Infrared polarimetry of dark clouds - III. The relationship between the magnetic field and star formation in the NGC 1333 region.
Abstract
The K-band polarization of 15 infrared sources toward the NGC 1333 region has been measured. The distribution of the position angles of polarization vectors is bimodal: one component, composed of the majority of the observed infrared sources, has a center at a position angle of 125 + or - 30 deg, while the other component, composed of three sources, shows position angles of 40 + or - 20 deg, nearly perpendicular to the first. The origin of the former component is assigned to the magnetic field threading the NGC 1333 region, and that of the latter to anisotropic reflection nebulosity associated with those young stellar objects. The perpendicularity of the position angles between field stars and young stellar objects suggests that star formation and cloud evolution in the NGC 1333 region might have occurred under the influence of the magnetic field: the parent molecular cloud has contracted preferentially along the field, resulting in a flattened shape, and subsequently, when circumstellar disks are formed, their planes are constrained to lie orthogonal to the field.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- March 1988
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/231.2.445
- Bibcode:
- 1988MNRAS.231..445T
- Keywords:
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- Dark Matter;
- Infrared Astronomy;
- Interstellar Magnetic Fields;
- Molecular Clouds;
- Polarimetry;
- Star Formation;
- Angles (Geometry);
- Astronomical Maps;
- Lines Of Force;
- Nebulae;
- Position (Location);
- Astrophysics