The small scale structure of cluster forming Infrared Dark Clouds

Details The small scale structure of cluster forming Infrared Dark Clouds The small scale structure of cluster forming Infrared Dark Clouds

Sep 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004sptz.prop.2361j&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #2361

Physics

Scientific paper

We propose to use the Spitzer Space Telescope to obtain 24micron MIPS raster maps toward 50 Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs), a new class of object recently identified as mid-infrared extinction features in the Galactic plane. We have identified ~12,000 IRDCs in the Galaxy, and using 13CO molecular line emission maps, have obtained reliable kinematic distances to ~300. We have selected the 50 darkest of these clouds for further study. Our molecular line and millimeter continuum data suggest that IRDCs are the cold molecular precursors to star clusters. They contain dense, cold cores with characteristic masses ~10 - 100 Msun. Thus, IRDCs have begun to fragment into pre-stellar cores, and may eventually form bound star clusters. Unlike previous MSX and ISO images, which suffered from spectral contamination from PAH emission features, the proposed 24 micron observations will cleanly identify the pre-stellar cores, provide reliable column density and mass estimates, independent of temperature, and combined with the millimeter and submillimeter images, allow us to separate the effects of column density and temperature variations for a large sample of IRDCs. Our goal is to understand the process of fragmentation in molecular clouds, the origin of the stellar initial mass function, and the origin of Galactic star clusters.

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