分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Although episodic star formation (SF) had been suggested for nearby SF regions, a panoramic view to the latest episodic SF history in the solar neighborhood is still missing. By uniformly constraining the slope $\alpha$ of infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the 13 largest Gould's Belt (GB) protoclusters surveyed by Spitzer Space Telescope, we have constructed a cluster-averaged histogram of $\alpha$ representing YSO evolution lifetime as a function of the $\alpha$ value. Complementary to the traditional SED classification scheme (0, I, F, II, III) that is based on different $\alpha$ values, a staging scheme (A,B,C,D,E) of SED evolution is advised on the basis of the $\alpha$ statistical features that can be better matched to the physical stages of disk dissipation and giant planet formation. This has also allowed us to unravel the fluctuations of star formation rate (SFR) in the past three-million-year (3 Myr) history of these GB protoclusters. Diverse evolutionary patterns such as single peak, double peaks and on-going acceleration of SFR are revealed. The SFR fluctuations are between $20\%\sim60\%$ ($\sim40\%$ on average) and no dependence on the average SFR or the number of SFR episodes is found. However, spatially close protoclusters tend to share similar SFR fluctuation trends, indicating that the driving force of the fluctuations should be at size scales beyond the typical cluster sizes of several parsec.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Hot cores characterized by rich lines of complex organic molecules are considered as ideal sites for investigating the physical and chemical environments of massive star formation. We present a search for hot cores by using typical nitrogen- and oxygen-bearing complex organic molecules (C$_2$H$_5$CN, CH$_3$OCHO and CH$_3$OH), based on ALMA Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming regions (ATOMS). The angular resolutions and line sensitivities of the ALMA observations are better than 2 arcsec and 10 mJy/beam, respectively. A total of 60 hot cores are identified with 45 being newly detected, in which the complex organic molecules have high gas temperatures ($>$ 100 K) and small source sizes ($<$ 0.1 pc). So far this is the largest sample of hot cores observed with similar angular resolution and spectral coverage. The observations have also shown nitrogen and oxygen differentiation in both line emission and gas distribution in 29 hot cores. Column densities of CH$_3$OH and CH$_3$OCHO increase as rotation temperatures rise. The column density of CH$_3$OCHO correlates tightly with that of CH$_3$OH. The pathways for production of different species are discussed. Based on the spatial position difference between hot cores and UC~H{\sc ii} regions, we conclude that 24 hot cores are externally heated while the other hot cores are internally heated. The observations presented here will potentially help establish a hot core template for studying massive star formation and astrochemistry.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: To understand the nature of SiO emission, we conducted ACA observations of the SiO (2-1) lines toward 146 massive star-forming regions, as part of the ALMA Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming regions (ATOMS) survey. We detected SiO emission in 128 (87.7$\%$) sources and identified 171 SiO clumps, 105 of which are spatially separated from 3 mm continuum emission. A large amount of the SiO line profiles (60$\%$) are non-Gaussian. The velocity dispersion of the SiO lines ranges from 0.3 to 5.43 km s$^{-1}$. In 63 sources the SiO clumps are associated with H$_\rm{II}$ regions characterized by H40$\alpha$ emission. We find that 68$\%$ (116) of the SiO clumps are associated with strong outflows. The median velocity dispersion of the SiO line for outflow sources and non-outflow sources is 1.91 km s$^{-1}$ and 0.99 km s$^{-1}$, respectively. These results indicate that outflow activities could be connected to strongly shocked gas. The velocity dispersion and [SiO]/[H$^{13}$CO$^+$] intensity ratio do not show any correlation with the dust temperature and particle number density of clumps. We find a positive correlation between the SiO line luminosity and the bolometric luminosity, implying stronger shock activities are associated with more luminous proto-clusters. The SiO clumps in associations with H$_\rm{II}$ regions were found to show a steeper feature in $L_\rm{sio}$/$L_\rm{bol}$. The SiO line luminosity and the fraction of shocked gas have no apparent evidence of correlation with the evolutionary stages traced by luminosity to mass ratio ($L_\rm{bol}/M$).
