Description
How molecular clouds form out of the atomic phase and what the relative fractions of carbon are in the ionized, atomic, and molecular phase are questions at the heart of cloud and star formation. We want to understand the kinematic processes of gas flows during the formation of molecular clouds. In addition to that, we aim at determining the abundance ratios of carbon in its various gas phases from the ionized to the molecular form. Using multiple observatories from Herschel and SOFIA to APEX and the IRAM 30m telescope, we mapped the ionized and atomic carbon as well as carbon monoxide ([CII] at 1900GHz, [CI] at 492GHz, and C^18^O(2-1) at 220GHz) at high spatial resolution (12"-25") in four young massive infrared dark clouds (IRDCs).
|