The crucial role of cooling in the making of molecular clouds and stars

Details The crucial role of cooling in the making of molecular clouds and stars The crucial role of cooling in the making of molecular clouds and stars

Nov 1987

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1987apj...322..787t&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 322, Nov. 15, 1987, p. 787-794. NASA-sponsored research.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

31

Cooling, Interstellar Matter, Molecular Clouds, Star Formation, Astronomical Models, Stellar Temperature

Scientific paper

The role that velocity or pressure fluctuations in the H I clouds medium can play in initiating compression of sub-Jeans mass diffuse clouds is outlined. The frequently discussed idea is reviewed that substantial overpressures arising in the warm, medium and/or highly supersonic compressions of H I clouds can push sub-Jeans mass clumps to densities where gravity can take over and complete the star formation process. A nonequilibrium model is used to analyze the impact of external disturbances on gas clouds, and estimates of the required disturbance amplitudes are substantially reduced from previous estimates based on equilibrium arguments. The results reveal that a cloud which cools under compression is particularly sensitive to mild disturbances from its environment. Furthermore, the specific energy required to trigger effective compressions in a cooling medium is nearly independent of the cloud's mass. It is proposed that mildly nonlinear disturbances play a primary role in the formation of molecular cloud and stars.

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