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Session 42 - Molecular Clouds: Models and Observations.
Display session, Tuesday, June 11
Great Hall,
The shapes of the dense cores in molecular clouds can be analyzed, using a nonparameteric kernel method, using the alternate hypotheses that the cores are randomly oriented oblate spheroids or randomly oriented prolate spheroids. For most data sets of published in the literature, the oblate hypothesis can be rejected at the 99 percent confidence level. If dense cores are prolate, their mean axis ratio is in the range 0.4 < \gamma < 0.5. Dense cores are significantly different in shape from the larger, lower density clouds within which they are embedded. The shapes of the dense cores are consistent with their being moderately elongated prolate spheroids; the larger clouds are more elongated and have a distribution of projected axis ratios which is inconsistent with their being randomly oriented axisymmetric objects.
