CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 29Astrophysics and Star Formation StudiesGalaxies: Formation, Evolution, PhenomenaStellar, planetary, and galactic studies

Bird’s eye view of molecular clouds in the Milky Way: I. Column density and star formation from sub-parsec to kiloparsec scales

Open access
Spilker, Andri, Kainulainen, Jouni, Orkisz, Jan·2021·Astronomy & Astrophysics
DOI 10.1051/0004-6361/202040021
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Context. Describing how the properties of the interstellar medium are combined across various size scales is crucial for understanding star formation scaling laws and connecting Galactic and extragalactic data of molecular clouds. Aims. We describe how the statistical structure of the clouds and its connection to star formation changes from sub-parsec to kiloparsec scales in a complete region within the Milky Way disk. Methods. We built a census of molecular clouds within 2 kpc from the Sun using data from the literature. We examined the dust-based column density probability distributions (N-PDFs) of the clouds and their relation to star formation as traced by young stellar objects (YSOs). We then examined our survey region from the outside, within apertures of varying sizes, and describe how the N-PDFs and their relation to star formation changes with the size scale. Results. We present a census of the molecular clouds within 2 kpc distance, including 72 clouds and YSO counts for 44 of them. The N-PDFs of the clouds are not well described by any single simple model; use of any single model may bias the interpretation of the N-PDFs. The top-heaviness of the N-PDFs correlates with star formation activity, and the correlation changes with Galactic environment (spiral- and inter-arm regions). We find that the density contrast of clouds may be more intimately linked to star formation than the dense gas mass fraction. The aperture-averaged N-PDFs vary with the size scale and are more top-heavy for larger apertures. The top-heaviness of the aperture N-PDFs correlates with star formation activity up to roughly 0.5 kpc, depending on the environment. Our results suggest that the relations between cloud structure and star formation are environment specific and best captured by relative quantities (e.g. the density contrast). Finally, we show that the density structures of individual clouds give rise to a kiloparsec-scale Kennicutt-Schmidt relation as a combination of sampling effects and blending of different galactic environments.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1051/0004-6361/202040021

Cites

130 of 130 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The total gas surface density in the CMZ is ~10^3 M⊙ pc^-2, which is almost 30 times higher than the Solar neighborhood.

    “The total gas surface density in the CMZ is ∼ 10 3 M ⊙ pc -2 (Henshaw et al. 2022) which is almost 30 times higher than the Solar neighborhood (Spilker et al. 2021).”

    From The Fermi/eROSITA bubbles: a look into the nuclear outflow from the Milky Way (2024) · cites this paper as Spilker et al. 2021

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Spilker, A., Kainulainen, J., & Orkisz, J.
Affiliations
Chalmers University of Technology (SE)
ORCID
Venue
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Publisher
EDP Sciences
Published
2021-09
Volume
653
Pages
A63
ISSN
  • 0004-6361 (ISSN-L)
  • 1432-0746
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/202040021
OpenAlex
W3191175279
Cited by
29
References
130
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 8
FWCI
2.69
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.edpsciences.org/en/authors/copyright-and-licensing (vor, 6 d)
Locations
  • Astronomy and Astrophysics (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • Chalmers Research (Chalmers University of Technology) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
Funders
  • European Union (639459)
  • Swedish Research Council (2017-03864)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
Keywords
molecular clouds, interstellar medium, star formation, young stellar objects, density contrast, Kennicutt-Schmidt relation, Galactic disk, spiral arms, aperture averaging

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review