- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/658/A54
- Title:
- Molecular cloud assoc. to Milky Way spiral arms
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/658/A54
- Date:
- 22 Feb 2022
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The morphology of the Milky Way is still a matter of debate. In order to shed light on the uncertainty surrounding the Galactic structure, in this paper, we study the imprint of spiral arms on the molecular gas distribution and properties. To do so, we take full advantage of the SEDIGISM (Structure, Excitation and Dynamics of the Inner Galactic Interstellar Medium) survey that observed a large area of the inner Galaxy in the ^13^CO(2-1) line at an angular resolution of 28". We analyse the influences of spiral arms by considering the features of the molecular gas emission as a whole across the longitude- velocity map built from the full survey. Additionally, we examine the properties of the molecular clouds in the spiral arms compared to those in the inter-arm regions. Through flux and luminosity probability distribution functions, we find that the molecular gas emission associated with the spiral arms does not differ much from the emission between the arms. On average, spiral arms show masses per unit length of ~10^5^-10^6^M_{sun}_/kpc. This is similar to values inferred from data sets in which emission distributions were segmented into molecular clouds. By examining the cloud distribution across the Galactic plane, we infer that the molecular mass in the spiral arms is a factor of 1.5 higher than that of the inter-arm medium, similar to what is found for other spiral galaxies in the local Universe. We observe that only the distributions of cloud mass surface densities and aspect ratio in the spiral arms show significant differences compared to those of the inter-arm medium; other observed differences appear instead to be driven by a distance bias. By comparing our results with simulations and observations of nearby galaxies, we conclude that the measured quantities would classify the Milky Way as a flocculent spiral galaxy, rather than as a grand-design one.
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- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/872/121
- Title:
- Molecular cloud cores in the GC 50km/s cloud
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/872/121
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The Galactic center 50km/s molecular cloud (50MC) is the most remarkable molecular cloud in the Sagittarius A region. This cloud is a candidate for the massive star formation induced by cloud-cloud collision (CCC) with a collision velocity of ~30km/s that is estimated from the velocity dispersion. We observed the whole of the 50MC with a high angular resolution (~2.0"x1.4") in Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array cycle 1 in the H^13^CO^+^ J=1-0 and C^34^S J=2-1 emission lines. We identified 241 and 129 bound cores with a virial parameter of less than 2, which are thought to be gravitationally bound, in the H^13^CO^+^ and C^34^S maps using the clumpfind algorithm, respectively. In the CCC region, the bound H^13^CO^+^ and C^34^S cores are 119 and 82, whose masses are 68% and 76% of those in the whole 50MC, respectively. The distribution of the core number and column densities in the CCC are biased to larger densities than those in the non-CCC region. The distributions indicate that the CCC compresses the molecular gas and increases the number of the dense bound cores. Additionally, the massive bound cores with masses of >3000M_{sun}_ exist only in the CCC region, although the slope of the core mass function (CMF) in the CCC region is not different from that in the non-CCC region. We conclude that the compression by the CCC efficiently formed massive bound cores even if the slope of the CMF is not changed so much by the CCC.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/548/A52
- Title:
- Molecular cloud formation in M33
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/548/A52
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The amount of H_2_ present in spiral galaxies remains uncertain, particularly in the dim outer regions and in low-metallicity environments. We present high-resolution CO(1-0) observations with the Plateau de Bure interferometer of the most distant molecular cloud in the local group galaxy M33. The cloud is a single entity rather than a set of smaller clouds within the broad beam of the original single-dish observations. The interferometer and single-dish fluxes are very similar and the line widths are indistinguishable, despite the difference in beamsize.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/615/A125
- Title:
- Molecular cloud in Corona Australis
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/615/A125
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present a catalogue of prestellar and starless cores within the Corona Australis molecular cloud using photometric data from the Herschel Space Observatory. At a distance of d~130pc, Corona Australis is one of the closest star-forming regions. Herschel has taken multi-wavelength data of Corona Australis with both the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE; Griffin et al. 2010A&A...518L...3G) and the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS; Poglitsch et al. 2010A&A...518L...2P) photometric cameras in a parallel mode with wavelengths in the range 70um to 500um. A complete sample of starless and prestellar cores and embedded protostars is identified. Other results from the Herschel Gould Belt Survey have shown spatial correlation between the distribution of dense cores and the filamentary structure within the molecular clouds. We go further and show correlations between the properties of these cores and their spatial distribution within the clouds, with a particular focus on the mass distribution of the dense cores with respect to their filamentary proximity. We find that only lower-mass starless cores form away from filaments, while all of the higher-mass prestellar cores form in close proximity to or directly on the filamentary structure. This result supports the paradigm that prestellar cores mostly form on filaments. We analyse the mass distribution across the molecular cloud, finding evidence that the region around the Coronet appears to be at a more dynamically advanced evolutionary stage in comparison to the rest of the clumps within the cloud.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJS/182/131
- Title:
- Molecular clouds and clumps in the GRS
- Short Name:
- J/ApJS/182/131
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory (BU-FCRAO) Galactic Ring Survey (GRS) of ^13^CO J=1->0 emission covers Galactic longitudes 18<l<55.7{deg} and Galactic latitudes |b|<=1{deg}. Using the SEQUOIA array on the FCRAO 14m telescope, the GRS fully sampled the ^13^CO Galactic emission (46" angular resolution on a 22" grid) and achieved a spectral resolution of 0.21km/s. Because the GRS uses ^13^CO, an optically thin tracer, rather than ^12^CO, an optically thick tracer, the GRS allows a much better determination of column density and also a cleaner separation of velocity components along a line of sight. With this homogeneous, fully sampled survey of ^13^CO emission, we have identified 829 molecular clouds and 6124 clumps throughout the inner Galaxy using the CLUMPFIND algorithm. Here we present details of the catalog and a preliminary analysis of the properties of the molecular clouds and their clumps. Moreover, we compare clouds inside and outside of the 5kpc ring and find that clouds within the ring typically have warmer temperatures, higher column densities, larger areas, and more clumps compared with clouds located outside the ring. This is expected if these clouds are actively forming stars. This catalog provides a useful tool for the study of molecular clouds and their embedded young stellar objects.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/588/A104
- Title:
- Molecular clouds and star formation
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/588/A104
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- As a part of the Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting (MWISP) survey, the aim is to study the physical properties of molecular clouds and their associated star formation toward the Galactic plane within 216.25{deg}<=l<=218.75{deg} and -0.75{deg}<=b<=1.25{deg}, which covers the molecular cloud complex S287. Using the 3x3 Superconducting Spectroscopic Array Receiver (SSAR) at the PMO-13.7m telescope, we performed a simultaneous ^12^CO (1-0), ^13^CO (1-0), C^18^O (1-0) mapping toward molecular clouds in a region encompassing 3.75 square degrees. The beam size is 52" for ^12^CO (1-0) and 55" for ^13^CO (1-0) and C^18^O (1-0).
