Molecular clouds at high galactic latitudes
Thesis/Dissertation
·
OSTI ID:6990497
The basic properties of a new class of interstellar object, the high-latitude molecular cloud, are described in this thesis. At least sixty clouds grouped into thirty-eight complexes are found at absolute value b greater than or equal to 25/sup 0/. Slightly more than half of the objects are mapped in the CO(J = 1 - O) transition. Seventy percent of the clouds are associated with optical emission and all of the clouds coincide with the cores of the IRAS 100 ..mu..m high latitude cirrus and with atomic hydrogen clouds. The high-latitude molecular clouds are shown to be distributed asymmetrically with respect to b = 0/sup 0/; the distribution is consistent with a displacement of the Sun of 30 pc above the midplane of the galaxy. A gap in the cloud distribution in the northern galactic hemisphere from 180/sup 0/ < l < 340/sup 0/ mimics that found in H I. Star counts and a statistical analysis of the velocity dispersion of the ensemble of clouds locate the clouds within a few hundred parsecs of the Sun. The clouds are the nearest molecular clouds to the Sun and may contain the nearest regions of star formation.
- Research Organization:
- Maryland Univ., College Park (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6990497
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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