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Context. Filamentary structures in nearby molecular clouds have been found to exhibit a characteristic width of 0.1 pc, as observed in dust emission. Understanding the origin of this universal width has become a topic of central importance in the study of molecular cloud structure and the early stages of star formation. Aims. We investigate how the recovered widths of filaments depend on the distance from the observer by using previously published results from the Herschel Gould Belt Survey. Methods. We obtained updated estimates on the distances to nearby molecular clouds observed with Herschel by using recent results based on 3D dust extinction mapping and Gaia . We examined the widths of filaments from individual clouds separately, as opposed to treating them as a single population. We used these per-cloud filament widths to search for signs of variation amongst the clouds of the previously published study. Results. We find a significant dependence of the mean per-cloud filament width with distance. The distribution of mean filament widths for nearby clouds is incompatible with that of farther away clouds. The mean per-cloud widths scale with distance approximately as 4−5 times the beam size. We examine the effects of resolution by performing a convergence study of a filament profile in the Herschel image of the Taurus Molecular Cloud. We find that resolution can severely affect the shapes of radial profiles over the observed range of distances. Conclusions. We conclude that the data are inconsistent with 0.1 pc being the universal characteristic width of filaments.
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A compendium of distances to molecular clouds in the Star Formation Handbook
Accurate distances to local molecular clouds are critical for understanding the star and planet formation process, yet distance measurements are often obtained inhomogeneously on a cloud-by-cloud basis. We have recently developed a method that combines stellar photometric data with Gaia DR2 parallax measurements in a Bayesian framework to infer the distances of nearby dust clouds to a typical accuracy of ∼5%. After refining the technique to target lower latitudes and incorporating deep optical data from DECam in the southern Galactic plane, we have derived a catalog of distances to molecular clouds in Reipurth (2008, Star Formation Handbook, Vols. I and II) which contains a large fraction of the molecular material in the solar neighborhood. Comparison with distances derived from maser parallax measurements towards the same clouds shows our method produces consistent distances with ≲10% scatter for clouds across our entire distance spectrum (150 pc−2.5 kpc). We hope this catalog of homogeneous distances will serve as a baseline for future work.
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- PAR ID:
- 10189725
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Astronomy & Astrophysics
- Volume:
- 633
- ISSN:
- 0004-6361
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- A51
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936145
