Spitzer Space Telescope - Legacy General Observer Proposal #30574


Gould's Belt:  Star Formation in the Solar Neighborhood

Principal Investigator: Lori Allen
           Institution: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Co-Investigators: 
Brenda Matthews, NRC-HIA                                              
Dave Nutter, Cardiff University                                       
Jes Jorgensen, CfA                                                    
James Di Francesco, NRC-HIA                                           
Neal Evans, Univ. Texas                                               
Tim Brooke, Caltech                                                   
Paul Harvey, Univ. Texas                                              
Tracy Huard, CfA                                                      
Tyler Bourke, CfA                                                     
Jane Greaves, St. Andrews                                             
Robert Gutermuth, CfA                                                 
Jenny Hatchell, Exeter                                                
Michiel Hogerheijde, Leiden                                           
Doug Johnstone, NRC-HIA                                               
Jason Kirk, Cardiff University                                        
Lewis Knee, NRC-HIA                                                   
David Koerner, Northern Arizona Univ.                                 
Tom Megeath, Univ. Toledo                                             
Bruno Merin, Leiden                                                   
Lee Mundy, Univ. Maryland                                             
Philip Myers, CfA                                                     
Deborah Padgett, Spitzer Science Center                               
Luisa Rebull, Spitzer Science Center                                  
Karl Stapelfeldt, JPL                                                 
Derek Ward-Thompson, Cardiff University                               
Jeremy Yates, Univ. College London                                    

Science Category: star formation 
 Observing Modes: IracMap MipsScan 
  Hours Approved: 285.0 

Abstract:
We propose a Legacy program to obtain observations with IRAC and MIPS
of molecular clouds in Gould's Belt.  These will provide the crucial
data shortward of 200  microns to match the data from large projects
with SCUBA-2 on the JCMT (450  and 850  microns) and SPIRE (200  to
500  microns) on Herschel.  Together with the clouds surveyed by the
Cores to Disks (c2d) Spitzer Legacy program and clouds studied by
GTO/GO programs, these observations will complete the census of star
formation regions within 500  pc.  All Spitzer data, including
previous GTO/GO data, will be processed through the c2d pipeline to
produce a uniform, complete, and unbiased data base for studies of
local star formation.  Scientific goals include the following.  We
will determine which of the many dense cores detected by SCUBA-2 have
embedded stars and which are starless.  We will compile the statistics
of objects in different evolutionary stages to obtain timescales for
these stages, a fundamental check on theory.  We will use the large
sample to control for effects of enviroment on star formation.  We
will assess the fraction of star formation in distributed and
clustered modes, including the number in groups of various sizes.
Finally, we will combine the MIPS data with the submillimeter data to
study the physical conditions in extended structures with a goal of
understanding the formation of dense cores.