Filamentary structures and compact objects in the Aquila and Polaris clouds observed by Herschel

A. Men'Shchikov (1) , Ph. André (1) , P. Didelon (1) , V. Könyves , N. Schneider (1) , F. Motte (1, 2) , Sylvain Bontemps (3, 4, 5, 6) , D. Arzoumanian , M. Attard , A. Abergel (7) , J. -P. Baluteau (8) , J. -Ph. Bernard (9) , L. Cambrésy , P. Cox , J. Di Francesco (10) , A. M. Di Giorgio , M. Griffin (11) , P. Hargrave , M. Huang (12) , J. Kirk (11) , J. Z. Li (12) , P. Martin (13) , V. Minier (1, 2) , M. -A. Miville-Deschênes (7) , S. Molinari (14) , G. Olofsson (15) , S. Pezzuto (14) , Hervé Roussel (16) , D. Russeil (8) , P. Saraceno (14) , M. Sauvage (1) , B. Sibthorpe (17) , L. Spinoglio (18) , L. Testi (19) , D. Ward-Thompson (11) , G. White (20) , C. D. Wilson , A. Woodcraft (17) , Annie Zavagno (8, 21)

1 AIM (UMR7158 / UMR_E_9005 / UM_112) - Astrophysique Interprétation Modélisation
2 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
3 LAB - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux [Pessac]
4 OASU - Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers
5 UB - Université Sciences et Technologies - Bordeaux 1
6 L3AB - Laboratoire d'astrodynamique, d'astrophysique et d'aéronomie de bordeaux
7 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
8 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
9 CESR - Centre d'étude spatiale des rayonnements
10 Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics
11 School of Physics and Astronomy [Cardiff]
12 NAOC - National Astronomical Observatories [Beijing]
13 CITA
14 IFSI - Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario
15 Stockholm University
16 IAP - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
17 ROE - Royal Observatory Edinburgh
18 ARENA - Antarctic Research a European Network for Astrophysics
19 ESO - European Southern Observatory
20 RAL - STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
21 OAMP - Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence

Our PACS and SPIRE images of the Aquila Rift and part of the Polaris Flare regions, taken during the science demonstration phase of Herschel discovered fascinating, omnipresent filamentary structures that appear to be physically related to compact cores. We briefly describe a new multi-scale, multi-wavelength source extraction method used to detect objects and measure their parameters in our Herschel images. All of the extracted starless cores (541 in Aquila and 302 in Polaris) appear to form in the long and very narrow filaments. With its combination of the far-IR resolution and sensitivity, Herschel directly reveals the filaments in which the dense cores are embedded; the filaments are resolved and have deconvolved widths of 35 arcsec in Aquila and 59 arcsec in Polaris (9000 AU in both regions). Our first results of observations with Herschel enable us to suggest that in general dense cores may originate in a process of fragmentation of complex networks of long, thin filaments, likely formed as a result of an interplay between gravity, interstellar turbulence, and magnetic fields. To unravel the roles of the processes, one has to obtain additional kinematic and polarization information; these follow-up observations are planned.

Domaines: Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]; Astrophysique stellaire et solaire [astro-ph.SR]

A. Men'Shchikov, Ph. André, P. Didelon, V. Könyves, N. Schneider, et al.. Filamentary structures and compact objects in the Aquila and Polaris clouds observed by Herschel. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2010, 518, pp.L103. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201014668⟩. ⟨hal-00523057⟩