Computer Science
Scientific paper
May 2007
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007sptz.prop40500f&link_type=abstract
Spitzer Proposal ID #40500
Computer Science
Scientific paper
As the discovery of InfraRed Dark Cloud in silhouette against bright background IR emission demonstrates, massive cores, characterized by large column densities of dense molecular material, are ubiquitous in the Galaxy. While initially these clouds were thought to represent the prestellar core phase of stellar cluster formation, the high sensitivity of the IRAC and MIPS instruments on Spitzer have recently revealed deeply embedded objects in several of these clouds. Up to now, such dense, massive cores were predominantly known towards the inner Galaxy where background IR emission levels are high, but this selection may carry with it various selection effects. Recently, we completed an unbiased survey of massive dense clouds in the outer Galaxy based upon near-IR color deviation studies using the 2MASS Point Source Catalog. Object OGDC111.80+0.58, selected from this survey, is a large (>10 pc), filamentary molecular cloud complex in a very young stage of evolution and contains multiple massive (50-1000 Msun) cores. We propose to study the star formation characteristics of this complex structure using IRAC and MIPS. Using color-color plots, we can obtain a census of the protostellar population (eg., class 0, I, II, III) in the cores and along the filaments. In addition, analysis of this data will allow us to separate out reddened background stars. This will provide better estimates of the dust column, particularly in the densest cores where background sources extinguished even in the near-IR. Moreover, we expect that a fair fraction of the cores will be starless and this study may well provide the best way to select this ever-elusive first stage of the star formation process.
Carey Sean
Frieswijk Wilfred
Shipman Russell
Spaans Marco
Teyssier David
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