2024/01/10 by Vineet Rawat, Rawat, Vineet, M. R. Samal +22 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Atmospheric Ozone and Climate #Atomic and Molecular Physics #FOS: Physical sciences
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2401.05310
openalex publication_date 2024/01/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The relative importance of magnetic fields, turbulence, and gravity in the early phases of star formation is still not well understood. We report the first high-resolution dust polarization observations at 850 μm around the most massive clump, located at the hub of the Giant Molecular Cloud G148.24+00.41, using SCUBA-2/POL-2 at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. We find that the degree of polarization decreases steadily towards the denser portion of the cloud. Comparing the intensity gradients and local gravity with the magnetic field orientations, we find that local gravity plays a dominant role in driving the gas collapse as the magnetic field orientations and gravity vectors seem to point towards the dense clumps. We also find evidence of U-shaped magnetic field morphology towards a small-scale elongated structure associated with the central clump, hinting at converging accretion flows towards the clump. Our observation has resolved the massive clump into multiple substructures. We study the magnetic field properties of two regions, central clump (CC) and northeastern elongated structure (NES). Using the modified Davis-Chandrasekhar Fermi method, we determine that the magnetic field strengths of CC and NES are ∼24.0 ± 6.0 μG and 20.0 ± 5.0 μG, respectively. The mass-to-flux ratios are found to be magnetically transcritical/supercritical, while the Alfv\acuteen Mach number indicates a trans-Alfv\acuteenic state in both regions. These results, along with Virial analysis, suggest that at the hub of G148.24+00.41, gravitational energy has an edge over magnetic and kinetic energies.