CARMA LARGE AREA STAR FORMATION SURVEY: OBSERVATIONAL ANALYSIS OF FILAMENTS IN THE SERPENS SOUTH MOLECULAR CLOUD

Journal Article · Fri Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 2014 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/790/2/L19· OSTI ID:22365495

Fernández-López, M.; Looney, L.; Lee, K.; Segura-Cox, D. ^[1]; Arce, H. G.; Plunkett, A. ^[2]; Mundy, L. G.; Storm, S.; Teuben, P. J.; Pound, M. ^[3]; Isella, A.; Kauffmann, J. ^[4]; Tobin, J. J. ^[5]; Rosolowsky, E. ^[6]; Kwon, W. ^[7]; Ostriker, E. ^[8]; Tassis, K. ^[9]

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1. Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois at Urbana—Champaign, 1002 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States)
2. Department of Astronomy, Yale University, P.O. Box 208101, New Haven, CT 06520-8101 (United States)
3. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)
4. Astronomy Department, California Institute of Technology, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
5. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
6. Departments of Physics and Statistics, University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7 (Canada)
7. SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Landleven 12, 9747-AD Groningen (Netherlands)
8. Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544 (United States)
9. Department of Physics and Institute of Theoretical and Computational Physics, University of Crete, P.O. Box 2208, GR-710 03 Heraklion, Crete (Greece)

We present the N{sub 2}H{sup +} (J = 1 → 0) map of the Serpens South molecular cloud obtained as part of the CARMA Large Area Star Formation Survey. The observations cover 250 arcmin{sup 2} and fully sample structures from 3000 AU to 3 pc with a velocity resolution of 0.16 km s{sup –1}, and they can be used to constrain the origin and evolution of molecular cloud filaments. The spatial distribution of the N{sub 2}H{sup +} emission is characterized by long filaments that resemble those observed in the dust continuum emission by Herschel. However, the gas filaments are typically narrower such that, in some cases, two or three quasi-parallel N{sub 2}H{sup +} filaments comprise a single observed dust continuum filament. The difference between the dust and gas filament widths casts doubt on Herschel ability to resolve the Serpens South filaments. Some molecular filaments show velocity gradients along their major axis, and two are characterized by a steep velocity gradient in the direction perpendicular to the filament axis. The observed velocity gradient along one of these filaments was previously postulated as evidence for mass infall toward the central cluster, but these kind of gradients can be interpreted as projection of large-scale turbulence.

• OSTI ID: 22365495
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 790; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CLOUDS
COSMIC DUST
PLASMA FILAMENT
RESOLUTION
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
TURBULENCE
VELOCITY