Previous
abstract 
Next
abstract
The dense circumstellar environment, including the circumstellar disk ad the cocooning envelope, plays a crucial role in the evolution of protostars. The circumstellar disk is believed to actively accrete onto the protostar, to drive directly or indirectly the bipolar outflow, and to be the likely site of planet formation. The surrounding envelope in turn is believed to be accreting onto the circumstellar disk. To understand the interrelationship of the star+disk+envelope, we have undertaken a program to survey a complete sample of cold, low-mass protostars in the Taurus molecular cloud complex. We have focused on young stellar objects whose IRAS colour temperatures indicate that they are younger than T Tauri stars. We have obtained 450, 800, 1100, and 1300 $\mu$m photometry at the 15-meter James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) for a complete sample of 24 objects in the Taurus complex. By combining our data with a large data set from 12 $\mu$m to 1300 $\mu$m, we can constrain source models for these systems. In particular, we are able to set limits on the temperature and density gradients as well as estimate the overall dust column density of the star+disk+envelope system for each of these embedded young stellar objects. We compare our results with available theoretical calculations of low mass star formation.
