Virial Temperature

We can rewrite the hydrodynamic equation in terms of a potential to derive a critical thermal temperature:

The term on the right is the "virial temperature": the amount of thermal energy the cloud can hold before it dissipates.
For a typical GMC:

M ≈ 10⁴ - 10⁶ M_solar
R ≈ 10 - 100 parsecs

So, let's do some equations!

Virial Temperature

We can rewrite the hydrodynamic equation in terms of a potential to derive a critical thermal temperature:

The term on the right is the "virial temperature": the amount of thermal energy the cloud can hold before it dissipates. For a typical GMC: M ≈ 104 - 106 Msolar R ≈ 10 - 100 parsecs So, let's do some equations!

So, let's do some equations!

The term on the right is the "virial temperature": the amount of thermal energy the cloud can hold before it dissipates.
For a typical GMC:

M ≈ 10⁴ - 10⁶ M_solar
R ≈ 10 - 100 parsecs

So, let's do some equations!