2004/06/23 by Kaisa E. Young, Jeong-Eun Lee, Jeong‐Eun Lee +5 · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Atmospheric Ozone and Climate #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/423609
published as Astrophys.J. 614 (2004) 252-266 · 28 pages, 15 figures. To be published in the Astrophysical Journal
arxiv created 2004/06/23 · openalex publication_date 2004/10/08 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present maps of the 6 cm and 1.3 mm transitions of H 2 CO toward three cold, dense pre-protostellar cores (PPCs): L1498, L1512, and L1544. The 6 cm transition is a unique probe of high-density gas at low temperature. However, our models unequivocally indicate that H 2 CO is depleted in the interiors of PPCs, and depletion significantly affects how H 2 CO probes the earliest stages of star formation. Multistage, self-consistent models, including gas-dust energetics, of both H 2 CO transitions are presented, and the implications of the results are discussed.