• Title/Summary/Keyword: molecular clouds

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Near-IR Polarization of the Northeastern Region of the Large Magellanic Cloud

  • Kim, Jaeyeong
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.42 no.2
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    • pp.42.2-42.2
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    • 2017
  • The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is a unique target to study the detail structures of molecular clouds and star-forming regions, due to its proximity and face-on orientation from us. Most part of the astrophysical subjects for the LMC have been investigated, but the magnetic field is still veiling despite its role in the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) and in the main force to influence the star formation process. Measuring polarization of the background stars behind interstellar medium allows us to describe the existence of magnetic fields through the polarization vector map. In this presentation, I introduce the near-infrared polarimetric results for the $39^{\prime}{\times}69^{\prime}$ field of the northeastern region of the LMC and the N159/N160 star-forming complex therein. The polarimetric observations were conducted at IRSF/SIRPOL 1.4 m telescope. These results allow us to examine both the global geometry of the large-scale magnetic field in the northeastern region and the close structure of the magnetic field in the complex. Prominent patterns of polarization vectors mainly follow dust emission features in the mid-infrared bands, which imply that the large-scale magnetic fields are highly involved in the structure of the dust cloud in the LMC. In addition, local magnetic field structures in the N159/N160 star-forming complex are investigated with the comparison between polarization vectors and molecular cloud emissions, suggesting that the magnetic fields are resulted from the sequential formation history of this complex. I propose that ionizing radiation from massive stellar clusters and the expanding bubble of the ionized gas and dust in this complex probably affect the nascent magnetic field structure.

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AKARI near-infrared spectral observations on the shocked H2 gas of a supernova remnant IC 443

  • Shinn, Jong-Ho;Koo, Bon-Chul;Seon, Kwang-Il;Lee, Ho-Gyu
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.35 no.1
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    • pp.69.1-69.1
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    • 2010
  • IC 443 is famous for its interaction with nearby molecular clouds and intense H2 emission lines in infrared. Therefore, it has been studied extensively for the understanding of molecular shocks. We observed H2 mission lines toward the shock-cloud interaction regions of IC 443, known as clumps B, C, and G. The observations were performed with the InfraRed Camera (IRC) onboard a satellite AKARI over 2.5-5.0 um, where previous space observations, e.g. Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) and Spitzer, do not cover. Our AKARI observations provide spectra of sequential pure-rotational and ro-vibrational H2 emission lines. For the clumps C and G, combining with previous mid-infrared observational results, we found that the H2 level populations show a significant separation between v=0 and v=1 levels; v=1 levels are under-populated than v=0 levels, therefore, the population cannot be described by two temperature LTE model, as many people have analyzed for the shocked H2 gas. We also applied the thermal admixture model, dN(H2; T)~T^(-b) dT, with varying ortho-to-para ratios according to the temperature, to describe the level population, and obtained plausible ranges of the H2 gas density and power-law index b.

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Multiple Molecular Line Analysis in the Planck Cold Clumps with KVN Follow-up Observations.

  • Kang, Sung-ju;Liu, Tie;Kim, Kee-Tae;Choi, Minho;Kang, Miju;Lee, Jeong-Eun;Evans, Neal J.
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.42 no.1
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    • pp.32.2-32.2
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    • 2017
  • Stars form in dense core within the molecular clouds. The prestellar cores provide information of the physical characteristics at the very early stages of star formation. The low dust temperature (<14K) of Planck cold clumps/cores (PGCCs) make them likely to be prestellar objects or at the very initial stage of protostellar collapse. We have been conducting the legacy surveys of Planck cold clumps with the JCMT, the TRAO 14-m and many other telescopes. We aim to study of the initial conditions of star formation and chemical evolutions of the cores in the different environments. From JCMT SCUBA-2 $850{\mu}m$ survey (SCOPE), we have already identified hundreds of dense cores, which may be at the earliest phase of star formation. Therefore in order to explore the chemical evolution of these dense cores, we used KVN telescopes in order to observe 75 well selected SCUBA-2 cores in many molecules as the follow-up project of KVN Pilot Observation of SCUBA-2. These observations will help advance our understanding of the propoerties of these SCUBA-2 cores in PGCCs.

