Herschel provides a unique opportunity to study the earliest stages of star formation. What is the origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF)? This issue is central in local star formation research and for understanding whether the IMF is truly universal or is likely to depend on metallicity, pressure, or temperature. As prestellar cores and young (Class 0) protostars emit the bulk of their luminosity at virgul80-400 microns, the Herschel imaging instruments SPIRE and PACS are ideal for taking a census of such objects down to virgul0.01-0.1 Msun in the nearby (<0.5 kpc) molecular cloud complexes.
We propose an extensive imaging survey of the densest portions of the Gould Belt with SPIRE at 250-500 and PACS at 110-170 microns down to a 5-sigma column sensitivity NH2virgul10^21 cm^-2 or Avvirgul1. Our goal is to make a complete, homogeneous mapping of the Av>3 regions with SPIRE and of the Av>6 regions with PACS, and representative areas at Avvirgul1-3 levels with both instruments. The survey sensitivity is well matched to the expected cirrus confusion limit, so we should detect structures throughout the maps. The target clouds span a range of physical conditions, from active, cluster-forming complexes to quiescent regions with lower star formation activity.
We should detect hundreds Class 0 protostars and thousands prestellar condensations in the entire virgul145 deg^2 SPIRE survey, i.e. virgul10 times more cold objects than already identified from the ground. These numbers should allow us to derive an accurate prestellar core mass function. The temperature and density structures of the nearest (< 0.2 kpc) cores will be resolved, revealing the initial conditions for individual protostellar collapse. The large spatial dynamic range of the proposed survey will probe the link between diff...use cirrus-like structures and compact self-gravitating cores. Our main scientific goal is to elucidate the physical mechanisms for the formation of prestellar cores out of the diffuse medium, crucial for understanding the origin of stellar masses.
Publication
Gas Infalling Motions in the Envelopes of Very Low Luminosity Objects . Kim Mi-Ryang et al. . The Astrophysical Journal . null . null . 2021ApJ...910..112K , A census of young stellar population associated with the Herbig Be star HD 200775 . Saha Piyali et al. . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . null . null . 2020MNRAS.494.5851S , Using Herschel and Planck observations to delineate the role of magnetic fields in molecular cloud structure . Soler Juan D. et al. . Astronomy and Astrophysics . null . null . 2019A&A...629A..96S , The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey II: Constructing a volume-limited sample and first results from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope . Scicluna P. et al. . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . null . null . 2022MNRAS.512.1091S , Catalog of High Protostellar Surface Density Regions in Nearby Embedded Clusters . Li Juan et al. . The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 871, Issue 2, article id. 163, 18 pp. (2019). . 871 . 10.3847\/1538-4357\/aaf652 . 2019ApJ...871..163L , A Search for Very Low-luminosity Objects in Gould Belt Clouds . Kim Mi-Ryang et al. . The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Volume 225, Issue 2, article id. 26, 17 pp. (2016). . 225 . 10.3847\/0067-0049\/225\/2\/26 . 2016ApJS..225...26K , CARMA observations of Galactic cold cores: searching for spinning dust emission . Tibbs C. T. et al. . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 453, Issue 4, p.3356-3374 . 453 . 10.1093\/mnras\/stv1760 . 2015MNRAS.453.3356T , The CALYPSO IRAM-PdBI survey of jets from Class 0 protostars. Exploring whether jets are ubiquitous in young ...stars . Podio L. et al. . Astronomy and Astrophysics . null . null . 2021A&A...648A..45P , The Single-cloud Star Formation Relation . Pokhrel Riwaj et al. . The Astrophysical Journal . null . null . 2021ApJ...912L..19P , Herschel Gould Belt Survey Observations of Dense Cores in the Cepheus Flare Clouds . Di Francesco James et al. . The Astrophysical Journal . null . null . 2020ApJ...904..172D , Cloud motion and magnetic fields: Four clouds in the Cepheus Flare region . Sharma E. et al. . Astronomy and Astrophysics . null . null . 2022A&A...658A..55S ,
Herschel was launched on 14 May 2009! It is the fourth 'cornerstone' mission in the ESA science programme. With a 3.5 m Cassegrain telescope it is the largest space telescope ever launched. It is performing photometry and spectroscopy in approximately the 55-671 µm range, bridging the gap between earlier infrared space missions and groundbased facilities.