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Paper: The Mass Spectrum of the ISM in Starbursts
Volume: 322, The Formation and Evolution of Massive Young Star Clusters
Page: 371
Authors: Keto, E.; Ho, L.C.; Lo, K-Y.
Abstract: Recent HST observations suggest that starbursts may be a collection of super star clusters, each of which forms in a discrete molecular cloud whose mass and size are comparable to the cluster. To search for evidence of these discrete cluster-forming clouds, we observed M82 in CO at the highest angular resolution possible to measure the mass spectrum of the interstellar medium down to the scale of the clusters. The observations show that the clouds have a mass spectrum scaling as the – 3/2 power, similar to the mass spectra of molecular clouds in a variety of environments and similar to the mass spectra of extragalactic globular clusters.
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