No Arabic abstract
We present results of an infrared study of the molecular cloud Lynds 1340, forming three groups of low and intermediate-mass stars. Our goals are to identify and characterise the young stellar population of the cloud, study the relationships between the properties of the cloud and the emergent stellar groups, and integrate L1340 into the picture of the star-forming activity of our Galactic environment. We selected candidate young stellar objects from the Spitzer and WISE data bases using various published color criteria, and classified them based on the slope of the spectral energy distribution. We identified 170 Class II, 27 Flat SED, and Class 0/I sources. High angular resolution near-infrared observations of the RNO 7 cluster, embedded in L1340, revealed eight new young stars of near-infrared excess. The surface density distribution of young stellar objects shows three groups, associated with the three major molecular clumps of L1340, each consisting of less than 100 members, including both pre-main sequence stars and embedded protostars. New Herbig--Haro objects were identified in the Spitzer images. Our results demonstrate that L1340 is a prolific star-forming region of our Galactic environment in which several specific properties of the intermediate-mass mode of star formation can be studied in detail.
We have performed an optical spectroscopic and photometric search for young stellar objects associated with the molecular cloud Lynds 1340, and examined the structure of the cloud by constructing an extinction map, based on SDSS data. The new extinction map suggests a shallow, strongly fragmented cloud, having a mass of some 3700~Msun. Longslit spectroscopic observations of the brightest stars over the area of L1340 revealed that the most massive star associated with L1340 is a B4 type, about 5 solar mass star. The new spectroscopic and photometric data of the intermediate mass members led to a revised distance of 825 (+110 /-80) pc, and revealed seven members of the young stellar population with M > 2 solar masses. Our search for H alpha emission line stars, conducted with the Wide Field Grism Spectrograph 2 on the 2.2-meter telescope of the University of Hawaii and covering a 30 arcmin x 40 arcmin area, resulted in the detection of 75 candidate low-mass pre-main sequence stars, 58 of which are new. We constructed spectral energy distributions of our target stars, based on SDSS, 2MASS, Spitzer, and WISE photometric data, derived their spectral types, extinctions, and luminosities from BVRIJ fluxes, estimated masses by means of pre-main sequence evolutionary models, and examined the disk properties utilizing the 2-24 micron interval of the spectral energy distribution. We measured the equivalent width of the H alpha lines and derived accretion rates. The optically selected sample of pre-main sequence stars has a median effective temperature of 3970 K, stellar mass 0.7 Msun, and accretion rate of 7.6 10^{-9} Msun/yr.
We present an XMM-Newton survey of the part of Orion A cloud south of the Orion Nebula. This survey includes the Lynds 1641 (L1641) dark cloud, a region of the Orion A cloud with very few massive stars and hence a relatively low ambient UV flux, and the region around the O9 III star Iota Orionis. In addition to proprietary data, we used archival XMM data of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) to extend our analysis to a major fraction of the Orion A cloud. We have detected 1060 X-ray sources in L1641 and Iota Ori region. About 94% of the sources have 2MASS & Spitzer counterparts, 204 and 23 being Class II and Class I or protostars objects, respectively. In addition, we have identified 489 X-ray sources as counterparts to Class III candidates, given they are bright in X-rays and appear as normal photospheres at mid-IR wavelengths. The remaining 205 X-ray sources are likely distant AGNs or other galactic sources not related to Orion A. We find that Class III candidates appear more concentrated in two main clusters in L1641. The first cluster of Class III stars is found toward the northern part of L1641, concentrated around Iota Ori. The stars in this cluster are more evolved than those in the Orion Nebula. We estimate a distance of 300-320 pc for this cluster and thus it is closer than the Orion A cloud. Another cluster rich in Class III stars is located in L1641 South and appears to be a slightly older cluster embedded in the Orion A cloud. Furthermore, other evolved Class III stars are found north of the ONC toward NGC 1977.
We conducted a long-term optical photometric and spectroscopic monitoring of the strongly variable, accreting young sun-like star [KOS94] HA11, associated with the dark cloud Lynds 1340, that exhibited large amplitude (5-6 magnitudes in the I_C band) brightness variations on 2-3 years timescales, flat spectral energy distribution (SED), and extremely strong (300 < EW/Angstrom < 900) H alpha emission. In this Letter we describe the basic properties of the star, derived from our observations between 1999 and 2011, and put into context the observed phenomena. The observed variations in the emission spectra, near-infrared colors, and SED suggest that [KOS94] HA11 (spectral type: K7--M0) is an eruptive young star, possibly similar in nature to V1647 Ori: its large-scale photometric variations are governed by variable accretion rate, associated with variations in the inner disk structure. The star recently has undergone strong and rapid brightness variations, thus its further observations may offer a rare opportunity for studying structural and chemical rearrangements of the inner disk, induced by variable central luminosity.
Our scientific goal is to provide a 3D map of the nearest open cluster to the Sun, the Hyades, combining the recent release of Gaia astrometric data, ground-based parallaxes of sub-stellar member candidates and photometric data from surveys which cover large areas of the cluster. We combined the second Gaia release with ground-based H-band parallaxes obtained with the infrared camera on the 2-m robotic Liverpool telescope to astrometrically identify stellar and sub-stellar members of the Hyades, the nearest open cluster to the Sun. We find 1764 objects within 70 degree radius from the cluster center from the Gaia second data release, whose kinematic properties are consistent with the Hyades. We limit our study to 30 pc from the cluster center (47.03+/-0.20 pc) where we identify 710 candidate members, including 85 and 385 in the core and tidal radius, respectively. We determine proper motions and parallaxes of eight candidate brown dwarf members and confirm their membership. Using the 3D positions and a model-based mass-luminosity relation we derive a luminosity and mass function in the 0.04 to 2.5 Msun range. We confirm evidence for mass segregation in the Hyades and find a dearth of brown dwarfs in the core of the cluster. From the white dwarf members we estimate an age of 640$^{+67}_{-49}$ Myr. We identify a list of members in the Hyades cluster from the most massive stars down to the brown dwarfs. We produce for the first time a 3D map of the Hyades cluster in the stellar and sub-stellar regimes and make available the list of candidate members.
We performed a deep wide-field (6.76 deg^2) near-infrared survey with the VISTA telescope that covers the entire extent of the Carina nebula complex (CNC). The point-source catalog created from these data contains around four million individual objects down to masses of 0.1 M_sun. We present a statistical study of the large-scale spatial distribution and an investigation of the clustering properties of infrared-excesses objects, which are used to trace disk-bearing young stellar objects (YSOs). We find that a (J - H) versus (Ks - [4.5]) color-color diagram is well suited to tracing the population of YSO-candidates (cYSOs) by their infrared excess. We identify 8781 sources with strong infrared excess, which we consider as cYSOs. This sample is used to investigate the spatial distribution of the cYSOs with a nearest-neighbor analysis. The surface density distribution of cYSOs agrees well with the shape of the clouds as seen in our Herschel far-infrared survey. The strong decline in the surface density of excess sources outside the area of the clouds supports the hypothesis that our excess-selected sample consists predominantly of cYSOs with a low level of background contamination. This analysis allows us to identify 14 groups of cYSOs outside the central area. Our results suggest that the total population of cYSOs in the CNC comprises about 164000 objects, with a substantial fraction (~35%) located in the northern, still not well studied parts. Our cluster analysis suggests that roughly half of the cYSOs constitute a non-clustered, dispersed population.