Shapes of molecular cloud cores and the filamentary mode of star formation

Using recent dust continuum data, we generate the intrinsic ellipticity distribution of dense, starless molecular cloud cores. Under the hypothesis that the cores are all either oblate or prolate randomly oriented spheroids, we show that a satisfactory fit to observations can be obtained with a Gaussian prolate distribution having a mean intrinsic axis ratio of 0.54. Further, we show that correlations exist between the apparent axis ratio and both the peak intensity and total flux density of emission from the cores, the sign of which again favors the prolate hypothesis. The latter result shows that the mass of a given core depends on its intrinsic ellipticity. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to find the best-fit power law of this dependence. Finally, we show how these results are consistent with an evolutionary scenario leading from filamentary parent clouds to increasingly massive, condensed, and roughly spherical embedded cores.