| Description: | Coordinated multi-wavelength surveys of nearby molecular clouds provide strong constraints on the physical conditions within low-mass star-forming regions. In this manner, Perseus and Ophiuchus have been exceptional laboratories for testing the earliest phases of star formation. Highlights of these results are (1) most of the mass of the cloud is at low column density, (2) dense cores form only in high column density regions, (3) the mass distribution of the dense cores is similar to the IMF, (4) dense cores contain only a few percent of the cloud mass, (5) the more massive cores are most likely to contain embedded protostars, and (6) the kinematics of the dense cores and the bulk gas show significant coupling. In this talk, I will mention each of these important results and attempt to place them in context with theoretical models and simulations of star formation. I will then consider how ALMA might be utilized to further our understanding, and the route between the present and planned molecular cloud surveys and the start of ALMA observing.
The image above shows a sumillimeter continuum image of the nearby moelcular cloud, Ophiuchus, taken with SCUBA on the JCMT in Hawaii. This is one of the largest contiguous submillimeter images taken at the JCMT and it shows that the dense cores, visible as bright emission in the image, are concentrated to a small region of the molecular cloud, despite the majority of the cloud mass covering a much larger extent. |
