AAS 200th meeting, Albuquerque, NM, June 2002
Session 71. Stellar Youth: Tomorrow's Degenerates
Display, Thursday, June 6, 2002, 9:20am-4:00pm, SW Exhibit Hall

[Previous] | [Session 71] | [Next]

[71.01] The Necessary Condition for Star Formation

E. M. Gregersen, R. Pudritz, C. Wilson (McMaster University), G Moriarty-Schieven (JAC)

Star formation is a highly inefficient process. Some patches of a GMC form stars; most do not. Is there a necessary condition for star formation a core must fulfill? Large area molecular line surveys indicate that starless cores all have column densities less than 8 \times 1021 cm-2. We have observed nearly one hundred starless cores in HCO+ J=3-2, a line particularly sensitive to collapse motions, to determine if a physically meaningful threshold separating quiescent from pre-protostellar cores exists.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: gregerse@physics.mcmaster.ca

[Previous] | [Session 71] | [Next]

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.