Earliest phases of high mass star formation revealed - multi-wavelength study of carefully selected Planck cold clumps, a synergy of GCC and HiGAL collaborations

Zahorecz Sarolta
MTA CSFK CSI
I will shortly present the Planck-Herschel Galactic Cold Cores and Hi-GAL projects and I will focus on our study, in which our aim was to identify the clouds at the initial conditions of massive star and star cluster formation across the Galaxy and compare their physical properties as a function of Galactic location. I have identified new candidate high-mass star-forming clumps in the outer Galaxy. I have found that most of the Planck clumps already contained signs of star formation. About 25% of the clumps are massive enough to form high-mass stars and star clusters. Planck clumps toward the Galactic center region show higher peak column densities and higher average dust temperatures than those of the clumps in the outer Galaxy. Although we only have seven clumps without associated YSOs, the Hi-GAL data show no apparent differences in the properties of Planck cold clumps with and without star formation.