sturning image, taken by the newly installed Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), is an image of the center of the Omega Nebula. It is a hotbed of newly born stars wrapped in colorful blankets of glowing gas and cradled in an enormous cold, dark hydrogen cloud. The region of nebula shown in this photograph is about 3,500 times wider than our solar system. The nebula, also called M17 and the Swan Nebula, resides 5,500 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. The Swan Nebula is illuminated by ultraviolet radiation from young, massive stars, located just beyond the upper-right corner of the image. The powerful radiation from these stars evaporates and erodes the dense cloud of cold gas within which the stars formed. The blistered walls of the hollow cloud shine primarily in the blue, green, and red light emitted by excited atoms of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. Particularly striking is the rose-like feature, seen to the right of center, which glows in the red light emitted by hydrogen and sulfur. As the infant stars evaporate the surrounding cloud, they expose dense pockets of gas that may contain developing stars. One isolated pocket is seen at the center of the brightest region of the nebula. Other dense pockets of gas have formed the remarkable feature jutting inward from the left edge of the image. The color image is constructed from four separate images taken in these filters: blue, near infrared, hydrogen alpha, and doubly ionized oxygen. Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (USCS/LO), M. Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA.

The size-line width relation and the mass of molecular hydrogen

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Issa, M.; Maclaren, I.; Wolfendale, A. W.

Some difficulties associated with the problem of cloud definition are considered, with particular regard to the crowded distribution of clouds and the difficulty of choosing an appropriate boundary in such circumstances. A number of tests carried out on the original data suggest that the delta(v) - S relation found by Solomon et al. (1987) is not a genuine reflection of the dynamical state of Giant Molecular Clouds. The Solomon et al. parameters, are insensitive to the actual cloud properties and are unable to distinguish true clouds from the consequences of sampling any crowded region of emission down to a lowmore » threshold temperature. The overall effect of such problems is to overestimate both the masses of Giant Molecular Clouds and the number of very large clouds. 24 refs.« less

Observational evidence for cloud cover enhancement over western European forests.

PubMed

Teuling, Adriaan J; Taylor, Christopher M; Meirink, Jan Fokke; Melsen, Lieke A; Miralles, Diego G; van Heerwaarden, Chiel C; Vautard, Robert; Stegehuis, Annemiek I; Nabuurs, Gert-Jan; de Arellano, Jordi Vilà-Guerau

2017-01-11

Forests impact regional hydrology and climate directly by regulating water and heat fluxes. Indirect effects through cloud formation and precipitation can be important in facilitating continental-scale moisture recycling but are poorly understood at regional scales. In particular, the impact of temperate forest on clouds is largely unknown. Here we provide observational evidence for a strong increase in cloud cover over large forest regions in western Europe based on analysis of 10 years of 15 min resolution data from geostationary satellites. In addition, we show that widespread windthrow by cyclone Klaus in the Landes forest led to a significant decrease in local cloud cover in subsequent years. Strong cloud development along the downwind edges of larger forest areas are consistent with a forest-breeze mesoscale circulation. Our results highlight the need to include impacts on cloud formation when evaluating the water and climate services of temperate forests, in particular around densely populated areas.

Observational evidence for cloud cover enhancement over western European forests

PubMed Central

Teuling, Adriaan J.; Taylor, Christopher M.; Meirink, Jan Fokke; Melsen, Lieke A.; Miralles, Diego G.; van Heerwaarden, Chiel C.; Vautard, Robert; Stegehuis, Annemiek I.; Nabuurs, Gert-Jan; de Arellano, Jordi Vilà-Guerau

