Star formation in our Galaxy

Star formation in our Galaxy

Core Team

  • lourdes@iaa.es
  • Dpto. Astronomía Extragaláctica
    Instituto Astrofísica Andalucía
    Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n
    18008 Granada
    Spain

Star formation in our Galaxy

For some time, mostly during my PhD, I have been working on the study of the effects of star formation in molecular clouds, particularly in three aspects:

  • Identification of sources: we have used NH3 as a tracer of dense gas, and both NH3(1,1) and (2,2) transitions in order to measure gas heating. IR sources and masers have been also used as markers of exciting sources.
  • Mass ejection: traced by the CO emission of the molecular component.
  • Dense enveloppes: using NH3, 13CO and C18O


The observations were performed with Haystack and 30m antennaes, as well as the VLA. These studies have been performed in collaboration with J. M. Torrelles, P. T. P. Ho, J. F. Gómez, G. Anglada, R. Estalella, R. López, J. Cantó, L. F. Rodríguez, M. Tapia and M. Roth. The results have been published in the following papers:

Ammonia Observations of Outflow Regions.

ANGLADA, G., RODRÍGUEZ, L.F., TORRELLES, J.M., ESTALELLA, R., HO, P.T.P., CANTÓ, J., LÓPEZ, R., VERDES-MONTENEGRO, L.
Astrophys. J., 341, p. 208-219 (1989)

Further studies of the role of dense molecular clouds around outflow sources.

VERDES-MONTENEGRO, L., TORRELLES, J.M., RODRÍGUEZ, L.F., ANGLADA, G., LÓPEZ, R., ESTALELLA, R., CANTÓ, J., HO, P.T.P.
Astrophys. J., 346, p. 193-200 (1989)

VLA observations of ammonia and continuum in regions with high-velocity gaseous outflows. II.

TORRELLES, J.M., VERDES-MONTENEGRO, L., HO, P.T.P., RODRÍGUEZ, L.F., CANTÓ, J.
Astrophys. J., 346, p. 756-762 (1989)

Morphology, kinematics and excitation of the molecular cloud associated with GM24

GÓMEZ, J.F., TORRELLES, J.M., TAPIA, M., ROTH, M., VERDES-MONTENEGRO, L., RODRÍGUEZ, L.F.
Astron. Astr., 234, 447-453 (1990).

V645 Cygni: A Decelerating Molecular Outflow?

VERDES-MONTENEGRO, L., GÓMEZ, J.F., TORRELLES, J.M., ANGLADA, G., ESTALELLA, R., LÓPEZ, R.
Astron. Astr., 244, 84-94 (1991).

On the nature of the bipolar molecular outflow in AFGL 437

GÓMEZ, J. F., TORRELLES, J.M., ESTALELLA, R., ANGLADA, G., VERDES-MONTENEGRO, L., HO, P. T. P.
Astrophys. J., 397, p. 492-499 (1992)

From bipolar to quadrupolar. The collimation processes of the Cepheus A outflow.

TORRELLES, J. M., VERDES-MONTENEGRO, L., HO, P. T. P., RODRÍGUEZ, L. F., CANTÓ, J.
Astrophys. J., 410, 202-217 (1993).

The molecular core associated with HH25-26: Contraction or Expansion?

VERDES-MONTENEGRO, L., HO, P. T. P.
Astrophys. J. 473, 929-945 (1996}