PRE-STELLAR CORES

> in this proposal, more time is being requested for dwardtho.preprot we propose to carry out isophot observations of a number of molecular cloud cores, which we have studied in the submm. we discovered submillimetre continuum emission from these cores for the first time. on the basis of our submillimetre observations we hypothesised that these cores are prestellar in nature, at an earlier evolutionary stage than the class 0 protostar stage. we proposed to observe these with phot in the first round of iso applications, and obtained priority 1 status from otac for our proposal. these observations have been taken by iso, but we have not yet received the data. we now wish to observe more cores in a different cloud region, namely taurus, as our original source list were all in and around the ophiuchus cloud region. the scientific aim of this proposal is then to compare different molecular cloud regions to test whether the manner in which prestellar cores evolve to protostars varies from cloud to cloud. we already have evidence, from submm bolometer array data taken at iram, that the taurus and ophiuchus regions represent different modes of star formation. in the case of ophiuchus we see probable clustered star formation, whereas taurus is at best an open cluster in the process of forming, or more likely an unbound association. we wish to test models of how prestellar cores evolve, to discern what effect the environment has on the manner of this evolution. iso presents a unique opportunity to test the specific predictions of models of ambipolar diffusion in lowmass starforming regions such as these. in a parallel programme we are applying for scuba time to observe these cores in the submm. when the isophot observations are combined with our existing submm observation truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]