2007/01/11 by P. Hily-Blant, Hily-Blant, Pierre, J. Pety +3
Chemistry · Engineering · Environmental Science · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Spectroscopy and Laser Applications
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0701326
openalex publication_date 2007/01/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Observations of translucent molecular gas in 12CO and 13CO emission lines, at high spectral and spatial resolutions, evidence different kinds of structures at small scales: (1) optically thin 12CO emission, (2) optically thick 12CO emission, visible in 13CO(1-0), and (3) regions of largest velocity shear in the field, found from a statistical analysis. They are all elongated with high aspect ratio, preferentially aligned with the plane-of-the-sky projection of the magnetic fields. The latter structures coincide with the former, shown to trace gas warmer and more diluted than average. Combining our data to large-scale observations of poorer spatial resolution, we show that the regions of largest velocity shear remain coherent over more than a parsec. These filaments are proposed to be the sites of the intermittent dissipation of turbulence.