The study of star formation is a relatively young discipline of the field of astronomy. Up until the mid point of the twentieth century only a most rudimentary understanding of the subject was possible. This is because prior to that time there did not exist any substantive body of empirical data which could be used to critically test even the most basic hypotheses concerning stellar origins. However, as a result of impressive advances in observational technology and in our understanding of stellar evolution during the last forty years, the subject of star formation has developed into one of the most important branches of modern astrophysical research. A large body of observational data and a considerable literature pertaining to this subject now exist and a significant fraction of the international astronomical community devotes their efforts towards trying to comprehend the origins of stars and planets. Yet, despite these efforts we have yet to observationally identify, with any certainty, a single object in the process of stellar birth! Moreover, we have not yet produced a viable theory of star formation, one capable of being tested and refined by critical experiment. In many ways, stellar birth is as much a mystery today as it was forty years ago. However, there can be little doubt that during the last two decades truly revolutionary progress has been made in the quest to understand the star formation process in our galaxy. This apparent paradox in the state of our knowledge concerning stellar origins is resolved with the realization that the history of the study of star formation has been a history of the study of progressively earlier and earlier stages of stellar evolution. Indeed, it is in precisely this area of endeavor that we have learned so much.

As a first step in systematically studying star formation in dark clouds we report a search for IRAS Point Source Catalog detections lieing within the boundaries of Southern Dark Clouds in the catalog of Hartley et al. (1986). To aid in further classifying the 1099 objects by their infrared colours the colours of the whole IRAS Point Source Catalog are discussed and plotted, and the regions occupied by various types of objects tabulated. The presence of Cirrus makes it difficult to confidently identify protostellar like objects from IRAS data alone. Nevertheless 247 sources have colours characteristic of objects deeply embedded in the dark clouds and are probably at least young stars of low mass. These sources appear to be located at random positions within the dark cloud volumes and there is no evidence to suggest that formation of low mass stars in this dark cloud sample is externally triggered.

Dark clouds within a few hundred pc of the Sun contain hundreds of condensations with typical size 0.1 pc, density 104 molecules per cubic cm, mass 1 M⊙, and temperature 10 K. These “dense cores” are defined by maps of molecular lines, such as the (J,K)=(1,1) line of ammonia at 1.3 cm wavelength. They are associated with regions of opaque visual obscuration, groups of T Tauri stars, and other cores. They are closely correlated with steep-spectrum, low-luminosity (1-10 L⊙) IRAS sources! of about 60 cores with ammonia maps, half have an IRAS source within one map diameter. Thus cores form low-mass stars, which are probably precursors of T Tauri stars. Simple models indicate that time for a core to wait before collapsing, to collapse and form a star, and to disperse are each of order 105 yr. Cores with stars have broader lines and bigger velocity gradients than cores without stars, suggesting interaction between the star and the core due to gravity and/or outflow. Stars in cores have about 30 mag greater circumstellar extinction, and greater likelihood of CO outflow, than stars near, but not in, cores. Models of the 1-100 μm spectra of stars in cores suggest that inside of ∼100 A.U., the typical star suffers relatively little line-of-sight extinction but is accompanied by a source of significant luminosity at 5-25 μm. Models involving circumstellar disks provide good fits to the observed spectra.

Our goal was to look for radio non-thermal emission from active PMS stars, as suggested by the presence of numerous, highly variable X-rays sources in the cloud (Montmerle et al. 1983), and by optical periodicities probably linked with starspots (Bouvier and Bertout, in prep.). Previous radio surveys have been done by Brown and Zuckermann (1975), and Falgarone and Gilmore (1981). Emission mechanisms are mainly thermal (free-free, from H II regions, winds, accretion flows; gyrosynchrotron), and non-thermal (gyrosynchrotron from flares; synchrotron in winds, White 1985; corotating interaction regions, Mullan 1984).

The magnetic field geometry in the central regions of two dark clouds has been mapped by measuring the polarization at 2.2 μm of background stars and of stars embedded in the clouds. The observations were done with the Kyoto polarimeter on the Agematsu 1m IR telescope in December 1984 for Heiles Cloud 2 in the Taurus dark cloud complex, and on the UKIRT 3.8m in May and July 1985 for the ρ Ophiuchus dark cloud core. The main results are:

1. i) Most of the stars in both regions show polarization and their maxima are 2.7% in Heiles Cloud 2 and 7.6% in ρ Oph, respectively. There are similar positive relations between polarization degree and extinct ion Av's.

2. ii) The distribution of position angles for Heiles Cloud 2 shows a single mode at about 50° and that for ρ Oph shows a bimode, at about 50° and 150°.

