Issue |
A&A
Volume 382, Number 2, FebruaryI 2002
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 624 - 638 | |
Section | The Sun | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20011646 | |
Published online | 15 February 2002 |
Radio-millimetre investigation of galactic infrared dark clouds*
Laboratoire de radioastronomie millimétrique, URA 336 du CNRS, École normale supérieure et Observatoire de Paris, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
Corresponding author: D. Teyssier, teyssier@lra.ens.fr
Received:
29
December
2000
Accepted:
13
November
2001
We present follow-up observations of the mid-Infrared dark clouds selected from the ISOGAL inner Galaxy sample. On-the-fly maps of 13CO, C18O and the 1.2 mm continuum emission were conducted at the IRAM 30-m telescope, showing spectacular correlation with the mid-IR absorption. The dark clouds are distributed as far as the prominent molecular ring at a distance of 3 to 7 kpc from the Sun. The clouds exhibit shapes ranging from globules to thin filaments down to 1 pc in size. The on-the-fly images obtained in 13CO and C18O confirmed that the cores are dense, compact molecular emitters, significantly more massive than local dark clouds (more than 1000
) and lie within low activity Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC's). Ratios of the emission in the
and
transitions of 13CO and C18O show a remarkable uniformity within each cloud, with a significant portion of the sample represented well by a ratio of
. Preliminary analysis of temperature and density measurements reveals that most of the cores have densities above 105 cm-3 and temperatures between 8 and 25 K, these latter clouds being associated with young embedded stars. Despite the high extinction inferred from mid-IR (
, Hennebelle et al. [CITE]), the molecular lines are surprisingly weak, indicating likely depletion onto cold grains.
Key words: ISM: clouds / molecules / structure / radio continuum: ISM / radio lines: ISM
© ESO, 2002
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