AAS 197, January 2001
Session 5. Molecular Clouds and Cloud Cores
Display, Monday, January 8, 2001, 9:30am-7:00pm, Exhibit Hall

[5.07] Hunting for YSOs in a Smooth Black Blob: Interferometric and Single-Dish Survey of B133

H. Chen, G. Engargiola, R.L. Plambeck (U.C. Berkeley), J. Mangum (NRAO)

In an effort to understand the evolutionary path from quiescent dark clouds to prestellar condensations, we have used the mosaicing power of BIMA and the on-the-fly capability of the NRAO 12m to survey the 16' \times 20' extent of B133 in 12CO J = 1 arrow 0. With a total mass of 90~M\odot within its 12' \times 24' extent, B133 has a simple elongated geometry and fairly homogeneous emission properties. Its predominant heat source is thought to be the interstellar radiation field. With a 15~'' synthesized beam, the BIMA maps show widespread filamentary structure and a number of bright compact sources. The NRAO 12m maps, made with 55~'' resolution, show evidence for some of the same filamentary structure, suggesting that they are real, not merely the result of unsampled spatial frequencies in the BIMA data. The origin of the filamentary lattice is unclear, could it be related to the propagation of MHD waves? The interferometric and single-dish observations together suggest B133 could be in the process of forming its first generation stars and hence provides a great chance to study pre-star forming regions.