| Description |
the dense cores in orion are the nearest high mass star formation region; to study high mass star formation, one must study orion. radio molecular line measurements show that the cloud cores in the orion region have physical characteristics which are different from dense cores in dark clouds. we have started a large scale radio survey of ammonia lines and millimeter dust continuum emission of the maxima in the orion cloud, outside the orion kl region. to the north of orion kl, the .s. shaped cloud is well defined with a number of cores. it is more diffuse and has fewer regions to the south of orion kl. we plan to study 10 fairly isolated regions regions north of orion kl, 15 close to but outside kl, and 10 south of kl to determine the abundances of oh, co, h2, ch and the atomic species cii, oi, nii, sii, siii, si, siii and neii. these results cannot be obtained in the radio range, and will be used to determine abundances, and the energy balance and will complement our centimeter and millimeter data. the orion cloud is a prototype of high mass star formation regions, and thus will serve as a model for studies of star forming regions in distant galaxies, and also as a comparison with our iso project to study galactic center clouds. for the distant galaxies, where the angular resolution and sensitivity are much lower, our radio an iso data will serve as a .rosetta stone. to decode these results. although not a direct continuation of our galactic center proposal, this proposal is a direct follow up and in this sense, is indeed a continuation. |
