 |
|
| EPoS Contribution |
|
Underappreciated Players? The Role of B-Star Winds in Molecular Clouds
Alyssa A. Goodman Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA | |
| For more than forty years, we have considered the impact of O-stars on molecular clouds, both through their H II regions, and through their demise as supernovae. And, for thirty years, we have sought to understand the role of bipolar outflows within molecular clouds. New work using the COMPLETE Survey data has tripled the number of known bi-polar flows in some regions, but the energy associated with these flows is still not enough to drive the observed level of turbulence in molecular clouds. O-stars are not ubiquitous be the primary driver of turbulence within clouds either. But, there are an order-of-magnitude more B-stars than there are O-stars, and many of those have very significant mass-loaded winds, as well as H II regions. Close investigation of position-position-velocity cubes has revealed at least nine spherical shells within the Perseus molecular cloud, the most energetic of which are created by B-stars. These shells in Perseus appear to have an order-of-magnitude more kinetic energy associated with them than do even the "tripled" sample of bipolar flows. In our most recent work, we have investigated statistically the temporal-spatial coincidence of B-star winds within molecular clouds, and we find that we, as a community, may well have all but ignored a very significant source of energy input within molecular clouds. | |
| Collaborators: H. Arce, Yale University, USA M. Borkin, HSCfA, USA L. Valverde, HSCfA, USA J. Pineda, HSCfA, USA K. Covey, Cornell University S. Sharma, HSCfA, USA |
|