Studies of the Perseus Region.I.

Abstract

Studies of molecular clouds have shown that they evolve from turbulent gas and dust to form coherent, dense and connected structures. We have conducted a multi-wavelength study of one such molecular cloud, the Perseus star-forming region, which includes Barnard 1 (B1), Barnard 3(B3), Barnard 5 (B5), NGC 1333, IC 348, L1455 and L1448. The data obtained using the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), Multiple Imaging Photometer (MIPS), the Sub-mm Common User Bolometer Array(SCUBA) and the 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)provides information about the geometric structure of the dust and gas covering large areas around young stellar objects (YSO), dust temperatures, effect of turbulence and processes of molecule formation and their relevance in the chemical and physical evolution of the cloud. This paper presents our first results.