The structure of molecular gas associated with NGC2264: Wide-field 12CO and H2 imaging

Abstract

We present wide-field, high-resolution imaging observations in 12CO 3 → 2 and H2 1-0S(1) towards a ∼1 deg2 region of NGC2264. We identify 46 H2 emission objects, of which 35 are new discoveries. We characterize several cores as protostellar, reducing the previously observed ratio of pre-stellar/protostellar cores in the NGC2264 clusters. The length of H2 jets increases the previously reported spatial extent of the clusters. In each cluster, <0.5per cent of cloud material has been perturbed by outflow activity. A principal component analysis of the 12CO data suggests that turbulence is driven on scales >2.6pc, which is larger than the extent of the outflows. We obtain an exponent α= 0.74 for the size-linewidth relation, possibly due to the high surface density of NGC2264. In this very active, mixed-mass star-forming region, our observations suggest that protostellar outflow activity is not injecting energy and momentum on a large enough scale to be the dominant source of turbulence. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS.