Herschel-Planck dust optical depth and column density maps - II. Perseus

Author(s): Eleonora Zari, M. Lombardi, João Alves, Charles J. Lada, Hervé Bouy
Abstract: We present optical depth and temperature maps of the Perseus molecular cloud, obtained combining dust emission data from the Herschel and Planck satellites and 2MASS/NIR dust extinction maps. The maps have a resolution of 36 arcsec in the Herschel regions, and of 5 arcmin elsewhere. The dynamic range of the optical depth map ranges from 1 × 10 -2 mag up to 20 mag in the equivalent K-band extinction. We also evaluate the ratio between the 2.2 μm extinction coefficient and the 850 μm opacity. The value we obtain is close to the one found in the Orion B molecular cloud. We show that the cumulative and the differential area function of the data (which is proportional to the probability distribution function of the cloud column density) follow power laws with an index of respectively ≃-2, and ≃-3. We use WISE data to improve current YSO catalogs based mostly on Spitzer data and we build an up-to-date selection of Class I/0 objects. Using this selection, we evaluate the local Schmidt law, Σ YSO ∝ Σ gas β, showing that β = 2.4 ± 0.6. Finally, we show that the area-extinction relation is important for determining the star-formation rate in the cloud, which is in agreement with other recent works.
Organisation(s): Department of Astrophysics
External organisation(s): Leiden University, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)
Journal: Astronomy & Astrophysics
Volume: 587
No. of pages: 15
ISSN: 0004-6361
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201526597
Publication date: 03-2016
Peer reviewed: Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012: 103003 Astronomy, 103004 Astrophysics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Space and Planetary Science
Portal url: https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/46b0b631-71ba-433f-ae2f-4ded2b403c2b

Back