THE STAR FORMATION NEWSLETTER An electronic publication dedicated to early stellar/planetary evolution and molecular clouds No. 261 — 13 September 2014 Editor: Bo Reipurth ([email protected]) List of Contents The Star Formation Newsletter Interview ...................................... 3 My Favorite Object ............................ 6 Editor: Bo Reipurth [email protected] Abstracts of Newly Accepted Papers .......... 10 Technical Editor: Eli Bressert Abstracts of Newly Accepted Major Reviews . 41 [email protected] Dissertation Abstracts ........................ 42 Technical Assistant: Hsi-Wei Yen New Jobs ..................................... 44 [email protected] Meetings ..................................... 45 Editorial Board Summary of Upcoming Meetings ............. 47 Joao Alves Alan Boss Jerome Bouvier Lee Hartmann Thomas Henning Cover Picture Paul Ho Jes Jorgensen A near-infrared mosaic of the center of the ρ Ophi- Charles J. Lada uchi molecular cloud based on H and K widefield Thijs Kouwenhoven images obtained with WFCAM at UKIRT. The re- Michael R. Meyer gion contains a partly embedded cluster of young Ralph Pudritz stars. At a distance of only 120 pc this is among Luis Felipe Rodr´ıguez the nearest star forming regions and among the best Ewine van Dishoeck studied. See the article on page 6 of this issue for Hans Zinnecker further details. The Star Formation Newsletter is a vehicle for Image courtesy Catarina Alves de Oliveira and fast distribution of information of interest for as- Mark Casali. Image processing: WFCAM/WSA tronomers working on star and planet formation and Luis Cal¸cada. and molecular clouds. You can submit material for the following sections: Abstracts of recently accepted papers (only for papers sent to refereed journals), Abstracts of recently accepted major re- views (not standard conference contributions), Dis- sertation Abstracts (presenting abstracts of new Submitting your abstracts Ph.D dissertations), Meetings (announcing meet- ings broadly of interest to the star and planet for- Latex macros for submitting abstracts mation and early solar system community), New and dissertation abstracts (by e-mail to Jobs (advertising jobs specifically aimed towards [email protected]) are appended to persons within the areas of the Newsletter), and each Call for Abstracts. You can also Short Announcements (where you can inform or re- submit via the Newsletter web inter- quest information from the community). Addition- face at http://www2.ifa.hawaii.edu/star- ally, the Newsletter brings short overview articles formation/index.cfm on objects of special interest, physical processes or theoretical results, the early solar system, as well as occasional interviews. Newsletter Archive www.ifa.hawaii.edu/users/reipurth/newsletter.htm 2 encountered on Earth, and it forces you to dive deep into the fundamentals of chemical processes. Ewine van Dishoeck After I returned to Leiden, I was able to do the bulk of in conversation with Bo Reipurth my PhD project at the interface between chemistry and astronomy under the formal supervision of Habing and Dalgarno. The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) had kindly made a special grant avail- able for me to do so, after both the astronomy and chem- istry councils had turned down our requests for funding ( “interesting, but not enough astronomy/chemistry in the proposal”). This was my first lesson in the obstacles one faces as an interdisciplinary scientist. Because the fund- ing is still largely along mono-disciplinary lines, one either has to ‘spin’ the proposal toward pure astronomy or pure chemistry. Q: You and John Black have had a very productive col- laboration over the years. Your most cited paper is from 1988 and deals with the photodissociation and chemistry Q: Your thesis entitled “Photodissociation and excitation of interstellar CO. What were the main results? of interstellar molecules: calculations and astrophysical A: Indeed, I treasure my collaboration with John. We applications” was finished in 1984. How did you get in- started to work together during my PhD period, and John terested in this subject? gradually introduced me more and more into astronomy. A: I studied chemistry at Leiden University, and as part I learned a lot from him! Our first joint paper was on of the MSc requirements I had to carry out two research the excitation of interstellar C2. We then continued on projects. My minor project was in experimental chemi- the development of the next generation of diffuse cloud cal physics, using Ion Cyclotron Resonance spectroscopy models, resulting in our 1986 modeling paper. From that to measure the photodestruction of cycloalkane molecular work it became clear that photodissociation of CO was ions. My major project was in theoretical chemistry us- one of the main uncertainties in these models, especially ing quantum chemical techniques to study the electronic because we wanted to push them into the translucent