Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T04:43:58.805Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Morphological Complexity of Protostellar Envelopes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2011

John J. Tobin ,
Lee Hartmann ,
Edwin Bergin ,
Leslie W. Looney ,
Hsin-Fang Chiang  and
Fabian Heitsch
John J. Tobin
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109; [email protected]
Lee Hartmann
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109; [email protected]
Edwin Bergin
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109; [email protected]
Leslie W. Looney
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, Urbana, IL 61801
Hsin-Fang Chiang
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Champaign/Urbana, Urbana, IL 61801
Fabian Heitsch
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Extinction maps at 8μm from the Spitzer Space Telescope show that many Class 0 protostars exhibit complex, irregular, and non-axisymmetric structure within the densest regions of their dusty envelopes. Many of the systems have highly irregular and non-axisymmetric morphologies on scales ~1000 AU, with a quarter of the sample exhibiting filamentary or flattened dense structures. Complex envelope structure is observed in regions spatially distinct from outflow cavities, and the densest structures often show no systematic alignment perpendicular to the cavities. We suggest that the observed envelope complexity is the result of collapse from protostellar cores with initially non-equilibrium structures. The striking non-axisymmetry in many envelopes could provide favorable conditions for the formation of binary systems. We then show that the kinematics around L1165 as probed with N2H+ are indicative of asymmetric infall; the velocity gradient is not perpendicular to the outflow.

Keywords

stars: formationdustextinctionISM: moleculesISM: globules
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S270: Computational Star Formation , May 2010 , pp. 49 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

References

Ballesteros-Paredes, J., et al. 2007, Protostars and Planets V, 63Google Scholar
Bacmann, A., et al. 2000, A&A, 361, 555Google Scholar
Basu, S., Ciolek, G. E., Dapp, W. B. & Wurster, J. 2009, New Astronomy, 14, 483CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonnell, I. & Bastien, P. 1993, ApJ, 406, 614CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burkert, A. & Bodenheimer, P. 1993, MNRAS, 264, 798CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galli, D. & Shu, F. H. 1993, ApJ, 417, 220CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratter, K. M., Matzner, C. D., Krumholz, M. R., & Klein, R. I. 2010, ApJ, 708, 1585CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, C. C., Mestel, L., & Shu, F. H. 1965, ApJ, 142, 1431CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Looney, L. W., Tobin, J. J., & Kwon, W. 2007, ApJL, 670, L131CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Offner, S. S. R., & Krumholz, M. R. 2009, ApJ, 693, 914CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, F. H. 1977, ApJ, 214, 488CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stutz, A. M., et al. 2009, ApJ, 707, 137CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terebey, S., Shu, F. H., & Cassen, P. 1984, ApJ, 286, 529CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tobin, J. J., Hartmann, L., Looney, L. W., & Chiang, H.-F. 2010, ApJ, 712, 1010CrossRefGoogle Scholar