Intrinsic shapes of molecular cloud cores

被引:60
作者
Jones, CE [1 ]
Basu, S
Dubinski, J
机构
[1] Univ Western Ontario, Dept Phys & Astron, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada
[2] Univ Toronto, Dept Astron, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8, Canada
关键词
ISM : clouds; ISM : globules; ISM : structure; stars : formation;
D O I
10.1086/320093
中图分类号
P1 [天文学];
学科分类号
0704 ;
摘要
We conduct an analysis of the shapes of molecular cloud cores using recently compiled catalogs of observed axis ratios of individual cores mapped in ammonia or through optical selection. We apply both analytical and statistical techniques to deproject the observed axis ratios in order to determine the true distribution of cloud core shapes. We find that neither pure oblate nor pure prolate cores can account for the observed distribution of core shapes. Intrinsically triaxial cores produce distributions that agree with observations. The best-fit triaxial distribution contains cores that are more nearly oblate than prolate.
引用
收藏
页码:387 / 393
页数:7
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