Support for Observing at CARMA

理解恒星在哪里以及如何形成的物理学是一个基本的天体物理问题。与恒星形成相关的过程很重要：在大尺度上，在星系的结构和演化中，在小尺度上，在行星的形成中。NGC2264分子云是一个有吸引力的大质量恒星形成区域，因为它在760PC附近，前景消光很低。有两个非常年轻的大质量恒星形成星团，我们将在空间和光谱高分辨率的几条甲醇线上观察到这两个星团。我们将观察到的甲醇谱线覆盖了从7K到130K的激发温度，并且可以跟踪一系列物理条件。冰粒表面的反应是合成甲醇的唯一可行途径，由于它在气相中只能存活10,000年，这种分子可以追溯到最近的相互作用。因此，我们可以使用甲醇来探测最近恒星形成活动引起的星团物理环境的变化。

Understanding the physics of where and how stars form is a fundamental astrophysical question. The processes associated with star formation are important: on large scales, in the structure and evolution of galaxies, to small scales, in the formation of planets. The NGC2264 molecular cloud is an attractive massive star-forming region to study since at 760 pc it is nearby, and has low foreground extinction. There are two very young, massive star forming clusters that we will observe in several methanol lines at spatial and spectral high resolution. The methanol lines that we will observe cover excitation temperatures from 7 to 130 K, and can trace a range of physical conditions. Reaction on ice grain surfaces is the only viable formation route to methanol, and since it can survive only 10,000 yr in the gas phase, this molecule traces very recent interactions. We can therefore use methanol to probe changes in the physical environment of the clusters induced by recent star formation activity.