Molecular clouds in Orion and Monoceros
About one-eighth of a well-sampled 850 deg/sup 2/ region of Orion and Monoceros, extending from the Taurus dark cloud complex to the CMa OB 1 association, shows emission at the frequency of the J = 1 ..-->.. 0 transition of CO coming from either local clouds (d < 1 kpc) lying as much as 25/sup 8/ from the galactic plane or from more distant objects located within a few degrees of the plane and well outside the solar circle. Local giant molecular clouds associated with Orion A and B have enhanced temperatures and densities near their western edges possibly due to compression of molecular gas by a high pressure region created by the cumulative effects of approx.10 supernovae that occurred in the Orion OB association. Another giant molecular cloud found to be associated with Mon R2 may be related to the Orion clouds. Two filamentary clouds (one possible 200 pc long but only 3-10 pc wide) were found that may represent a new class of object; magnetic fields probably play a role in confining these filaments. An expanding ring of clouds concentric with the H II region S 264 and its ionizing 08 star lambda Ori was also investigated, and a possible evolutionary sequence for the ring is given in detail: the clouds probably constitute fragments of the original cloud from which lambda Ori formed, the gas pressure of the H II region and the rocket effect having disrupted the cloud and accelerated the fragments to their present velocities.
- Research Organization:
- Columbia Univ., New York (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 5228137
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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GENERAL PHYSICS
MILKY WAY
STAR CLUSTERS
MOLECULES
CLOUDS
H2 REGIONS
STAR EVOLUTION
SUPERNOVAE
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
ERUPTIVE VARIABLE STARS
GALAXIES
STARS
VARIABLE STARS
640105* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Galaxies
640102 - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
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