Description
We have surveyed submillimeter continuum emission from relatively quiescent regions in the Orion molecular cloud to determine how the core mass function in a high-mass star-forming region compares to the stellar initial mass function. Such studies are important for understanding the evolution of cores to stars, and for comparison to formation processes in high- and low-mass star-forming regions. We used the SHARC II camera on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory telescope to obtain 350um data having angular resolution of about 9", which corresponds to 0.02pc at the distance of Orion. Further data processing using a deconvolution routine enhances the resolution to about 3". Such high angular resolution allows a rare look into individually resolved dense structures in a massive star-forming region.
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