Issue |
A&A
Volume 440, Number 1, September II 2005
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 151 - 161 | |
Section | Interstellar and circumstellar matter | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20041836 | |
Published online | 19 August 2005 |
Star formation in Perseus
Clusters, filaments and the conditions for star formation
1
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany e-mail: hatchell@astro.ex.ac.uk
2
School of Physics, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QL, UK
3
Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
4
Department of Physics, UMIST, PO Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, UK
5
Department of Physics, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA 17837, USA
6
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, PO Box O, Socorro, NM 87801, USA
Received:
12
August
2004
Accepted:
4
May
2005
We present a complete survey of current star formation in
the Perseus molecular cloud, made at 850 and 450 with
SCUBA at the JCMT. Covering 3 deg2, this submillimetre continuum
survey for protostellar activity is second in size only to that of
ρ Ophiuchus (Johnstone et al. 2004, ApJ, 611, L45). Complete above 0.4 (
detection in a
beam), we detect a total of 91 protostars and prestellar cores. Of these, 80% lie in clusters,
representative of star formation across the Galaxy. Two of the groups
of cores are associated with the young stellar clusters IC 348 and
NGC 1333, and are consistent with a steady or reduced star formation
rate in the last 0.5 Myr, but not an increasing one. In Perseus,
40–60% of cores are in small clusters (<50
) and isolated
objects, much more than the 10% suggested from infrared studies.
Complementing the dust continuum, we present a C18O map of the
whole cloud at
resolution. The gas and dust show filamentary
structure of the dense gas on large and small scales, with the
high column density filaments breaking up into clusters of cores.
The filament mass per unit length is 5–11
per 0.1 pc.
Given these filament masses, there is no requirement for substantial
large scale flows along or onto the filaments in order to gather
sufficient material for star formation. We find that the probability
of finding a submillimetre core is a strongly increasing function
of column density, as measured by C18O integrated intensity,
. This power law relation holds
down to low column density, suggesting that there is no Av
threshold for star formation in Perseus, unless all the low-
submm cores can be demonstrated to be older protostars which have
begun to lose their natal molecular cloud.
Key words: stars: formation / submillimeter / dust, extinction / ISM: molecules / ISM: clouds / ISM: structure
© ESO, 2005
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