A Spitzer Census of Star Formation Activity in the Pipe Nebula

Abstract

The Pipe Nebula, a large nearby molecular cloud lacks obvious signposts of star formation in all but one of more than 130 dust extinction cores that have been identified within it. In order to quantitatively determine the current level of star formation activity in the Pipe Nebula, we analyzed 13 square degrees of sensitive mid-infrared maps of the entire cloud, obtained with the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) at wavelengths of 24 micron and 70 micron to search for candidate Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) in the high-extinction regions. We argue that our search is complete for class I and typical class II YSOs with luminosities of Lbol~0.2 Lo and greater. We find only 18 candidate YSOs in the high-extinction regions of the entire Pipe cloud. Twelve of these sources are previously known members of a small cluster associated with Barnard 59, the largest and most massive dense core in the cloud. With only six candidate class I and class II YSOs detected towards extinction cores outside of this cluster, our findings emphatically confirm the notion of an extremely low level of star formation activity in the Pipe Nebula. The resulting star formation efficiency for the entire cloud mass is only ~0.06 %.

23 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

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• The Green Bank Ammonia Survey: Unveiling the Dynamics of the Barnard 59 star-forming Clump
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• Spectroscopic Confirmation of a Population of Isolated, Intermediate-Mass YSOs
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• Distortion of Magnetic Fields in a Starless Core VI: Application of Flux Freezing Model and Core Formation of FeSt 1-457
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• Unveiling the role of magnetic fields in an accreting filament onto a young protocluster
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