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Stars like our Sun and planets like our Earth form in dense regions within interstellar molecular clouds, called pre-stellar cores (PSCs). PSCs provide the initial conditions in the process of star and planet formation. In the past 15 years, detailed observations of (low-mass) PSCs in nearby molecular cloud complexes have allowed us to find that they are cold (T < 10 K) and quiescent (molecular line widths are close to thermal), with a chemistry profoundly affected by molecular freeze-out onto dust grains. In these conditions, deuterated molecules flourish, becoming the best tools to unveil the PSC physical and chemical structure. Despite their apparent simplicity, PSCs still offer puzzles to solve and they are far from being completely understood. For example, what is happening to the gas and dust in their nuclei (the future stellar cradles) is still a mystery that awaits for ALMA. Other important questions are: how do different environments and external conditions affect the PSC physical/chemical structure? Are PSCs in high-mass star forming regions similar to the well-known low-mass PSCs? Here I review observational and theoretical work on PSCs in nearby molecular cloud complexes and the ongoing search and study of massive PSCs embedded in infrared dark clouds (IRDCs), which host the initial conditions for stellar cluster and high-mass star formation.
High levels of deuterium fractionation of $rm N_2H^+$ (i.e., $rm D_{frac}^{N_2H^+} gtrsim 0.1$) are often observed in pre-stellar cores (PSCs) and detection of $rm N_2D^+$ is a promising method to identify elusive massive PSCs. However, the physical
Dust grains are the building {blocks} of future planets. They evolve in size, shape and composition during the life cycle of the interstellar medium. We seek to understand the process which leads from diffuse medium grains to dust grains in the vicin
We show Akari data, Herschel data and data from the SCUBA2 camera on JCMT, of molecular clouds. We focus on pre-stellar cores within the clouds. We present Akari data of the L1147-1157 ring in Cepheus and show how the data indicate that the cores are
Star formation in a filamentary infrared dark cloud (IRDC) is simulated over a dynamic range of 4.2 pc to 28 au for a period of $3.5times 10^5$ yr, including magnetic fields and both radiative and outflow feedback from the protostars. At the end of t
Nitrogen is one of the most abundant elements in the Universe and its 14N/15N isotopic ratio has the potential to provide information about the initial environment in which our Sun formed. Recent findings suggest that the Solar System may have formed