Extinction Mapping of Infrared Dark Clouds: Probing the Initial Conditions of Star Cluster Formation

Details Extinction Mapping of Infrared Dark Clouds: Probing the Initial Conditions of Star Cluster Formation Extinction Mapping of Infrared Dark Clouds: Probing the Initial Conditions of Star Cluster Formation

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...21113911b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #139.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.987

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) are cold, dense regions of giant molecular clouds that are opaque at wavelengths 10 microns or more and thus appear dark against the diffuse Galactic background emission. They are thought to be the progenitors of star clusters. We use 8 micron imaging data from SPITZER-IRAC (GLIMPSE) to make extinction maps of 10 infrared dark clouds (IRDCs), selected to be relatively nearby and massive. The extinction mapping technique requires construction of a model of Galactic IR background intensity behind the cloud, which is achieved by interpolation from the surrounding regions. We investigate three different methods for this interpolation, finding that systematic differences are at about the 20% level. For standard dust opacities and dust to gas ratios, such an uncertainty corresponds to a column density of 0.038 g/cm2, above which we conclude this extinction mapping technique attains validity. Within the clouds, cores have been identified via mm emission by Rathborne et al. (2006). For about 40 cores, we compare the masses derived from mm emission with those derived from extinction mapping, finding general agreement at the level of a factor of two to three, and with a systematic offset of <25%. We discuss possible causes of this scatter and systematic difference. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these results for star cluster formation theories.

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