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Although episodic star formation (SF) had been suggested for nearby SF regions, a panoramic view to the latest episodic SF history in the solar neighborhood is still missing. By uniformly constraining the slope $\alpha$ of infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the 13 largest Gould's Belt (GB) protoclusters surveyed by Spitzer Space Telescope, we have constructed a cluster-averaged histogram of $\alpha$ representing YSO evolution lifetime as a function of the $\alpha$ value. Complementary to the traditional SED classification scheme (0, I, F, II, III) that is based on different $\alpha$ values, a staging scheme (A,B,C,D,E) of SED evolution is advised on the basis of the $\alpha$ statistical features that can be better matched to the physical stages of disk dissipation and giant planet formation. This has also allowed us to unravel the fluctuations of star formation rate (SFR) in the past three-million-year (3 Myr) history of these GB protoclusters. Diverse evolutionary patterns such as single peak, double peaks and on-going acceleration of SFR are revealed. The SFR fluctuations are between $20\%\sim60\%$ ($\sim40\%$ on average) and no dependence on the average SFR or the number of SFR episodes is found. However, spatially close protoclusters tend to share similar SFR fluctuation trends, indicating that the driving force of the fluctuations should be at size scales beyond the typical cluster sizes of several parsec.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Prestellar cores are self-gravitating dense and cold structures within molecular clouds where future stars are born. They are expected, at the stage of transitioning to the protostellar phase, to harbor centrally concentrated dense (sub)structures that will seed the formation of a new star or the binary/multiple stellar systems. Characterizing this critical stage of evolution is key to our understanding of star formation. In this work, we report the detection of high density (sub)structures on the thousand-au scale in a sample of dense prestellar cores. Through our recent ALMA observations towards the Orion molecular cloud, we have found five extremely dense prestellar cores, which have centrally concentrated regions $\sim$ 2000 au in size, and several $10^7$ $cm^{-3}$ in average density. Masses of these centrally dense regions are in the range of 0.30 to 6.89 M$_\odot$. {\it For the first time}, our higher resolution observations (0.8$'' \sim $ 320 au) further reveal that one of the cores shows clear signatures of fragmentation; such individual substructures/fragments have sizes of 800 -1700 au, masses of 0.08 to 0.84 M$_\odot$, densities of $2 - 8\times 10^7$ $cm^{-3}$ and separations of $\sim 1200$ au. The substructures are massive enough ($\gtrsim 0.1~M_\odot$) to form young stellar objects and are likely examples of the earliest stage of stellar embryos which can lead to widely ($\sim$ 1200 au) separated multiple systems.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We present a statistical study of a sample of 17 hub-filament-system (HFS) clouds of high-mass star formation using high-angular resolution ($\sim$1-2 arcsecond) ALMA 1.3mm and 3mm continuum data. The sample includes 8 infrared (IR)-dark and 9 IR-bright types, which correspond to an evolutionary sequence from the IR-dark to IR-bright stage. The central massive clumps and their associated most massive cores are observed to follow a trend of increasing mass ($M$) and mass surface density ($\Sigma$) with evolution from IR-dark to IR-bright stage. In addition, a mass-segregated cluster of young stellar objects (YSOs) are revealed in both IR-dark and IR-bright HFSs with massive YSOs located in the hub and the population of low-mass YSOs distributed over larger areas. Moreover, outflow feedback in all HFSs are found to escape preferentially through the inter-filamentary diffuse cavities, suggesting that outflows would render a limited effect on the disruption of the HFSs and ongoing high-mass star formation therein. From the above observations, we suggest that high-mass star formation in the HFSs can be described by a multi-scale mass accretion/transfer scenario, from hub-composing filaments through clumps down to cores, that can naturally lead to a mass-segregated cluster of stars.