The Mass-Size Relation and the Constancy of GMC Surface Densities in the Milky Way
C. J. Lada,
T. M. Dame
Abstract:We use two existing molecular cloud catalogs derived from the same CO survey and two catalogs derived from local dust extinction surveys to investigate the nature of the GMC mass-size relation in the Galaxy. We find that the four surveys are well described by M GM C ∼ R 2 implying a constant mean surface density, Σ GM C , for the cataloged clouds. However, the scaling coefficients and scatter differ significantly between the CO and extinction derived relations. We find that the additional scatter seen in the C… Show more
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