Magnetic fields in cometary globules - III. CG 12

Abstract

We present results of optical linear polarization measurements of stars in the region of the relatively isolated cometary globule CG 12 in Centaurus at a galactic latitude b~= 21°. A polarization map representing the geometry of the magnetic field in the cloud is produced. In the lower-density outer parts of the cloud, the field is more or less parallel to the cometary tail and other elongated structures like the bipolar molecular outflow from near the infrared source IRAS 13547-3944 and the nebulosity around star 2 embedded in the cloud. Polaization vectors for the more highly reddened stars in the head region of the globule are found to be more or less parallel to the long axis of the elliptical, high-density C18O core of the cometary globule head.