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| EPoS Contribution |
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Massive Quiescent Cores in Orion
Di Li Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, Pasadena, USA | |
| Orion is the closest known massive star forming region and an ideal place for studying massive prestellar and protostellar cores. We have compiled a sample of Orion cores based on surveys at 350 and 450 micron and 1.2 mm. We exclude cores within 4 pc of OB association and/or with IRAS point sources to avoid the destruction of prestellar cores by massive young stars. We have also obtained high resolution molecular spectroscopy data toward half of the sources. Our analysis shows that our core sample consists of massive structures (mean mass ~ 10 solar mass), warmer (~ 20 K) than low mass cores, and have higher percentage of dynamical signatures (equal likelihood of collapsing or expanding). The mass function of these cores is flatter than the Salpeter IMF and the majority of the cores does not have adequate support from either thermal or turbulent pressure. We further probe the temperature and density structure of these cores with 3d modeling algorithm, COREFIT, which combine multi-wavelength dust continuum data with different beam sizes and respect PSFs. This model utilize MIPS SED data from Spitzer to constrain the dust temperature and the higher spatial resolution ground-based continuum data to derive the density profile of massive cores. | |
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| Caption: - | |
| Collaborators: T. J. Harries, Exeter, UK D. A. Rundle, Exeter, UK |
Key publication
Suggested Session: Early Phases of Disks |