Inward Motions in Dense Cores by Dr. Phil Myers (CfA)   Studying the internal motions of dense cores is necessary to understand how a gas condensation forms a protostar. Improvements in millimeter-wavelength telescopes and receivers allow us to study spectral line profiles from dense cores with unprecedented angular resolution, spectral resolution, and sensitivity. In this talk I review recent observations of starless cores with an emphasis on their internal motions. The main result is that many starless cores show evidence for inward motions with speed ~ 0.1 km/s over an extent ~ 0.1 pc, in apparent contradiction of most theories of core formation. In a few starless cores, notably L1544 and L694, we also see more localized evidence of faster inward motions. These motions appear consistent with several models of gravitationally driven infall. If so, such cores are in the earliest identifiable stage of star formation.