Dr. Pamela Klaassen

Royal Observatory Edinburgh, UK

Carina’s Pillars of Destruction, the view from ALMA and Beyond

Abstract : Massive stars cause strong feedback onto their natal environment, and shape its future ability to make further stars. They inject enormous amounts of energy and turbulence into their surroundings, and create or reveal dense pillars of gas and dust towards the edges of the cavities they clear. The shapes of these pillars are well reproduced in many different kinds of feedback models, but their internal structures vary significantly (and measurably) from model to model. The distinguishing properties include differences in internal velocity gradients, pillar velocity offsets with respect to the cloud rims they are attached to, and their internal velocity dispersions. These pillar properties are testable with observations of the molecular gas within such pillars. Here I will present the first ALMA survey focusing on the internal dynamics of 13 pillars which are being shaped by the high-mass stars in the Carina nebula. I will present our 12CO/13CO/C18O and 1.3 mm continuum observations in the these pillars which show beautiful and varied kinematic properties which are more reminiscent of the structures formed in simulations, and describe how these findings can be used to inform followup studies with future facilities.