RUI: Radio Studies of Interstellar Dark Clouds and Circumstellar Shells

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This grant supports research involving observations at radio wavelengths of molecular spectral lines in interstellar clouds and near young stars. The data will be used to deduce the physical conditions within the clouds and to determine the ages of the young stellar objects. In addition funding for this research will enhance the science education of female undergraduates at Wellesley College, with the objective of encouraging them to continue in scientific fields. Students will take an active role in the research, under the guidance of Dr. Benson. This award is made under the auspices of the Research at Undergraduate Institutions program at the National Science Foundation. Gas and dust clouds in the interstellar medium, of the type commonly known as dark molecular clouds, appear to be the sites where stars form. Observations at wavelengths which penetrate the obscuring dusty material indicate the presence of stars or protostars in many such clouds. Radio wavelength observations of spectral lines of molecules such as ammonia have proven to be excellent probes of the physical conditions within the dense cores of the molecular clouds and in the vicinity of newly formed stars.