A search for environmental influence on stellar mass

Abstract

The positions and local projected densities of the protostellar continuum sources in Ophiuchus and Serpens are investigated as a function of their masses in order to search for possible environmental effects during star formation. There is a slight trend toward mass segregation for the 850 μm sources found by Johnstone and coworkers in Ophiuchus, but there is no obvious mass segregation for the 1.3 mm sources in Ophiuchus or Serpens. There is also no systematic change in the local projected source density with source mass, as might be expected if clump collisions or gas clearing are involved. © 2001. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.