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Clouds, cores, and stars in the nearest molecular complexes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

P. C. Myers
P. C. Myers*
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02188, USA E-mail [email protected]

Abstract

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The properties and structure of six molecular complexes within 500 pc of the Sun are described and compared. They are generally organized into elongated filaments which appear connected to less elongated, more massive clouds. Their prominent star clusters tend to be located in the massive clouds rather than in the filaments. The complexes have similar structure, but big differences in scale, from a few pc to some 30 pc. They show a pattern of regional virial equilibrium, where the massive, centrally located clouds are close to virial equilibrium, while the less massive filaments and other small clouds have too little mass to bind their observed internal motions. Complexes can be ranked according to increasing size, mass, core mass, and the mass and number of the associated stars: they range from Lupus to Taurus to Ophiuchus to Perseus to Orion B to Orion A. The cores in nearby complexes tend to have maps which are elongated, rather than round. The core size, velocity dispersion, and column density of most cores are consistent with virial equilibrium. Cores in Orion tend to exceed cores in Taurus in their line width, size, temperature, mass, and in the mass of the associated star, if any. Stars in Orion tend to be more numerous and more massive than in Taurus, while those in Taurus tend to be more numerous and more massive than in Lupus. The mass of a core tends to increase with the mass of the cloud where it is found, with the mass of the star cluster with which it is associated, and with its proximity to a star cluster. These properties suggest that complexes and their constituent cores and clusters develop together over time, perhaps according to the depth of the gravitational well of the complex.

Keywords

star formationmolecular clouds
Type
Small Scale Structure
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 147: Fragmentation of Molecular Clouds and Star Formation , 1991 , pp. 221 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1991 

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