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Magnetized filamentary gas flows feeding the young embedded cluster in Serpens South
- Source :
- Nature Astronomy. 4:1195-1201
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Observations indicate that molecular clouds are strongly magnetized, and that magnetic fields influence the formation of stars. A key observation supporting the conclusion that molecular clouds are significantly magnetized is that the orientation of their internal structure is closely related to that of the magnetic field. At low column densities the structure aligns parallel with the field, whereas at higher column densities, the gas structure is typically oriented perpendicular to magnetic fields, with a transition at visual extinctions $A_V\gtrsim{}3~\rm{}mag$. Here we use far-infrared polarimetric observations from the HAWC+ polarimeter on SOFIA to report the discovery of a further transition in relative orientation, i.e., a return to parallel alignment at $A_V\gtrsim{}21~\rm{}mag$ in parts of the Serpens South cloud. This transition appears to be caused by gas flow and indicates that magnetic supercriticality sets in near $A_V\gtrsim{}21~\rm{}mag$, allowing gravitational collapse and star cluster formation to occur even in the presence of relatively strong magnetic fields.<br />Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, Published in Nature Astronomy (August 2020). This is the authors' version before final edits. Link to the NA publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1172-6
- Subjects :
- Physics
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Field (physics)
Serpens
Star formation
Molecular cloud
FOS: Physical sciences
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
01 natural sciences
Magnetic field
Star cluster
Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
0103 physical sciences
Gravitational collapse
Cluster (physics)
Astrophysics::Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 23973366
- Volume :
- 4
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature Astronomy
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....8d1476e1f1e8f381b36ebf99a73e5d7a