Testing 24 μm and Infrared Luminosity as Star Formation Tracers for Galactic Star-forming Regions
We have tested some relations for star formation rates used in extragalactic studies for regions within the Galaxy. In nearby molecular clouds, where the initial mass function is not fully sampled, the dust emission at 24 μm greatly underestimates star formation rates (by a factor of 100 on average) when compared to star formation rates determined from counting young stellar objects. The total infrared emission does no better. In contrast, the total far-infrared method agrees within a factor of two on average with star formation rates based on radio continuum emission for massive, dense clumps that are forming enough massive stars to have L TIR exceed 104.5 L ☉. The total infrared and 24 μm also agree well with each other for both nearby, low-mass star-forming regions and the massive, dense clump regions.