Friday 28 April at 2:30pm

ABSTRACT: "Infall, Outflow, and Rotation of the Class 0 Protostar L1251B"

The motions of the dust cloud surrounding a young protostar can be complex, involving infall, outflow, rotation, and turbulence. Disentangling these motions from one another can be difficult. By applying our non-sherical, 3-D infall model for protostellar systems however, we detect a strong "blue-bulge" signature indicative of collapse in a rotating cloud, and easily distinguished from other motions. We have used HCO+ and H13CO+ J=4-3 and J=3-2 observations for modeling the dust envelope of L1251B, a young (class 0) protostar. The envelope is elongated along its rotational axis, and shows strong signatures of rotation and infall. CO J=2-1 observations of the bipolar outflow indicate the protostar is inclined only about 30 degrees out of the plane of the sky, and is well collimated. Using our models we derive the rotation and infall rates of this object.

ABSTRACT: "Determining Water Vapour Opacity in the Submillimetre"

When observing in the submillimetre, we are limited primarily by the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere. How do we accurately measure this amount and are our methods trustworthy? Is it possible to determine what the sky is really doing on a given night? For these answers (and cookies) come to Friday's seminar.