SCYON Abstract

Received on November 11 2009

The structures of embedded clusters

Authors	S. Schmeja
Affiliation	Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg
To appear in	Invited review talk, Proceedings of the International Workshop on Interstellar Matter and Star Formation - A Multi-Wavelength Perspective, Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India, in press
Contact	sschmeja@ita.uni-heidelberg.de
URL	http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.1865
Links

Abstract

Stars are usually formed in clusters in the dense cores of molecular clouds. These embedded clusters show a wide variety of morphologies from hierarchical clusters with substructure to centrally condensed ones. Often they are elongated and surrounded by a low-density stellar halo. The structure of an embedded cluster, i.e. the spatial distribution of its members, seems to be linked to the complex structure of the parental molecular cloud and holds important clues about the formation mechanism and the initial conditions, as well as about the subsequent evolution of the cluster.