Poster Presentation

The Magnetic Field Structure of W3

Author(s): Adham El-Batal (Boston University); Dan Clemens (Boston University)

Presenter: Adham El-batal (Boston University)

The W3 molecular cloud is a high mass star forming region located in the Perseus spiral arm of the second quadrant. A classic example of shock-induced star formation subtending over 100 arcmin on the sky, W3 presents an attractive laboratory for measuring the significance of magnetic fields in high mass molecular clouds. The magnetic field structure for W3 was mapped using near infrared background starlight polarimetry (NIR BSP) using the Mimir instrument on the 1.8 m Perkins Telescope. The gravitational potential was inferred through column density fits using archival Herschel and Planck dust emission maps. The results are considered in the context of the ‘mass-to-flux’ ratio, a measure of stability of molecular clouds.