Taurus molecular cloud

Perhaps the source with the largest fractional abundances of unsaturated complex molecules is the small condensation in the Taurus complex known as TMC-1 (Taurus Molecular Cloud -1) which, although it shows evidence for substructure, can be considered to have average physical conditions (n = 104 cm-3 and T = 10 K). Table 2 contains a comparison of observed4 abundances in TMC-1 for almost 50... 

Studies of the isomers of this species were undertaken because of a particularly vexing problem relating to the chemistry in interstellar molecular clouds. This is that propynal, HC=C-CHO, has been observed but its isomer propadienone, H2C=C=C=0, has not, although searches have been made in the most molecule-rich clouds, the Taurus Molecular Cloud and Sagittarius B2.85 A possible route to these isomers is the reaction,86... 

Figure 5.2 Taurus molecular cloud observed at 115 GHz 12C0 emission. (Reproduced by courtesy of Paul Goldsmith, JPL NASA)...

Table 3. Molecules Detected in the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMCl) and the Taurus Molecular Cloud (TMC1)...

Fig. 13. The Fischer-Tropsch reaction produces homologous series in logarithmic distribution, as illustrated here by alcohols (Anders et al, 1974). From C2 upward, successive homo-logues form in fixed, molecular ratio C +t/C = a, where a is the probability of chain growth, typically 0.6-0.9. Interstellar cyanoacetylenes in the Taurus Molecular Cloud 1 likewise show a logarithmic distribution, of very similar slope (0.52 vs 0.59 for the FTT alcohols). Presumably they, too, formed by surface catalysis, rather than by gas-phase reactions...

Tatfe 6. Molecules Detwted in the Orion Molecular cloud and the Taurus Molecular cloud... 

The nearest T Tauri stars occur in the Taurus molecular cloud and the p Ophi-uchus Cloud, both about 460 light-years (140 parsecs) away. 

Kenyon S. J., Calvet N., and Hartmann L. (1993) The embedded young stars in the Taurus Auriga molecular cloud I. Models for the spectral energy distributions. 

The source for stellar magnetism, at least in the proto-stellar phase, must lie in the environment Measurements of dust-induced polarization in nearby molecular clouds, especially Taurus-Auriga and p Ophiuchus, show that the magnetic field is complex and pervasive throughout the parent cloud in which star formation is occurring. 

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