2001/05/02 by F. Motte, P. André, P. Andre +3 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Circumstellar disk #Fragmentation (computing) #Galaxy #Initial mass function #Molecular cloud #Physics #Protostar #Star formation #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20010543
6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Letter accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics
arxiv created 2001/05/02 · openalex publication_date 2001/06/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report the results of a submillimeter dust continuum survey of the protoclusters NGC 2068 and NGC 2071 in Orion B carried out at m and m with SCUBA on JCMT. The mapped region is ~ in size (~4 pc 2 pc) and consists of filamentary dense cores which break up into small-scale (~5 000 AU) fragments, including 70 starless condensations and 5 circumstellar envelopes/disks. The starless condensations, seen on the same spatial scales as protostellar envelopes, are likely to be gravitationally bound and pre-stellar in nature. Their mass spectrum, ranging from ~0.3 to ~5 , is reminiscent of the stellar initial mass function (IMF). Their mass-size relation suggests that they originate from gravitationally-driven fragmentation. We thus argue that pre-collapse cloud fragmentation plays a major role in shaping the IMF.