cloud structure and photodissociation pathways of hydrocarbon regime where carbon goes from atomic to molecular form + ions, in particular CH4 . Leiden was one of the few places (AV a few mag). in the world which had strong expertise in the calculation When I came back to Harvard as a postdoc, my office was of excited electronic states through which photodissocia- on the same floor as that of the experimental atomic and tion proceeds (with Marc van Hemert). So photodissoci- molecular physics group at the CfA. At that time intense ation was a natural topic for me because of my chemical UV light sources (Japanese and French synchrotrons) cou- physics background and the available expertise. pled with high resolution spectrometers were just becom- I was firmly determined to continue my PhD research in ing available so we stimulated Yoshino, Peter Smith and theoretical chemistry because of my love for molecules. Glenn Stark to measure CO, since its excited electronic However, the head of the group had died a few years ear- structure was very unclear, even in Herzberg’s famous ‘Di- lier and it was clear that there was not going to be a atomics’ book. They went ahead and did so, and I remem- successor for a long time. So I had to look elsewhere. ber looking jointly at the photographic spectra to deter- My then boyfriend (and now husband) Tim de Zeeuw was mine by eye which of the transitions were broadened, an studying astronomy and had just taken a course by Harm indication that the states were predissociated. From these Habing on the interstellar medium, including the discov- data John and I built a model of 33 UV bands through ery of interstellar molecules. ”Is this not something for which photodissociation could proceed, although much of you?” he asked. Teije de Jong from Amsterdam then in- the molecular data was still guess work at that time, espe- troduced me to the world expert, Alexander Dalgarno at cially for the isotopologs. Even after 25 years of additional Harvard. He invited me to Harvard for 5 months after laboratory spectroscopy, not all the states and oscillator finishing my MSc to start a PhD project. The first topic strengths are yet known. We should be very grateful to he suggested was the photodissociation of interstellar OH, the molecular physicists for continuing to pursue this. so this was right up my alley. I was immediately hooked At the time, we did not expect the paper to have such a big on astrochemistry! The universe is a wonderful chemical impact (I still find it hard to predict which papers will), laboratory with conditions different from those normally 3 but two aspects played a role. First, we did an end-to-end lines of hot gaseous HCN, C2H2, CO2, H2O and OH, seen study, i.e., we applied the CO photodissociation model to in absorption and emission. a wide range of interstellar clouds and made predictions for + Q: You are leading the Key Program “WISH” - Water In CO, C, and C column densities and isotopic fractionation Star-forming regions with Herschel. Has Herschel lived up that could be compared with astronomical observations. to expectations? Second, we had a table of shielding functions that other modelers could easily implement: providing a table with A: Certainly: the quality of the HIFI spectra is much bet- useful numbers often helps to increase citations. ter than what I was dreaming of when I first got involved in Herschel in 1982. The fact that all instruments (and Q: ISO opened up mid- and far-infrared wavelength studies all channels) were operative until the end of mission is a of protostars. What were the main achievements of ISO testimony to the skills of the instrument builders. for astrochemistry? The water line profiles are remarkably complex, even in A: ISO was fantastic, it was ‘the little telescope that could’ isotopologs, and reveal dynamical processes near proto- (in Martin Harwit’s words). It opened up the full 2-200 stars which are not seen in any other molecule, as shown by µm wavelength range for medium resolution spectroscopy Lars Kristensen and Joe Mottram. We are still digesting unhindered by the Earth’s atmosphere, building on the the thousands of spectra, but highlights so far have been pioneering KAO studies. Highlights include the full in- the detection of water vapor in pre-stellar cores, led by ventory of ices, PAHs and silicates during the entire stel- Paola Caselli, which allowed the reconstruction of the wa- lar lifecycle, from clouds to protostars, disks, comets, and ter abundance profile in a cloud just prior to collapse; and evolved stars. It started the ‘crystalline revolution’: the the detection of the cold water reservoir in two protoplan- widespread detection of crystalline silicate features in pro- etary disks, led by Michiel Hogerheijde and Ted Bergin. It toplanetary disks and the envelopes of evolved stars, some- is sad to realize that such deep integrations on cold water times with striking resemblance to those found in comets.