No Arabic abstract
The Ara OB1a association is one of the closest sites where triggered star formation is visible for multiple generations of massive stars. At about 1.3 kpc distance, it contains complex environments including cleared young clusters, embedded infrared clusters, CO clouds with no evidence of star formation, and clouds with evidence of ongoing star formation. In this review we discuss the research on this region spanning the last half-century. It has been proposed that the current configuration is the result of an expanding wave of neutral gas set in motion between 10--40 million years ago in combination with photoionization from the current epoch.
Context: The Ara OB1a association is a nearby complex in the fourth Galactic quadrant where a number of young/embedded star clusters are projected close to more evolved, intermediate age clusters. It is also rich in interstellar matter, and contains evidence of the interplay between massive stars and their surrounding medium, such as the rim HII region NGC 6188. Aims: We provide robust estimates of the fundamental parameters (age and distance) of the two most prominent stellar clusters, NGC 6167 and NGC 6193, that may be used as a basis for studing the star formation history of the region. Methods: The study is based on a photometric optical survey (UBVIHa) of NGC 6167 and NGC 6193 and their nearby field, complemented with public data from 2MASS-VVV, UCAC3, and IRAC-Spitzer in this region. Results: We produce a uniform photometric catalogue and estimate more robustly the fundamental parameters of NGC 6167 and NGC 6193, in addition to the IRAS 16375-4854 source. As a consequence, all of them are located at approximately the same distance from the Sun in the Sagittarius-Carina Galactic arm. However, the ages we estimate differ widely: NGC 6167 is found to be an intermediate-age cluster (20-30 Myr), NGC 6193 a very young one (1-5 Myr) with PMS, H? emitters and class II objects, and the IRAS 16375-4854 source is the youngest of the three containing several YSOs. Conclusions: These results support a picture in which Ara OB1a is a region where star formation has proceeded for several tens of Myr until the present. The difference in the ages of the different stellar groups can be interpreted as a consequence of a triggered star formation process. In the specific case of NGC 6193, we find evidence of possible non-coeval star formation.
Observations of the galactic disk at mid-infrared and longer wavelengths reveal a wealth of structures indicating the existence of complexes of recent massive star formation. However, little or nothing is known about the stellar component of those complexes. We have carried out observations aiming at the identification of early-type stars in the direction of the bright infrared source RAFGL~5475, around which several interstellar medium structures usually associated with the presence of massive stars have been identified. Our observations have the potential of revealing the suspected but thus far unknown stellar component of the region around RAFGL~5475. We have carried out near-infrared imaging observations ($JHK_S$ bands) designed to reveal the presence of early-type stars based on their positions in color-color and color-magnitude diagrams centered on the location of RAFGL~5475. We took into account the possibility that candidates found might belong to a foreground population physically related either to M16 or M17, two giant HII regions lying midway between the Sun and RAFGL~5475. The near-infrared color-color diagram shows clear evidence for the presence of a moderately obscured population of early-type stars in the region imaged. By studying the distribution of extinction in their direction and basic characteristics of the interstellar medium we show that these new early-type stars are most likely associated with RAFGL~5475. By investigating the possible existence of massive early-type stars in the direction of RAFGL~5475 we have discovered the existence of a new OB association. A very preliminary assessment of its contents suggests the presence of several O-type stars, some of them likely to be associated with structures in the interstellar medium. The new association is located at 4 kpc from the Sun in the Scutum-Centaurus arm.
We present a CO(2-1) and 1240 um continuum survey of 23 debris disks with spectral types B9-G1, observed at an angular resolution of 0.5-1 arcsec with the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA). The sample was selected for large infrared excess and age ~10 Myr, to characterize the prevalence of molecular gas emission in young debris disks. We identify three CO-rich debris disks, plus two additional tentative (3-sigma) CO detections. Twenty disks were detected in the continuum at the >3-sigma level. For the 12 disks in the sample that are spatially resolved by our observations, we perform an independent analysis of the interferometric continuum visibilities to constrain the basic dust disk geometry, as well as a simultaneous analysis of the visibilities and broad-band spectral energy distribution to constrain the characteristic grain size and disk mass. The gas-rich debris disks exhibit preferentially larger outer radii in their dust disks, and a higher prevalence of characteristic grain sizes smaller than the blowout size. The gas-rich disks do not exhibit preferentially larger dust masses, contrary to expectations for a scenario in which a higher cometary destruction rate would be expected to result in a larger mass of both CO and dust. The three debris disks in our sample with strong CO detections are all around A stars: the conditions in disks around intermediate-mass stars appear to be the most conducive to the survival or formation of CO.
A study of the stellar population of the M31 spiral arm around OB association A24 was carried out based on the photometric data obtained from deep V and JHK imaging. The luminosity function was obtained for -7 <~ Mbol <~ -3.5 by applying the extinction correction corresponding to Av=1 and the bolometric correction BC(K) as an empirical function of (J-K)o. In comparing the observed color-luminosity diagrams with semitheoretical isochrones modified for the dust-shell effects, we found the young population of t <~ 30 Myr with supergiants of Mbol <~ -5, the bulk of the intermediate-age population of t ~ 0.2 - 2.5 Gyr with bright asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars of -5 <~ Mbol <~ -4, and old populations of t ~> 3 Gyr with AGB and red giant branch (RGB) stars of Mbol ~> -4. The average star formation rate was estimated to be ~1.8x10^4 M_o/Myr and ~0.7x10^4 M_o/Myr per deprojected disk area of 1 kpc^2 from the number density of B0 V stars around Mv=-4.0 (age ~10 Myr) and the number density of bright AGB stars around Mbol = -4.3 (age ~1 Gyr), respectively. A study of the local variation in the V and the J and H luminosity functions revealed a kind of anticorrelation between the population of the young component and that of the intermediate-age component when subdomains of ~100 pc scales were concerned. This finding suggests that the disk domain around the A24 area experienced a series of star formation episodes alternatively among different subdomains with a timescale of a few spiral passage periods. Brief discussions are given about the interstellar extinction and about the lifetimes of bright AGB stars and the highly red objects (HROs) in the same area.
On the basis of sub-arcsecond optical imaging we resolve and study the core components of the LMC OB association LH 39. The central star of the association, the rare transition object R84, is also investigated using CASPEC echelle spectroscopy. A new, powerful image restoration code that conserves the fluxes allows us to obtain the magnitudes and colors of the components. We bring out some 30 stars in a ~16x16, area centered on R84. At a resolution of 0.19, the closest components to R84 are shown to lie at 1.1 NW and 1.7 NW respectively of the transition star. One of these stars is the reddest star of the field after R84 but turns out to be too faint to correspond to the red M2 supergiant previously reported to contaminate the spectrum of R84. If the late-type spectrum is due to a line-of-sight supergiant with a luminosity comparable to R84, it should lie closer than 0.12 to R84. The transition star shows spectral variability between 1982 and 1991. We also note some slight radial velocity variations of the Of emission lines over timescales of several years. Furthermore, we discuss the apparent absence of O type stars in this association.