IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v409y2001i6817d10.1038_35051509.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internal structure of a cold dark molecular cloud inferred from the extinction of background starlight

Author

Listed:
  • João F. Alves

    (European Southern Observatory)

  • Charles J. Lada

    (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

  • Elizabeth A. Lada

    (University of Florida)

Abstract

Stars and planets form within dark molecular clouds, but little is understood about the internal structure of these clouds, and consequently about the initial conditions that give rise to star and planet formation. The clouds are primarily composed of molecular hydrogen, which is virtually inaccessible to direct observation. But the clouds also contain dust, which is well mixed with the gas and which has well understood effects on the transmission of light. Here we use sensitive near-infrared measurements of the light from background stars as it is absorbed and scattered by trace amounts of dust to probe the internal structure of the dark cloud Barnard 68 with unprecedented detail. We find the cloud's density structure to be very well described by the equations for a pressure-confined, self-gravitating isothermal sphere that is critically stable according to the Bonnor–Ebert criteria1,2. As a result we can precisely specify the physical conditions inside a dark cloud on the verge of collapse to form a star.

Suggested Citation

  • João F. Alves & Charles J. Lada & Elizabeth A. Lada, 2001. "Internal structure of a cold dark molecular cloud inferred from the extinction of background starlight," Nature, Nature, vol. 409(6817), pages 159-161, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:409:y:2001:i:6817:d:10.1038_35051509
    DOI: 10.1038/35051509
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/35051509
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/35051509?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:409:y:2001:i:6817:d:10.1038_35051509. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.