Formation Efficiencies in Giant Molecular Clouds
astrobites | Daily Paper Summaries | 2019 Nov 08
Michael Foley wrote:
Observations of Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) yield large scatters in star formation efficiencies. Simulations in this work show that much of this scatter may stem from the fact we observe GMCs at different evolutionary stages driven by stellar feedback.
Stars are known to form within Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs), huge complexes of gas and dust that range in mass from roughly one thousand to ten million times the mass of our sun. These regions are much denser than their surrounding environment, causing clumps of mass within them to collapse and form stars. However, this is actually a very complicated process with many compounding factors. One of the primary influences on the star formation process is stellar feedback, a broad category that refers to all the ways that existing stars affect their environment. This includes pressure from radiation emitted by stars, deposition of mass and energy from stellar winds and outflows, and supernova explosions. Today’s paper explores the way that stellar feedback affects the star formation process within GMCs over time.
On The Nature of Variations in the Measured Star Formation Efficiency of Molecular Clouds ~ Michael Y. Grudić et al
- Monthly Notices of the RAS 488(2):1501 (Sep 2019) DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stz1758
- arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1809.08348 > 21 Sep 2018 (v1), 25 Sep 2018 (v2)