ATLASGAL - The APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy at 870 microns
F. Schuller, K.M. Menten, Y. Contreras, F. Wyrowski, P. Schilke, L., Bronfman, T. Henning, C.M. Walmsley, H. Beuther, S. Bontemps, R. Cesaroni, L., Deharveng, G. Garay, F. Herpin, B. Lefloch, H. Linz, D. Mardones, V. Minier,, S. Molinari, F. Motte, L.-A. Nyman, V. Reveret

TL;DR
The ATLASGAL survey uses the APEX telescope to systematically map the Galactic Plane at 870 microns, identifying thousands of dense dust clumps to study early massive star formation stages and prepare for future observations with Herschel and ALMA.
Contribution
This paper presents the first results of a large-scale, unbiased submillimeter survey of the Galactic Plane, providing a comprehensive database of star-forming clumps and filamentary structures.
Findings
6000 compact sources detected brighter than 0.25 Jy
Most sources are smaller than 1 pc with masses from a few 10 to a few 100 M_sun
Two thirds of sources lack bright infrared counterparts
Abstract
(Abridged) Studying continuum emission from interstellar dust is essential to locating and characterizing the highest density regions in the interstellar medium. In particular, the early stages of massive star formation remain poorly understood. Our goal is to produce a large-scale, systematic database of massive pre- and proto-stellar clumps in the Galaxy, to understand how and under what conditions star formation takes place. A well characterized sample of star-forming sites will deliver an evolutionary sequence and a mass function of high-mass, star-forming clumps. This systematic survey at submm wavelengths also represents a preparatory work for Herschel and ALMA. The APEX telescope is ideally located to observe the inner Milky Way. The Large APEX Bolometer Camera (LABOCA) is a 295-element bolometer array observing at 870 microns, with a beam size of 19". Taking advantage of its…
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