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C. E. Millar, S. Basu (The University of Western Ontario), J. Dubinski (University of Toronto)
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 de-project the observed axis ratios in order to determine the true distribution of cloud core shapes. We find that neither pure oblate or pure prolate cores can account for the observed distribution of core shapes. Intrinsically triaxial cores produce distributions which agree with observations. The best fit triaxial distribution contains cores which are more nearly oblate than prolate.
This research was supported by NSERC, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.