Collapse models for dark interstellar clouds.
Abstract
Properties of self-consistent numerical hydrodynamic models are compared with observed properties of several dark clouds. The results are consistent with the view that these clouds are undergoing gravitational collapse. The clouds appear to have evolved from similar initial states and to have ages comparable to their free-fall times. Derived cloud masses range between 10 and 1000 solar masses, correlating with cloud size. The models reproduce observed cloud-to-cloud variations in the (C-13)O abundance, and they offer additional evidence that the (C-13)O abundance varies within individual clouds.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- January 1982
- DOI:
- 10.1086/159580
- Bibcode:
- 1982ApJ...252..524V
- Keywords:
-
- Astronomical Models;
- Gravitational Collapse;
- Hydrodynamics;
- Interstellar Gas;
- Molecular Clouds;
- Angular Velocity;
- Carbon Isotopes;
- Carbon Monoxide;
- Jeans Theory;
- Mathematical Models;
- Nebulae;
- Astrophysics