2017-01-01

Forests impact regional hydrology and climate directly by regulating water and heat fluxes. Indirect effects through cloud formation and precipitation can be important in facilitating continental-scale moisture recycling but are poorly understood at regional scales. In particular, the impact of temperate forest on clouds is largely unknown. Here we provide observational evidence for a strong increase in cloud cover over large forest regions in western Europe based on analysis of 10 years of 15 min resolution data from geostationary satellites. In addition, we show that widespread windthrow by cyclone Klaus in the Landes forest led to a significant decrease in local cloud cover in subsequent years. Strong cloud development along the downwind edges of larger forest areas are consistent with a forest-breeze mesoscale circulation. Our results highlight the need to include impacts on cloud formation when evaluating the water and climate services of temperate forests, in particular around densely populated areas. PMID:28074840

What Lurks in ULIRGs?—Probing the Chemistry and Excitation of Molecular Gas in the Nuclei of Arp 220 and NGC 6240

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Manohar, Swarnima; Scoville, Nick

We have imaged the dense star-forming regions of Arp 220 and NGC 6240 in the 3 mm band transitions of CO, HCN, HCO{sup +}, HNC, and CS at 0.″5–0.″8 resolution using CARMA. Our data set images all these lines at similar resolutions and high sensitivity, and can be used to derive line ratios of faint high excitation lines. In both the nuclei of Arp 220, the HCN/HNC ratios suggest chemistry of X-ray Dominated Regions (XDRs)—a likely signature of an active galactic nucleus. In NGC 6240, there is no evidence of XDR type chemistry, but there the bulk of the molecularmore » gas is concentrated between the nuclei rather than on them. We calculated molecular H{sub 2} densities from excitation analysis of each of the molecular species. It appears that the abundances of HNC and HCO{sup +} in Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxies may be significantly different from those in galactic molecular clouds. The derived H{sub 2} volume densities are ∼5 × 10{sup 4} cm{sup −3} in the Arp 220 nuclei and ∼10{sup 4} cm{sup −3} in NGC 6240.« less

TRIGGERING COLLAPSE OF THE PRESOLAR DENSE CLOUD CORE AND INJECTING SHORT-LIVED RADIOISOTOPES WITH A SHOCK WAVE. II. VARIED SHOCK WAVE AND CLOUD CORE PARAMETERS

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boss, Alan P.; Keiser, Sandra A., E-mail: boss@dtm.ciw.edu, E-mail: keiser@dtm.ciw.edu

2013-06-10

A variety of stellar sources have been proposed for the origin of the short-lived radioisotopes that existed at the time of the formation of the earliest solar system solids, including Type II supernovae (SNe), asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and super-AGB stars, and Wolf-Rayet star winds. Our previous adaptive mesh hydrodynamics models with the FLASH2.5 code have shown which combinations of shock wave parameters are able to simultaneously trigger the gravitational collapse of a target dense cloud core and inject significant amounts of shock wave gas and dust, showing that thin SN shocks may be uniquely suited for the task. However,more » recent meteoritical studies have weakened the case for a direct SN injection to the presolar cloud, motivating us to re-examine a wider range of shock wave and cloud core parameters, including rotation, in order to better estimate the injection efficiencies for a variety of stellar sources. We find that SN shocks remain as the most promising stellar source, though planetary nebulae resulting from AGB star evolution cannot be conclusively ruled out. Wolf-Rayet (WR) star winds, however, are likely to lead to cloud core shredding, rather than to collapse. Injection efficiencies can be increased when the cloud is rotating about an axis aligned with the direction of the shock wave, by as much as a factor of {approx}10. The amount of gas and dust accreted from the post-shock wind can exceed that injected from the shock wave, with implications for the isotopic abundances expected for a SN source.« less

Bipolar H II regions produced by cloud-cloud collisions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Whitworth, Anthony; Lomax, Oliver; Balfour, Scott; Mège, Pierre; Zavagno, Annie; Deharveng, Lise

