Dust emission from star-forming regions. III - The Rho Ophiuchus cloud - Where are the low-mass protostars?

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Cosmic Dust, Ophiuchi Clouds, Protostars, Star Formation, Stellar Evolution, Stellar Mass, Astronomical Spectroscopy, Emission Spectra, Infrared Spectra, Interstellar Magnetic Fields

Scientific paper

The dust emission of the densest part of the Rho Oph cloud as indicated by CO-18 and DCO(+) line emission has been surveyed, and three structureless cores of densities of about 4 x 10 exp 5 to 10 exp 6/cu cm and masses of 15, 3, and 1 solar mass have been found along with another core of about 15 solar masses, which contains four high-density (about 10 exp 8/cu cm) condensations with masses ranging from 0.3 to 3 solar masses. These could be the low-mass counterparts of the more massive isothermal protostars detected previously in the cloud core associated with NGC 2024. The following picture of low-to-medium mass star formation emerges: structureless static cores with densities of 4 x 10 exp 5 to 10 exp 6/cu cm, which could be stabilized against collapse by magnetic fields, form the first evolutionary stage. When collapse takes place, about one-third of the core mass goes into isothermal condensations, which contract on free-fall time scales of 4 x 10 exp 4 yr and become outflow sources prior to the formation of a central stellar core. The short lifetime explains why isothermal protostars are so rare.

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