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Session 7 - Molecular Clouds.
Display session, Wednesday, January 07
Exhibit Hall,
A complete map of the high-latitude translucent molecular cloud, MBM16, was made in the CO(1-0) transition using the 1.2 m Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Millimeter Wave Telescope in Cambridge, MA. The map comprises of a 6^\circ \times 6^\circ grid in galactic longitude and latitude centered on the molecular cloud. The beamwidth of the telescope at 115 GHz is 8.4 arcminutes and the sampling interval is 3.5 arcminutes. A determination of the cloud mass and velocity distribution of the molecular gas based on the CO line was made in order to determine the gravitational binding state of the cloud. MBM16 has a mass of 320 \pm 190 M_ødot and is not gravitationally bound. Unless it is confined by an external pressure gradient, the molecular cloud will break up on a timescale of 10^6 years. The relatively short lifetime is consistent with the lack of evidence for star formation in the cloud as determined by several X-ray searches for young stellar objects. Contour maps of the spectral line profiles are presented over various velocity intervals to determine the kinematic structure of the cloud. In addition, channel maps of a heretofore unknown molecular cloud in the vicinity of MBM16, but at a very different LSR velocity, are presented.
