Molecular-cloud clusters and chains

Abstract

We report some preliminary results from the Massachusetts - Stony Brook CO survey of the first galactic quadrant using the 14-meter millimeterwave telescope of the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory. The survey contains approximately 50 000 observations spaced every 3 arcminutes in 1 and b between longitudes 0° and 90° and latitudes −1° and 1°. We have mapped emission from giant molecular clouds (GMC) which we identified, in earlier more limited strip surveys of the galactic plane (Solomon, Sanders and Scoville 1979; Sanders 1981), on size scales from a few parsecs to hundreds of parsecs, in order to determine the degree of clustering and organization into large-scale features. In addition to the characteristic size of 20 – 60 pc for individual GMC, we find clustering of clouds on a scale of from 100 to 300 pc.

Files

Additional details