2018-05-01

We suggest that bipolar H II regions may be the aftermath of collisions between clouds. Such a collision will produce a shock-compressed layer, and a star cluster can then condense out of the dense gas near the center of the layer. If the clouds are sufficiently massive, the star cluster is likely to contain at least one massive star, which emits ionizing radiation, and excites an H II region, which then expands, sweeping up the surrounding neutral gas. Once most of the matter in the clouds has accreted onto the layer, expansion of the H II region meets little resistance in directions perpendicular to the midplane of the layer, and so it expands rapidly to produce two lobes of ionized gas, one on each side of the layer. Conversely, in directions parallel to the midplane of the layer, expansion of the H II region stalls due to the ram pressure of the gas that continues to fall towards the star cluster from the outer parts of the layer; a ring of dense neutral gas builds up around the waist of the bipolar H II region, and may spawn a second generation of star formation. We present a dimensionless model for the flow of ionized gas in a bipolar H II region created according to the above scenario, and predict the characteristics of the resulting free-free continuum and recombination-line emission. This dimensionless model can be scaled to the physical parameters of any particular system. Our intention is that these predictions will be useful in testing the scenario outlined above, and thereby providing indirect support for the role of cloud-cloud collisions in triggering star formation.

Dust scattering from the Taurus Molecular Cloud

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Narayan, Sathya; Murthy, Jayant; Karuppath, Narayanankutty

2017-04-01

We present an analysis of the diffuse ultraviolet emission near the Taurus Molecular Cloud based on observations made by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer. We used a Monte Carlo dust scattering model to show that about half of the scattered flux originates in the molecular cloud with 25 per cent arising in the foreground and 25 per cent behind the cloud. The best-fitting albedo of the dust grains is 0.3, but the geometry is such that we could not constrain the phase function asymmetry factor (g).

The emerging role of cloud computing in molecular modelling.

PubMed

Ebejer, Jean-Paul; Fulle, Simone; Morris, Garrett M; Finn, Paul W

2013-07-01

There is a growing recognition of the importance of cloud computing for large-scale and data-intensive applications. The distinguishing features of cloud computing and their relationship to other distributed computing paradigms are described, as are the strengths and weaknesses of the approach. We review the use made to date of cloud computing for molecular modelling projects and the availability of front ends for molecular modelling applications. Although the use of cloud computing technologies for molecular modelling is still in its infancy, we demonstrate its potential by presenting several case studies. Rapid growth can be expected as more applications become available and costs continue to fall; cloud computing can make a major contribution not just in terms of the availability of on-demand computing power, but could also spur innovation in the development of novel approaches that utilize that capacity in more effective ways. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Millimetre-wave emission from an intermediate-mass black hole candidate in the Milky Way

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oka, Tomoharu; Tsujimoto, Shiho; Iwata, Yuhei; Nomura, Mariko; Takekawa, Shunya

2017-10-01

It is widely accepted that black holes with masses greater than a million solar masses (M⊙) lurk at the centres of massive galaxies. The origins of such `supermassive' black holes (SMBHs) remain unknown1, although those of stellar-mass black holes are well understood. One possible scenario is that intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs), which are formed by the runaway coalescence of stars in young compact star clusters2, merge at the centre of a galaxy to form a SMBH3. Although many candidates for IMBHs have been proposed, none is accepted as definitive. Recently, we discovered a peculiar molecular cloud, CO-0.40-0.22, with an extremely broad velocity width, near the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. Based on the careful analysis of gas kinematics, we concluded that a compact object with a mass of about 105M⊙ is lurking in this cloud4. Here we report the detection of a point-like continuum source as well as a compact gas clump near the centre of CO-0.40-0.22. This point-like continuum source (CO-0.40-0.22*) has a wide-band spectrum consistent with 1/500 of the Galactic SMBH (Sgr A*) in luminosity. Numerical simulations around a point-like massive object reproduce the kinematics of dense molecular gas well, which suggests that CO-0.40-0.22* is one of the most promising candidates for an intermediate-mass black hole.

Isotopic evidence for primordial molecular cloud material in metal-rich carbonaceous chondrites.