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THERMAL AND NON-THERMAL RADIO CONTINUUM SOURCES IN THE W51 COMPLEX

  • MOON DAE-SIK;KOO BON-CHUL
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.81-102
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    • 1994
  • We have decomposed the 11-cm radio continuum emission of the W51 complex into thermal and non-thermal components. The distribution of the thermal emission has been determined by analyzing HI, CO, and IRAS $60-{\mu}m$ data. We have found a good correlation between the 11-cm thermal continuum and the 60- 11m emissions, which is used to obtain the thermal and non-thermal 11-cm continuum maps of the W51 complex. Most of the thermal continuum is emanating from the compact H II regions and their low-density ionized envelopes in W51A and W51B. All the H II regions, except G49.1-0.4 in W51B, have associated molecular clumps. The thermal radio continuum fluxes of the compact H II regions are proportional to the CO fluxes of molecular clumps. This is consistent with the previous results that the total mass of stars in an H II region is proportional to the mass of the associated molecular clump. According to our result, there are three non-thermal continuum sources in W51: G49.4-0.4 in W51A, a weak source close to G49.2-0.3 in W51B, and the shell source W51C. The non-thermal flux of G49.5-0.4 at 11-cm is $\~28 Jy$, which is $\~25\%$ of its total 11-cm flux. The radio continuum spectrum between 0.15 and 300 GHz also suggests an excess emission over thermal free-free emission. We show that the excess emission can be described as a non-thermal emission with a spectral index ${\alpha}{\simeq}-1.0 (S_v{\propto}V^a)$ attenuated by thermal free-free absorptions at low-frequencies. The non-thermal source close to G49.2-0.3 is weak $(\~9 Jy)$. The nature of the source is not known and the reality of the non-thermal emission needs to be confirmed. The non~thermal shell source W51C has a 11-cm flux of $\~130Jy$ and a spectral index ${\alpha}{\simeq}-0.26$.

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How do dense cores embedded in a pc scale filamentary clouds form, by gas flow motions along filamentary clouds and/or contracting motions by themselves?

  • Kim, Shinyoung;Lee, Chang Won;Myers, Philip C.;Caselli, Paola;Kim, Mi-Ryang
    • The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.45 no.1
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    • pp.41.2-42
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    • 2020
  • Understanding how the filamentary structure plays a role in the formation of the prestellar cores and stars is a key issue to challenge. We have observed two prestellar cores in surrounding filamentary environments in 13CO, C180 (3-2) and HCO+ (4-3) molecular lines with the Heterodyne Array Receiver Program (HARP) of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), in order to search for the evidence related to the possible flow motions along the filament and/or the radial accretion (or infalling motions) of gas material toward the dense cores from their surrounding filamentary cloud. In L1544, the velocity gradient of 1.6 km s-1 pc-1 toward the core was measured in a small branch of filament lying on a radial direction of main filament while no velocity gradient along the main axis of filament in both 13CO and C18O lines. In L694-2, we found the velocity gradient of 0.6 km s-1 pc-1 along the filament in only 13CO lines. The projected accretion rate of ~6 M◉ Myr-1 was estimated in both cases. The infall (or radially contracting) velocity of gas material was measured ~0.16 km s-1 in both 13CO and HCO+ lines and in both L1544 and L694-2, which leads to estimate a mass infall rate of ~20 M◉ Myr-1. Our analysis suggests that our targets are at a stage where the gravitational contraction dominates the mass accretion through the surrounding filamentary cloud. This is consistent with the fact that our targets are highly evolved prestellar cores on a verge of star formation. More detailed results will be presented at the meeting.

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SECONDARY ELECTRONS IN CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES AND GALAXIES

  • HWANG CHORNG- YUAN
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.37 no.5
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    • pp.461-463
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    • 2004
  • We investigate the role of secondary electrons in galaxy clusters and in ultra-luminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs). The radio emission in galaxy clusters and ULIGs is believed to be produced by the synchrotron radiation of relativistic electrons. Nonetheless, the sources of these relativistic electrons are still unclear. Relativistic secondary electrons can be produced from the hadronic interactions of cosmic-ray nuclei with the intra-cluster media (ICM) of galaxy clusters and the dense molecular clouds of ULIGs. We estimate the contribution of the secondary electrons in galaxy clusters and ULIGs by comparing observational results with theoretical calculations for the radio emission in these sources. We find that the radio halos of galaxy clusters can not be produced from the secondary electrons; on the other hand, at least for some ULIGs, the radio emission can be dominated by the synchrotron emission of the secondary electrons.

