The end of star formation in Chamaeleon I? (A. Belloche et al.)

Vol. 527
In section 6. Interstellar and circumstellar matter

The end of star formation in Chamaeleon I? A LABOCA census of starless and protostellar cores

There is a considerable amount of evidence that the initial mass function (IMF) of newly formed stars is at least partly determined by the mass distribution of cores (dense mass concentrations) in the molecular cloud from which the young stars form. The study by Belloche et al. highlighted today focuses on the Chamaeleon I cloud associated with a well-studied group of young pre main-sequence stars. The rather surprising result is that while the high-mass part of the core's mass function is consistent with the IMF, a rather small fraction of cores appear to be bound in the sense that their mass is close to the "Bonnor Ebert mass". It seems possible that star formation in Chamaeleon is coming to an end.