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We present a statistical study of a sample of 17 hub-filament-system (HFS) clouds of high-mass star formation using high-angular resolution ($\sim$1-2 arcsecond) ALMA 1.3mm and 3mm continuum data. The sample includes 8 infrared (IR)-dark and 9 IR-bright types, which correspond to an evolutionary sequence from the IR-dark to IR-bright stage. The central massive clumps and their associated most massive cores are observed to follow a trend of increasing mass ($M$) and mass surface density ($\Sigma$) with evolution from IR-dark to IR-bright stage. In addition, a mass-segregated cluster of young stellar objects (YSOs) are revealed in both IR-dark and IR-bright HFSs with massive YSOs located in the hub and the population of low-mass YSOs distributed over larger areas. Moreover, outflow feedback in all HFSs are found to escape preferentially through the inter-filamentary diffuse cavities, suggesting that outflows would render a limited effect on the disruption of the HFSs and ongoing high-mass star formation therein. From the above observations, we suggest that high-mass star formation in the HFSs can be described by a multi-scale mass accretion/transfer scenario, from hub-composing filaments through clumps down to cores, that can naturally lead to a mass-segregated cluster of stars.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: During the transition phase from a prestellar to a protostellar cloud core, one or several protostars can form within a single gas core. The detailed physical processes of this transition, however, still remain unclear. We present 1.3 mm dust continuum and molecular line observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) toward 43 protostellar cores in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex ($\lambda$ Orionis, Orion B, and Orion A) with an angular resolution of $\sim$ 0.35" ($\sim$ 140 au). In total, we detect 13 binary/multiple systems. We derive an overall multiplicity frequency (MF) of 28$\%$ $\pm$ 4$\%$ and a companion star fraction (CSF) of 51$\%$ $\pm$ 6$\%$, over a separation range of 300-8900 au. The median separation of companions is about 2100 au. The occurrence of stellar multiplicity may depend on the physical characteristics of the dense cores. Notably, those containing binary/multiple systems tend to show higher gas density and Mach number than cores forming single stars. The integral-shaped filament (ISF) of Orion A giant molecular cloud (GMC), which has the highest gas density and hosts high-mass star formation in its central region (the Orion Nebula cluster), shows the highest MF and CSF among the Orion GMCs. In contrast, the $\lambda$ Orionis Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC) has a lower MF and CSF than the Orion B and Orion A GMCs, indicating that feedback from HII regions may suppress the formation of multiple systems. We also find that the protostars comprising a binary/multiple system are usually at different evolutionary stages.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: We investigate the presence of hub-filament systems in a large sample of 146 active proto-clusters, using H$^{13}$CO$^{+}$ J=1-0 molecular line data obtained from the ATOMS survey. We find that filaments are ubiquitous in proto-clusters, and hub-filament systems are very common from dense core scales ($\sim$0.1 pc) to clump/cloud scales ($\sim$1-10 pc). The proportion of proto-clusters containing hub-filament systems decreases with increasing dust temperature ($T_d$) and luminosity-to-mass ratios ($L/M$) of clumps, indicating that stellar feedback from H{\sc ii} regions gradually destroys the hub-filament systems as proto-clusters evolve. Clear velocity gradients are seen along the longest filaments with a mean velocity gradient of 8.71 km s$^{-1}$pc$^{-1}$ and a median velocity gradient of 5.54 km s$^{-1}$pc$^{-1}$. We find that velocity gradients are small for filament lengths larger than $\sim$1~pc, probably hinting at the existence of inertial inflows, although we cannot determine whether the latter are driven by large-scale turbulence or large-scale gravitational contraction. In contrast, velocity gradients below $\sim$1~pc dramatically increase as filament lengths decrease, indicating that the gravity of the hubs or cores starts to dominate gas infall at small scales. We suggest that self-similar hub-filament systems and filamentary accretion at all scales may play a key role in high-mass star formation.