molecularclouds.pptVIP

Molecular Clouds 8 April 2003 Astronomy G9001 - Spring 2003 Prof. Mordecai-Mark Mac Low Molecular Emission CO emission Quickly becomes optically thick Rare isotopes have lower optical depth: 13CO and C18O More easily photodissociated than H2 Only traces H2 over limited column density Reveals dynamics through Doppler shifts of lines Other molecules (NH3, H2S, H2O, OH…) Different critical densities for quenching of emission Can be hard to distinguish chemistry from dynamics Chemistry In centers of molecular clouds, where CRs dominate H2 ionization, chemistry driven by Once H3+ is formed, it transfers protons For example with n 100 cm-3: with n 300 cm-3: CH3+ can also react with C or N to form C2 or CN: Other ways of making C2 include through ion-molecule reactions involving C+, followed by charge-exchange or dissociative recombination Grains Continuum emission Radiative transfer must be modeled to derive density structure Varying temperatures near heating sources (stars, shocks) also complicate Absorption against background stars Optical has low dynamic range Near-IR better (NICE: Lada et al 1994, Cambresy et al 2002) Both require uniform background star field (eg MW disk) Reveal limitations of molecular emission line measurements Extinction Map of Taurus Structure of Clouds Density structure shows clumps and filaments at all scales column density maps show fractal structure self-similar structure extends to largest scales Supersonic velocity dispersions seen line centroids also show strong dispersions velocity structure self-similar to largest scales Molecular Cloud Kinematics Molecular line ratioes show cloud temperatures to be of order 10 K, with sound speeds ~0.2 km/s Line widths are much broader than thermal, corresponding to random motions of order 1-10 km/s, or Mach numbers 5-50. Strong shocks should be produced, quickly dissipating the kinetic energy. Clump Finding Clumps identified in position-velocity space frequently used. Clump mass spect