The Contracting Molecular Cores e1 and e2 in W51
Open Access
- 1 December 1996
- journal article
- Published by American Astronomical Society in The Astrophysical Journal
- Vol. 472 (2) , 742-754
- https://doi.org/10.1086/178103
Abstract
[[abstract]]We report on observations of the star-forming region W51 in the NH3 (J, K)=(1, 1) and (2, 2) transitions at 1.3 cm. These observations have much greater sensitivity than our previous observations and they allow a kinematic analysis of the motions of the gas in two small star-forming cores. We present evidence for radial contraction of the gas in W51 e2 onto a young star and possibly also for similar contraction near W51 el. The H II region/molecular core W51 e2 seems to be in a stage where the central star has already arrived on the main sequence, whereas the cooler gas on scales of 0.1-0.2 pc is still. contracting onto the mass concentration at the center. In contrast to the interpretation of Rudolph et al., we propose that the contraction extends only over a few tenths of a parsec near e2 instead of over the entire W51 molecular cloud complex[[fileno]]2010504010083[[department]]天文This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: