An Unbiased Survey for Dense Cores in the Lynds 1630 Molecular Cloud
Abstract
An unbiased, systematic survey for dense cores within the L1630 (Orion B) molecular cloud has been completed. This survey provides the first complete census of dense (n greater tha 10,000/cu cm) cores within a molecular cloud. To identify the dense gas, 3.6 square degrees of the L1630 cloud were surveyed in the J = 2-1 transition of CS. CS emission was detected over 10 percent of the area surveyed, and this emission is not uniformly distributed throughout the cloud but is confined to 42 dense cores. The size, shape, velocity dispersion, and mass of these cores are examined. Comparison of the mass contained within dense cores with the total gas mass within the surveyed region, estimated from CO emission, reveals that the dense cores constitute only a small fraction (not greater than 19 percent) of the total cloud mass.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- February 1991
- DOI:
- 10.1086/169708
- Bibcode:
- 1991ApJ...368..432L
- Keywords:
-
- Emission Spectra;
- Gas Density;
- Interstellar Matter;
- Molecular Clouds;
- Sky Surveys (Astronomy);
- Carbon Monoxide;
- Grain Size;
- Interstellar Gas;
- Mass Distribution;
- Spectral Line Width;
- Astrophysics;
- INTERSTELLAR: MOLECULES;
- NEBULAE: INDIVIDUAL ALPHANUMERIC: L1630 (LYNDS 1630);
- NEBULAE: STRUCTURE