PubMed

Van Kooten, Elishevah M M E; Wielandt, Daniel; Schiller, Martin; Nagashima, Kazuhide; Thomen, Aurélien; Larsen, Kirsten K; Olsen, Mia B; Nordlund, Åke; Krot, Alexander N; Bizzarro, Martin

2016-02-23

The short-lived (26)Al radionuclide is thought to have been admixed into the initially (26)Al-poor protosolar molecular cloud before or contemporaneously with its collapse. Bulk inner Solar System reservoirs record positively correlated variability in mass-independent (54)Cr and (26)Mg*, the decay product of (26)Al. This correlation is interpreted as reflecting progressive thermal processing of in-falling (26)Al-rich molecular cloud material in the inner Solar System. The thermally unprocessed molecular cloud matter reflecting the nucleosynthetic makeup of the molecular cloud before the last addition of stellar-derived (26)Al has not been identified yet but may be preserved in planetesimals that accreted in the outer Solar System. We show that metal-rich carbonaceous chondrites and their components have a unique isotopic signature extending from an inner Solar System composition toward a (26)Mg*-depleted and (54)Cr-enriched component. This composition is consistent with that expected for thermally unprocessed primordial molecular cloud material before its pollution by stellar-derived (26)Al. The (26)Mg* and (54)Cr compositions of bulk metal-rich chondrites require significant amounts (25-50%) of primordial molecular cloud matter in their precursor material. Given that such high fractions of primordial molecular cloud material are expected to survive only in the outer Solar System, we infer that, similarly to cometary bodies, metal-rich carbonaceous chondrites are samples of planetesimals that accreted beyond the orbits of the gas giants. The lack of evidence for this material in other chondrite groups requires isolation from the outer Solar System, possibly by the opening of disk gaps from the early formation of gas giants.

Isotopic evidence for primordial molecular cloud material in metal-rich carbonaceous chondrites

PubMed Central

Van Kooten, Elishevah M. M. E.; Wielandt, Daniel; Schiller, Martin; Nagashima, Kazuhide; Thomen, Aurélien; Olsen, Mia B.; Nordlund, Åke; Krot, Alexander N.; Bizzarro, Martin

2016-01-01

The short-lived 26Al radionuclide is thought to have been admixed into the initially 26Al-poor protosolar molecular cloud before or contemporaneously with its collapse. Bulk inner Solar System reservoirs record positively correlated variability in mass-independent 54Cr and 26Mg*, the decay product of 26Al. This correlation is interpreted as reflecting progressive thermal processing of in-falling 26Al-rich molecular cloud material in the inner Solar System. The thermally unprocessed molecular cloud matter reflecting the nucleosynthetic makeup of the molecular cloud before the last addition of stellar-derived 26Al has not been identified yet but may be preserved in planetesimals that accreted in the outer Solar System. We show that metal-rich carbonaceous chondrites and their components have a unique isotopic signature extending from an inner Solar System composition toward a 26Mg*-depleted and 54Cr-enriched component. This composition is consistent with that expected for thermally unprocessed primordial molecular cloud material before its pollution by stellar-derived 26Al. The 26Mg* and 54Cr compositions of bulk metal-rich chondrites require significant amounts (25–50%) of primordial molecular cloud matter in their precursor material. Given that such high fractions of primordial molecular cloud material are expected to survive only in the outer Solar System, we infer that, similarly to cometary bodies, metal-rich carbonaceous chondrites are samples of planetesimals that accreted beyond the orbits of the gas giants. The lack of evidence for this material in other chondrite groups requires isolation from the outer Solar System, possibly by the opening of disk gaps from the early formation of gas giants. PMID:26858438

CENTIMETER CONTINUUM OBSERVATIONS OF THE NORTHERN HEAD OF THE HH 80/81/80N JET: REVISING THE ACTUAL DIMENSIONS OF A PARSEC-SCALE JET

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Masque, Josep M.; Estalella, Robert; Girart, Josep M.

