CO, $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O ${it J}$ = 3--2 observations are presented of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud. The $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O emission is dominated by the Oph A clump, and the Oph B1, B2, C, E, F and J regions. The optically thin(ner) C$^{18}$O line is used as a column density tracer, from which the gravitational binding energy is estimated to be $4.5 times 10^{39}$ J (2282 $M_odot$ km$^2$ s$^{-2}$). The turbulent kinetic energy is $6.3 times 10^{38}$ J (320 $M_odot$ km$^2$ s$^{-2}$), or 7 times less than this, and therefore the Oph cloud as a whole is gravitationally bound. Thirty protostars were searched for high velocity gas, with eight showing outflows, and twenty more having evidence of high velocity gas along their lines-of-sight. The total outflow kinetic energy is $1.3 times 10^{38}$ J (67 $M_odot$ km$^2$ s$^{-2}$), corresponding to 21$%$ of the clouds turbulent kinetic energy. Although turbulent injection by outflows is significant, but does ${it not}$ appear to be the dominant source of turbulence in the cloud. 105 dense molecular clumplets were identified, which had radii $sim$ 0.01--0.05 pc, virial masses $sim$ 0.1--12 $M_odot$, luminosities $sim$ 0.001--0.1 K~km s$^{-1}$ pc$^{-2}$, and excitation temperatures $sim$ 10--50K. These are consistent with the standard GMC based size-line width relationships, showing that the scaling laws extend down to size scales of hundredths of a parsec, and to sub solar-mass condensations. There is however no compelling evidence that the majority of clumplets are undergoing free-fall collapse, nor that they are pressure confined.
تحميل البحث