3. iii) The magnetic fields, as delineated by the infrared polarization, appear perpendicular to the flattened elongations of the molecular clouds.

Owing to the drastic progress in infrared and radio observations of molecular cloud cores, the scenario of starformation seems to have been almost completed. However, the study of dark clouds as a whole, which is a stage of the starformation drama, is observationally insufficient. In order to understand the environment of a starforming region, it is important to study the large scale structures of dark clouds. And that gives the information about formation and destruction mechanism of dark clouds.

We report here the first results of an extended program to measure magnetic-field strengths in interstellar molecular clouds. The very large radio telescope located near Nancay, France, has been used to measure the Stokes-parameter I and V spectra of the 1665 and 1667 MHz lines of OH in emission and in absorption from extended (non-masing) molecular clouds. Signals in the V spectra are produced by Zeeman splitting of the spectral lines; we derive magnetic-field strengths or limits from these data.

We present a historical review of evidence for ongoing star formation in our Galaxy beginning with the discovery that interstellar space is not empty. The discoveries of interstellar dust, interstellar hydrogen and molecular clouds are reviewed. Observational investigations of dark clouds are then traced from the photographs of Edward Emerson Barnard to contemporary studies of their molecular constituents. A historical overview of observational evidence for new-born stars includes T-Tauri stars, young stellar clusters, sequential star birth and infrared stars beginning with Alfred Joy, Merle Walker, Becklin, and Neugebauer, and Adrian Blaauw and continuing to giant molecular clouds and IRAS. Theoretical studies of gravitational collapse and the early stages of stellar evolution are also placed within a historical context.

We studied the interstellar UV extinction towards 115 stars, selected from IUE data bank, belonging to a variety of different galactic areas, including well-known dense clouds.

We have made a survey of Hα-emission stars in the CMa R1 region with the 105cm Schmidt telescope at the Kiso Observatory. In an area of about 37 square degrees, a total of 107 Hα-emission stars (V = 6-15 mag.) was found, and, for all of them, the photographic photometry in the UBV system has been carried out.

High-precision radial-velocity studies of four star-forming regions: λ Orionis, NGC 2264, the Trapezium cluster and Taurus-Auriga, are completed or in process (in collaboration with Latham, Marschall and Hartmann). Single-order (∼ 50 Å, central wavelength 5200 Å) echelle spectra have been obtained for late-type pre-main sequence stars. Measurement errors of 0.7 – 1.5 km/sec are typical, although some stars do not permit any radial-velocity measurement due to stellar rotation or spectral peculiarities.

The M17SW giant molecular cloud extends over 4° (∼ 160 pc) at the south-west of the giant H II region M17. The distance and the mass of the cloud are estimated to be approximately 2.2 kpc and 3x105 M⊙, respectively.

To find evidence for collective star formation without massive stars in the dark cloud complex Kh141 (Saito 1980), a search for T-Tauri stars has been made.

A spectral line survey for interstellar NH3 is being carried out using the 64-m telescopes at Parkes and Tidbinbilla. Both telescopes are equipped with K-band masers yielding system temperatures below 100 K. The preliminary survey was to be made with the Parkes antenna (beam = 1.5′ arc) with follow-up mapping of the more interesting sources at Tidbinbilla (beam = 0.9′ arc). Sources have in general been H II regions from the H2CO surveys made at Parkes. Approximately 70 sources (out of a target of (∼ 100) have been observed simultaneously in the metastable (1,1), (2,2) and (3,3) transitions. The (1,1) line has been detected in about 70% of the sources surveyed. The other lines which involve higher excitation are detected primarily in the more compact sources, particularly those associated with OH and H2O masers. Examples are given of spectra for different types of source.

21-cm spectra on a 41 × 31 grid, centered at 1950: RA 04h30m; DEC 27d00m, at points separated by a true angle of 0.25 degrees, were observed using the Arecibo telescope in October 1985. The identical grid had previously been observed in 13CO by Kleiner and Dickman (1984) with the FCRAO mm wave telescope. In this preliminary analysis we determined autocorrelation functions and power spectra for 21-cm self absorption “intensities”, for a cross passing through the central point. Both arms of the cross, aligned parallel to RA and DEC, show a power spectral peak at a frequency of 0.312 reciprocal degrees, corresponding to a period of 3.2 degrees on the sky. Assuming that the Taurus complex is at a distance of 140 pc, this corresponds to a correlation length of 7.8 pc, which is about a factor of two smaller than the value of 14 pc found by Kleiner and Dickman for 13CO.