Outflows, Dusty Cores, and a Burst of Star Formation in the North America and Pelican Nebulae

We present observations of near-infrared 2.12 micro-meter molecular hydrogen outflows emerging from 1.1 mm dust continuum clumps in the North America and Pelican Nebula (NAP) complex selected from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS). Hundreds of individual shocks powered by over 50 outflows from young stars are identified, indicating that the dusty molecular clumps surrounding the NGC 7000 / IC 5070 / W80 HII region are among the most active sites of on-going star formation in the Solar vicinity. A spectacular X-shaped outflow, MHO 3400, emerges from a young star system embedded in a dense clump more than a parsec from the ionization front associated with the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070). Suspected to be a binary, the source drives a pair of outflows with orientations differing by 80 degrees. Each flow exhibits S-shaped symmetry and multiple shocks indicating a pulsed and precessing jet. The `Gulf of Mexico located south of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000), contains a dense cluster of molecular hydrogen objects (MHOs), Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, and over 300 YSOs, indicating a recent burst of star formation. The largest outflow detected thus far in the North America and Pelican Nebula complex, the 1.6 parsec long MHO 3417 flow, emerges from a 500 Solar mass BGPS clump and may be powered by a forming massive star. Several prominent outflows such as MHO 3427 appear to be powered by highly embedded YSOs only visible at a wavelength > 70 micro-meters. An `activity index formed by dividing the number of shocks by the mass of the cloud containing their source stars is used to estimate the relative evolutionary states of Bolocam clumps. Outflows can be used as indicators of the evolutionary state of clumps detected in mm and sub-mm dust continuum surveys.

Early stage massive star formation near the Galactic Center: Sgr C

We present near-infrared spectroscopy and 1 mm line and continuum observations of a recently identified site of high mass star formation likely to be located in the Central Molecular Zone near Sgr C. Located on the outskirts of the massive evolved HII region associated with Sgr C, the area is characterized by an Extended Green Object measuring ~10 in size (0.4 pc), whose observational characteristics suggest the presence of an embedded massive protostar driving an outflow. Our data confirm that early-stage star formation is taking place on the periphery of the Sgr C HII region, with detections of two protostellar cores and several knots of H2 and Brackett gamma emission alongside a previously detected compact radio source. We calculate the cores joint mass to be ~10^3 Msun, with column densities of 1-2 x 10^24 cm-2. We show the host molecular cloud to hold ~10^5 Msun of gas and dust with temperatures and column densities favourable for massive star formation to occur, however, there is no evidence of star formation outside of the EGO, indicating that the cloud is predominantly quiescent. Given its mass, density, and temperature, the cloud is comparable to other remarkable non-star-forming clouds such as G0.253 in the Eastern CMZ.

A First Look at the Auriga-California Giant Molecular Cloud With Herschel and the CSO: Census of the Young Stellar Objects and the Dense Gas

We have mapped the Auriga/California molecular cloud with the Herschel PACS and SPIRE cameras and the Bolocam 1.1 mm camera on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) with the eventual goal of quantifying the star formation and cloud structure in this Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC) that is comparable in size and mass to the Orion GMC, but which appears to be forming far fewer stars. We have tabulated 60 compact 70/160um sources that are likely pre-main-sequence objects and correlated those with Spitzer and WISE mid-IR sources. At 1.1 mm we find 18 cold, compact sources and discuss their properties. The most important result from this part of our study is that we find a modest number of additional compact young objects beyond those identified at shorter wavelengths with Spitzer. We also describe the dust column density and temperature structure derived from our photometric maps. The column density peaks at a few x 10^22 cm^-2 (N_H2) and is distributed in a clear filamentary structure along which nearly all the pre-main-sequence objects are found. We compare the YSO surface density to the gas column density and find a strong non-linear correlation between them. The dust temperature in the densest parts of the filaments drops to ~10K from values ~ 14--15K in the low density parts of the cloud. We also derive the cumulative mass fraction and probability density function of material in the cloud which we compare with similar data on other star-forming clouds.

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey -- II. Catalog of the Image Data

We present a catalog of 8358 sources extracted from images produced by the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS). The BGPS is a survey of the millimeter dust continuum emission from the northern Galactic plane. The catalog sources are extracted using a custom algorithm, Bolocat, which was designed specifically to identify and characterize objects in the large-area maps generated from the Bolocam instrument. The catalog products are designed to facilitate follow-up observations of these relatively unstudied objects. The catalog is 98% complete from 0.4 Jy to 60 Jy over all object sizes for which the survey is sensitive (<3.5). We find that the sources extracted can best be described as molecular clumps -- large dense regions in molecular clouds linked to cluster formation. We find the flux density distribution of sources follows a power law with dN/dS ~S^(-2.4 +/- 0.1) and that the mean Galactic latitude for sources is significantly below the midplane: <b>=(-0.095 +/- 0.001) deg.