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J.M. Kirk (UIUC), D. Ward-Thompson (Cardiff University), P. André (Centre d'Etudes de Saclay)
Pre-stellar cores are defined to be the stage of star formation that preceeds the formation of a hydro-static protostar. In this talk I will present observations of prestellar cores taken at 850 and 450\mum with the SCUBA submillimetre camera. A subsample of these cores were also observed with ISOPHOT at 90, 170 and 200\mum. Colour temperature maps of the cores surveyed with ISO show that half have a positive centre to edge temperature gradient. The cores surveyed with SCUBA can be split into two groups based on their peak flux at 850\mum. Cores with a peak flux greater than 144 mJy/Beam have higher dust masses and smaller radii that the fainter cores. SEDs of 18 cores show they are in approximate agreement with a dust temperature of ~10K. Comparison between incident and emitted luminosities show that the cores are in thermal balance and do not require an embedded heat source. Radial flux profiles of a number of cores can be fitted with a marginally stable Bonnor-Ebert Sphere column density profile. It the two groups of SCUBA cores are part of an evolutionary sequence then the trend in their statistical timescales is consistant with theories of ionisation regulared star formation.
This research was funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council of the United Kingdom.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.