Molecular rings around interstellar bubbles and the thickness of star-forming clouds

Abstract

The winds and radiation from massive stars clear out large cavities in the interstellar medium. These bubbles, as they have been called, impact their surrounding molecular clouds and may influence the formation of stars therein. Here we present James Clerk Maxwell Telescope observations of the J = 3-2 line of CO in 43 bubbles identified with Spitzer Space Telescope observations. These spectroscopic data reveal the three-dimensional structure of the bubbles. In particular, we show that the cold gas lies in a ring, not a sphere, around the bubbles indicating that the parent molecular clouds are flattened with a typical thickness of a few parsecs. We also mapped seven bubbles in the J = 4-3 line of HCO+ and find that the column densities inferred from the CO and HCO+ line intensities are below that necessary for "collect and collapse" models of induced star formation. We hypothesize that the flattened molecular clouds are not greatly compressed by expanding shock fronts, which may hinder the formation of new stars. © 2010 The American Astronomical Society.