TUNA Lunch Talk:

Scott Schnee, Fred Lo, Brian Mason, Al Wootten

NRAO

Filaments in Milky Way molecular clouds, recent results and an NRAO-sponsored conference on this topic

June 17

12:10PM, Room 230, NRAO, Edgemont Road

Abstract:

High resolution Herschel continuum survey of nearby clouds have shown that filaments of dense gas may be ubiquitous and fragment into clumps and cores that collapse to form stars. If filaments are demonstrated to be universal features of all clouds (forming low and high mass stars), the scenario of star formation may be cast into a more specific framework to focus future observational and theoretical studies. It is of interest to see what future observational projects might be formulated to delineate further the internal structure, kinematics and magnetic field of molecular clouds at < 0.1 pc resolution. To bring the community together to discuss new developments and future studies, a NAASC workshop on "Universality of Filaments in Clouds? and Future Studies" to be held on 10-11 October 2014 in CV is being organized.

The TUNA talk will review the Herschel evidence, capabilities of ALMA, GBT (and other facilities) for high resolution studies of clouds, some recent GBT 3mm continuum results on Orion, and more information on the NAASC workshop.