Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: In order to characterise the cloud structures responsible for the formation of high-mass stars, we present Herschel observations of the DR21 environment. Maps of the column density and dust temperature unveil the structure of the DR21 ridge and several connected filaments. The ridge has column densities higher than 1023 cm-2 over a region of 2.3 pc2. It shows substructured column density profiles and branches into two major filaments in the north. The masses in the filaments range between 130 and 1400 M⊙, whereas the mass in the ridge is 15 000 M⊙. The accretion of these filaments onto the DR21 ridge, suggested by a previous molecular line study, could provide a continuous mass inflow to the ridge. In contrast to the striations seen in, e.g., the Taurus region, these filaments are gravitationally unstable and form cores and protostars. These coresformed in the filaments potentially fall into the ridge. Both inflow and collisions of cores could be important to drive the observed high-mass star formation. The evolutionary gradient of star formation running from DR21 in the south to the northern branching is traced by decreasing dust temperature. This evolution and the ridge structure can be explained by two main filamentary components of the ridge that merged first in the south.
Source: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Authors: M. Hennemann, F. Motte, N. Schneider, P. Didelon, T. Hill, D. Arzoumanian, S. Bontemps, T. Csengeri, Ph. André, V. Konyves, F. Louvet, A. Marston, A. Men’shchikov, V. Minier, Q. Nguyen Luong, P. Palmeirim, N. Peretto, M. Sauvage, A. Zavagno, L. D. Anderson, J.-Ph. Bernard, J. Di Francesco, D. Elia, J. Z. Li, P. G. Martin, S. Molinari, S. Pezzuto, D. Russeil, K. L. J. Rygl, E. Schisano, L. Spinoglio, T. Sousbie, D. Ward-Thompson, G. J. White
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives, Astrophysique, Instrumentation et Modélisation, CEA Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Diderot, Université de Bordeaux, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, European Space Astronomy Centre, University of Toronto, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, Université de Provence Aix-Marseille I, West Virginia University, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council Canada, Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, National Institute for Astrophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Astronomical Observatories, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, University of Lancashire, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, The Open University
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, California Institute of Technology, UK Space Agency, Imperial College London, Agence Nationale de la Recherche, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, KU Leuven, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Bundesministerium für Verkehr, Innovation und Technologie, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Science and Technology Facilities Council, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences
OpenAlex ID: W2123473601