A Study on the CO Isotopic Lines of the Star Forming Region AFGL 5157

By the mapping observations simultaneously at the ¹²CO (J=1-0), ¹³CO (J=1-0), and C¹⁸O (J=1-0) lines on the area of 24’×24’ (12 pc×12 pc) of the star forming region AFGL 5157, we have obtained the distribution and averaged physical parameters for the respective ¹³CO and C¹⁸O cores of this molecu- lar cloud. At the edge of the molecular cloud, the isotopic abundance ratio is X (¹³CO)/(C¹⁸O)] ≈ 10, close to the ratio of a giant molecular cloud. The viral masses of the ¹³CO and C¹⁸O cores are less than the masses of the molecu-lar cloud cores, so the molecular cloud cores are gravitationally unstable, and the C¹⁸O molecular cloud core is more easy to collapse. The column density distributions of the C¹⁸O molecular cloud core in the northeast and southwest directions are, respectively, 1.1 × 10²³× z^−0.43 and 4.6 × 10²⁵× z^−0.58, where z is the distance from the center of the molecular cloud core. The high velocity molecular out?ow has been con?rmed from our ¹²CO spectra, the mass loss rate of the out?ow has been estimated, and the mass-velocity relation of the out?ow is ?tted by a power-law function of m ∝ v^−1.8. The star formation rate of the ¹³CO molecular cloud core is as high as 23%, probably, under the in?uence of