Filaments and Dense Cores in Perseus Molecular Cloud

  • Published : 2016.10.12

Abstract

How dense cores and filaments in molecular clouds form is one of key questions in star formation. To challenge this issue we started to make a systematic mapping survey of nearby molecular clouds in various environments with TRAO 14m telescope equipped with 16 beam array, in high ($N_2H^+$, $HCO^+$ 1-0) and low ($C^{18}O$, $^{13}CO$ 1-0) density tracers (TRAO Multi-beam Legacy Survey of Nearby Filamentary Molecular Clouds, PI: C. W. Lee). We pursue to dynamically and chemically understand how filaments, dense cores, and stars form under different environments. We have performed On-The-Fly (OTF) mapping observations toward L1251, southern part of Perseus molecular cloud, and Serpens main molecular cloud from January to May, 2016. In total, ~3.5 square degree area map of $^{13}CO$ and $C^{18}O$ was simultaneously obtained with S/N of >10 in a velocity resolution of ~0.2 km/s. Dense core regions of ~1.7 square degree area where $C^{18}O$ 1-0 line is strongly detected were also mapped in $N_2H^+$ 1-0 and $HCO^+$ 1-0. The L1251 and Perseus MC are known to be low- to intermediate-mass star-forming clouds, while the Serpens MC is an active low-mass star-forming cloud. The observed molecular filaments will help to understand how the filaments, cores and eventually stars form in a low- and/or intermediate-mass star-forming environment. In this talk, I'll give a brief report on the observation and show preliminary results of Perseus MC.

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