2012-10-10

We present 6 and 20 cm Jansky Very Large Array/Very Large Array observations of the northern head of the HH 80/81/80N jet, one of the largest collimated jet systems known so far, aimed to look for knots farther than HH 80N, the northern head of the jet. Aligned with the jet and 10' northeast of HH 80N, we found a radio source not reported before, with a negative spectral index similar to that of HH 80, HH 81, and HH 80N. The fit of a precessing jet model to the knots of the HH 80/81/80N jet, including the new source,more » shows that the position of this source is close to the jet path resulting from the modeling. If the new source belongs to the HH 80/81/80N jet, its derived size and dynamical age are 18.4 pc and >9 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 3} yr, respectively. If the jet is symmetric, its southern lobe would expand beyond the cloud edge resulting in an asymmetric appearance of the jet. Based on the updated dynamical age, we speculate on the possibility that the HH 80/81/80N jet triggered the star formation observed in a dense core found ahead of HH 80N, which shows signposts of interaction with the jet. These results indicate that parsec-scale radio jets can play a role in the stability of dense clumps and the regulation of star formation in the molecular cloud.« less

Statistical properties of the polarized emission of Planck Galactic cold clumps

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ristorcelli, Isabelle; Planck Collaboration

2015-08-01

The Galactic magnetic fields are considered as one of the key components regulating star formation, but their actual role on the dense cores formation and evolution remains today an open question.Dust polarized continuum emission is particularly well suited to probe the dense and cold medium and study the magnetic field structure. Such observations also provide tight constraints to better understand the efficiency of the dust alignment along the magnetic field lines, which in turn relate on our grasp to properly interpret the B-field properties.With the Planck all-sky survey of dust submillimeter emission in intensity and polarization, we can investigate the intermediate scales, between that of molecular cloud and of prestellar cores, and perform a statistical analysis on the polarization properties of cold clumps.Combined with the IRAS map at 100microns, the Planck survey has allowed to build the first all-sky catalogue of Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCC, Planck 2015 results XXVIII 2015). The corresponding 13188 sources cover a broad range in physical properties, and correspond to different evolutionary stages, from cold and starless clumps, nearby cores, to young protostellar objects still embedded in their cold surrounding cloud.I will present the main results of our polarization analysis obtained on different samples of sources from the PGCC catalogue, based on the 353GHz polarized emission measured with Planck. The statistical properties are derived from a stacking method, using optimized estimators for the polarization fraction and angle parameters. These properties are determined and compared according to the nature of the sources (starless or YSOs), their size or density range. Finally, I will present a comparison of our results with predictions from MHD simulations of clumps including radiative transfer and the dust radiative torque alignment mechanism.

On the physical mechanisms governing the cloud lifecycle in the Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jeffreson, S. M. R.; Kruijssen, J. M. D.; Krumholz, M. R.; Longmore, S. N.

2018-05-01

We apply an analytic theory for environmentally-dependent molecular cloud lifetimes to the Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way. Within this theory, the cloud lifetime in the Galactic centre is obtained by combining the time-scales for gravitational instability, galactic shear, epicyclic perturbations and cloud-cloud collisions. We find that at galactocentric radii ˜45-120 pc, corresponding to the location of the `100-pc stream', cloud evolution is primarily dominated by gravitational collapse, with median cloud lifetimes between 1.4 and 3.9 Myr. At all other galactocentric radii, galactic shear dominates the cloud lifecycle, and we predict that molecular clouds are dispersed on time-scales between 3 and 9 Myr, without a significant degree of star formation. Along the outer edge of the 100-pc stream, between radii of 100 and 120 pc, the time-scales for epicyclic perturbations and gravitational free-fall are similar. This similarity of time-scales lends support to the hypothesis that, depending on the orbital geometry and timing of the orbital phase, cloud collapse and star formation in the 100-pc stream may be triggered by a tidal compression at pericentre. Based on the derived time-scales, this should happen in approximately 20 per cent of all accretion events onto the 100-pc stream.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cook, Ryan D.; Lin, Ying-Hsuan; Peng, Zhuoyu