TURBULENCE STATISTICS FROM SPECTRAL LINE OBSERVATIONS

  • LAZARIAN A.
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.37 no.5
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    • pp.563-570
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    • 2004
  • Turbulence is a crucial component of dynamics of astrophysical fluids dynamics, including those of ISM, clusters of galaxies and circumstellar regions. Doppler shifted spectral lines provide a unique source of information on turbulent velocities. We discuss Velocity-Channel Analysis (VCA) and its offspring Velocity Coordinate Spectrum (VCS) that are based on the analytical description of the spectral line statistics. Those techniques are well suited for studies of supersonic turbulence. We stress that a great advantage of VCS is that it does not necessary require good spatial resolution. Addressing the studies of mildly supersonic and subsonic turbulence we discuss the criterion that allows to determine whether Velocity Centroids are dominated by density or velocity. We briefly discuss ways of going beyond power spectra by using of higher order correlations as well as genus analysis. We outline the relation between Spectral Correlation Functions and the statistics available through VCA and VCS.

HCN AND HCO+ EMISSION IN M31 : TRACING THE DENSE MOLECULAR GAS IN A GALACTIC DISK

  • MULLER SEBASTIEN;BROUILLET NATHALIE;HERPIN FABRICE;BRAINE JONATHAN;JACQ THIERRY
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.38 no.2
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    • pp.245-248
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    • 2005
  • We present mm observations with the IRAM 30m radiotelescope of the HCN (J=1-0) and HCO+ (J=1-0) emission lines from Giant Moleculat Clouds (GMC) in the disk of the Andromeda Galaxy, The selected GMC targets have various morphology and environments, including locations within spiral arms or in interarm regions and with galactocentric radii ranging from 2.4 to 15.5 kpc over the disk. The radial distributions of the ratios HCN/CO and HCO+ /CO are discussed and their values are compared to other galaxies.

RECENT PROGRESS IN HIGH-MASS STAR-FORMATION STUDIES WITH ALMA

  • Hirota, Tomoya
    • Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.33 no.2
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    • pp.21-30
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    • 2018
  • Formation processes of high-mass stars have been long-standing issues in astronomy and astrophysics. This is mainly because of major difficulties in observational studies such as a smaller number of high-mass young stellar objects (YSOs), larger distances, and more complex structures in young high-mass clusters compared with nearby low-mass isolated star-forming regions (SFRs), and extremely large opacity of interstellar dust except for centimeter to submillimeter wavelengths. High resolution and high sensitivity observations with Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) at millimeter/submillimeter wavelengths will overcome these observational difficulties even for statistical studies with increasing number of high-mass YSO samples. This review will summarize recent progresses in high-mass star-formation studies with ALMA such as clumps and filaments in giant molecular cloud complexes and infrared dark clouds (IRDCs), protostellar disks and outflows in dense cores, chemistry, masers, and accretion bursts in high-mass SFRs.

MASS CODES OF MOLECULAR CLOUDS WITH IN IRAF

  • Lee, Young-Ung
    • Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.9 no.1
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    • pp.39-54
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    • 1994
  • We present two codes which estimates virial mass and LTE mass using IMFORT interface within IRAF (Image Reduction and Analysis Facility). It is discussed that threshold value (temperature or CO integrated intensity), which defines a reasonable cloud boundary and size, is the most important parameter determining accurate results. Several virial masses are to be obtained using the vir task, as well as three velocity dispersions including the centroid velocity dispersion, a turbulence indicator. LTE mass is to be estimated by using task lte as well as three by-product images. The $^{13}CO$ abundance and threshold temperature of $^{13}CO$ and $^{12}CO$ peak temperatures are the most critical parameters in LTE technique.

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