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/AJ/141/123
- Title:
- Molecular clouds associated with HII regions
- Short Name:
- J/AJ/141/123
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- The properties of molecular clouds associated with 10 HII regions were studied using CO observations. We identified 142 dense clumps within our sample and found that our sources are divided into two categories: those with clumps that show a power-law size-line-width relation (Type I) and those that do not show any relation (Type II). The clumps in the Type I sources have larger power-law indices than found in previous studies. The clumps in the Type II sources have larger line widths than do the clumps in the Type I sources.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/581/A74
- Title:
- Molecular clouds as viewed by ATLASGAL
- Short Name:
- J/A+A/581/A74
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We present the first study of the relationship between the column density distribution of molecular clouds within nearby Galactic spiral arms and their evolutionary status as measured from their stellar content. We analyze a sample of 195 molecular clouds located at distances below 5.5kpc, identified from the ATLASGAL 870{mu}m data. We define three evolutionary classes within this sample: starless clumps, star-forming clouds with associated young stellar objects, and clouds associated with HII regions. We find that the N(H_2_) probability density functions (N-PDFs) of these three classes of objects are clearly different: the N-PDFs of starless clumps are narrowest and close to log-normal in shape, while star-forming clouds and HII regions exhibit a power-law shape over a wide range of column densities and log-normal-like components only at low column densities. We use the N-PDFs to estimate the evolutionary time-scales of the three classes of objects based on a simple analytic model from literature. Finally, we show that the integral of the N-PDFs, the dense gas mass fraction, depends on the total mass of the regions as measured by ATLASGAL: more massive clouds contain greater relative amounts of dense gas across all evolutionary classes.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/PASJ/51/791
- Title:
- Molecular clouds in southern HII regions
- Short Name:
- J/PASJ/51/791
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- We have carried out extensive ^13^CO(J=1-0) observations toward 23 southern H II regions associated with bright-rimmed clouds. In total, 95 molecular clouds have been identified to be associated with the H II regions. Among the 95, 57 clouds are found to be associated with 204 IRAS point sources which are candidates for young stellar objects. There is a significant increase of star-formation efficiency on the side facing to the H II regions; the luminosity-to-mass ratio, defined as the ratio of the stellar luminosity to the molecular cloud mass, is higher by an order of magnitude on the near side of the H II regions than that on the. far side. This indicates that molecular gas facing to the H II regions is more actively forming massive stars whose luminosity is ~>10^3^L_{sun}_. In addition, the number density of the IRAS point sources increases by a factor of 2 on the near side of the H II regions compared with on the far side. These results strongly suggest that the active formation of massive stars on the near side of the H II regions is due to the effects of the H II regions, such as the compression of molecular material by the ionization/shock fronts. For the whole Galaxy, we estimate that the present star-formation rate under such effects is at least 0.2-0.4M_{sun}_/yr, corresponding to a few 10% by mass.
- ID:
- ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/750/136
- Title:
- Molecular clouds in the Antennae from CO(2-1)
- Short Name:
- J/ApJ/750/136
- Date:
- 21 Oct 2021
- Publisher:
- CDS
- Description:
- Super star clusters--extremely massive clusters found predominately in starburst environments--are essential building blocks in the formation of galaxies and thought to dominate star formation in the high-redshift universe. However, the transformation from molecular gas into these ultracompact star clusters is not well understood. To study this process, we used the Submillimeter Array and the Plateau de Bure Interferometer to obtain high angular resolution (~1.5" or 160pc) images of the Antennae overlap region in CO(2-1) to search for the molecular progenitors of the super star clusters. We resolve the molecular gas distribution into a large number of clouds, extending the differential cloud mass function down to a 5{sigma} completeness limit of 3.8x10^5^M_{sun}_. We identify a distinct break in the mass function around log M_mol_/M_{sun}_{approx}6.5, which separates the molecular clouds into two distinct populations. The smaller, less massive clouds reside in more quiescent areas in the region, while the larger, more massive clouds cluster around regions of intense star formation. A broken power-law fit to the mass function yields slopes of {alpha}=-1.39+/-0.10 and {alpha}=-1.44+/-0.14 for the low- and high-mass cloud population, well matched to the mass function found for super star clusters in the Antennae galaxies. We find large velocity gradients and velocity dispersions at the locations of intense star formation, suggestive of compressive shocks. It is likely that these environmental factors contribute to the formation of the observed massive molecular clouds and super star clusters in the Antennae galaxies.
