"Tracing Environmental Impact on Early Star Formation"

Abstract:

Stellar systems are the product of the collapse of dense cores within interstellar molecular clouds. It is therefore important to study dense cores, as the initial conditions for star and planet formation are to be found there, including all the ingredients participating in the spectacular chemical and physical evolution from interstellar clouds to planets such as our Earth. In this context, it is still unclear the extent to which the environmental properties play a role in setting the initial conditions. I will present a comparative study of two dense cores located within the Corona Australis molecular cloud, which reside in two regions that are very distinct in terms of environmental conditions. I will focus on the deuteration levels of key molecular tracers, which are sensitive probes of the physical conditions in the earliest stages of star formation, particularly gas density and temperature.