Spitzer Space Telescope - Theoretical Research Proposal #20269


Jets, Outflows and Feedback in Young Clusters

Principal Investigator: Adam Frank
           Institution: University of Rochester

Co-Investigators: 
Alice Quillen, University of Rochester                                

Science Category: HII regions 
Dollars Approved: 70000.0 

Abstract:
Energetic outflows associated with young stellar objects exert a
strong effect on their parent molecular clouds.  Currently the role of
jets and outflows in opening cavities, generating turbulence and/or
disrupting their parent clouds remains unclear.  Spitzer images of
young clusters provide new views of jet cloud interactions that can
help resolve these critical issues.  We propose to use 3-D Adaptive
Mesh Refinement hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic simulations, in
concert with Spitzer databases and other complementary observations,
to explore the issue of jet cloud interactions, turbulence and cloud
disruption.  By modeling the jet/cloud interactions with a firm
connection to the propoerties of the observed YSOs and molecular cloud
dynamics, we will probe the nature of momentum input into molecular
clouds and use the motions in the molecular cloud to trace the
evolution of outflow and winds from YSOs.