| Description |
To understand the conditions required for star formation, the best regions to observe are regions where those criteria are only just fulfilled - molecular clouds with low star formation efficiencies (SFE). The Scorpius molecular complex contains 4000 solar masses of molecular gas, yet Spitzer observations show it contains only 11 young stellar objects hence an extreme SFE of less than 0.3%. Its low SFE can be contrasted with the rich L1688 protostellar cluster in nearby Ophiuchus and intermediate SFEs in Lupus, with which it shares a similar environment on the boundary of the Lupus-Sco-Cen OB association. We aim to map the Scorpius clouds with SPIRE and PACS to locate and characterise the dense cores, identifying gravitationally unbound, bound and protostellar cores. We aim to determine why regions such as this have such low SFE, the evolutionary path(s) for starless cores, and the minimum conditions for star formation. At 130 pc, Scorpius is among the closest star forming regions hence one of the best Herschel targets for this work. |