Organic aerosol formation and transformation occurs within aqueous aerosol and cloud droplets, yet little is known about the composition of high molecular weight organic compounds in cloud water. Cloud water samples collected at Whiteface Mountain, New York, during August-September 2014 were analyzed by ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry to investigate the molecular composition of dissolved organic carbon, with a focus on sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds. Organic molecular composition was evaluated in the context of cloud water inorganic ion concentrations, pH, and total organic carbon concentrations to gain insights into the sources and aqueous-phase processes of the observed high molecular weight organic compounds.more » Cloud water acidity was positively correlated with the average oxygen : carbon ratio of the organic constituents, suggesting the possibility for aqueous acid-catalyzed (prior to cloud droplet activation or during/after cloud droplet evaporation) and/or radical (within cloud droplets) oxidation processes. Many tracer compounds recently identified in laboratory studies of bulk aqueous-phase reactions were identified in the cloud water. Organosulfate compounds, with both biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compound precursors, were detected for cloud water samples influenced by air masses that had traveled over forested and populated areas. Oxidation products of long-chain (C 10-12) alkane precursors were detected during urban influence. Influence of Canadian wildfires resulted in increased numbers of identified sulfur-containing compounds and oligomeric species, including those formed through aqueous-phase reactions involving methylglyoxal. Light-absorbing aqueous-phase products of syringol and guaiacol oxidation were observed in the wildfire-influenced samples, and dinitroaromatic compounds were observed in all cloud water samples (wildfire, biogenic, and urban-influenced). Overall, the cloud water molecular composition depended on air mass source influence and reflected aqueous-phase reactions involving biogenic, urban, and biomass burning precursors.« less

Molecular clouds in galaxies with different Z - Fragmentation of diffuse clouds driven by opacity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Franco, Jose; Cox, Donald P.

1986-01-01

Molecular clouds are formed from diffuse interstellar clouds when the external ultraviolet radiation field is prevented from penetrating into the cloud. The opacity is provided mainly by dust grains and the required column density to the cloud center is larger than about 5 x 10 to the 20th (solar Z/Z)/sq cm. This high-opacity criterion could have a significant impact on the radial trends observed in spiral galaxies, and on the distinctions between spiral and dwarf irregular galaxies.

Photogrammetric DSM denoising

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nex, F.; Gerke, M.

2014-08-01

Image matching techniques can nowadays provide very dense point clouds and they are often considered a valid alternative to LiDAR point cloud. However, photogrammetric point clouds are often characterized by a higher level of random noise compared to LiDAR data and by the presence of large outliers. These problems constitute a limitation in the practical use of photogrammetric data for many applications but an effective way to enhance the generated point cloud has still to be found. In this paper we concentrate on the restoration of Digital Surface Models (DSM), computed from dense image matching point clouds. A photogrammetric DSM, i.e. a 2.5D representation of the surface is still one of the major products derived from point clouds. Four different algorithms devoted to DSM denoising are presented: a standard median filter approach, a bilateral filter, a variational approach (TGV: Total Generalized Variation), as well as a newly developed algorithm, which is embedded into a Markov Random Field (MRF) framework and optimized through graph-cuts. The ability of each algorithm to recover the original DSM has been quantitatively evaluated. To do that, a synthetic DSM has been generated and different typologies of noise have been added to mimic the typical errors of photogrammetric DSMs. The evaluation reveals that standard filters like median and edge preserving smoothing through a bilateral filter approach cannot sufficiently remove typical errors occurring in a photogrammetric DSM. The TGV-based approach much better removes random noise, but large areas with outliers still remain. Our own method which explicitly models the degradation properties of those DSM outperforms the others in all aspects.