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Register a new userNear- and Far-Infrared Counterparts of Millimeter Dust Cores in the Vela Molecular Ridge Cloud D
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The aim of this paper is to identify the young protostellar counterparts associated to dust millimeter cores of the Vela Molecular Ridge Cloud D through new IR observations (H_2 narrow-band at 2.12 micron and N broad band at 10.4 micron) along with an investigation performed on the existing IR catalogues. The association of mm continuum emission with infrared sources from catalogues (IRAS, MSX, 2MASS), JHK data from the literature and new observations, has been established according to spatial coincidence, infrared colours and spectral energy distributions. Only 7 out of 29 resolved mm cores (and 16 out of the 26 unresolved ones) do not exhibit signposts of star formation activity. The other ones are clearly associated with: far-IR sources, H_2 jets or near-IR objects showing a high intrinsic colour excess. The distribution of the spectral indices pertaining to the associated sources is peaked at values typical of Class I objects, while three objects are signalled as candidates Class 0 sources. We remark the high detection rate (30%) of H_2 jets driven by sources located inside the mm-cores. They appear not driven by the most luminous objects in the field, but rather by less luminous objects in young clusters, testifying the co-existence of both low- and intermediate-mass star formation. The presented results reliably describe the young population of VMR-D. However, the statistical evaluation of activity vs inactivity of the investigated cores, even in good agreement with results found for other star forming regions, seems to reflect the limiting sensitivity of the available facilities rather than any property intrinsic to the mm-condensations.
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The Balloon-borne Large-Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) carried out a 250, 350 and 500 micron survey of the galactic plane encompassing the Vela Molecular Ridge, with the primary goal of identifying the coldest dense cores possibly associated with the earliest stages of star formation. Here we present the results from observations of the Vela-D region, covering about 4 square degrees, in which we find 141 BLAST cores. We exploit existing data taken with the Spitzer MIPS, IRAC and SEST-SIMBA instruments to constrain their (single-temperature) spectral energy distributions, assuming a dust emissivity index beta = 2.0. This combination of data allows us to determine the temperature, luminosity and mass of each BLAST core, and also enables us to separate starless from proto-stellar sources. We also analyze the effects that the uncertainties on the derived physical parameters of the individual sources have on the overall physical properties of starless and proto-stellar cores, and we find that there appear to be a smooth transition from the pre- to the proto-stellar phase. In particular, for proto-stellar cores we find a correlation between the MIPS24 flux, associated with the central protostar, and the temperature of the dust envelope. We also find that the core mass function of the Vela-D cores has a slope consistent with other similar (sub)millimeter surveys.
The Vela Molecular Ridge is one of the nearest intermediate-mass star forming regions, located within the galactic plane and outside the solar circle. Cloud D, in particular, hosts a number of small embedded young clusters. We present the results of a large-scale map in the dust continuum at 1.2 mm of a ~ 1deg x 1deg area within cloud D. The main aim of the observations was to obtain a complete census of cluster-forming cores and isolated (both high- and low-mass) young stellar objects in early evolutionary phases. The bolometer array SIMBA at SEST was used to map the dust emission in the region with a typical sensitivity of ~ 20 mJy/beam. This allows a mass sensitivity of ~ 0.2 Msun. The resolution is 24 arcsec, corresponding to ~ 0.08 pc, roughly the radius of a typical young embedded cluster in the region. The continuum map is also compared to a large scale map of CO(1-0) integrated emission. Using the CLUMPFIND algorithm, a robust sample of 29 cores has been obtained, spanning the size range 0.03 - 0.25 pc and the mass range 0.4 - 88 Msun. The most massive cores are associated both with red IRAS sources and with embedded young clusters, and coincide with CO(1-0) integrated emission peaks. The cores are distributed according to a mass spectrum ~ M^{-alpha} and a mass-versus-size relation ~ D^{x}, with alpha ~ 1.45 - 1.9 and x ~ 1.1 - 1.7. They appear to originate in the fragmentation of gas filaments seen in CO(1-0) emission and their formation is probably induced by expanding shells of gas. The core mass spectrum is flatter than the Initial Mass Function of the associated clusters in the same mass range, suggesting further fragmentation within the most massive cores. A threshold A_V ~ 12 mag seems to be required for the onset of star formation in the gas.
We investigate the young stellar population in the Vela Molecular Ridge, Cloud-D (VMR-D), a star forming (SF) region observed by both Spitzer/NASA and Herschel/ESA space telescope. The point source, band-merged, Spitzer-IRAC catalog complemented with MIPS photometry previously obtained is used to search for candidate young stellar objects (YSO), also including sources detected in less than four IRAC bands. Bona fide YSO are selected by using appropriate color-color and color-magnitude criteria aimed to exclude both Galatic and extragalactic contaminants. The derived star formation rate and efficiency are compared with the same quantities characterizing other SF clouds. Additional photometric data, spanning from the near-IR to the submillimeter, are used to evaluate both bolometric luminosity and temperature for 33 YSOs located in a region of the cloud observed by both Spitzer and Herschel. The luminosity-temperature diagram suggests that some of these sources are representative of Class 0 objects with bolometric temperatures below 70 K and luminosities of the order of the solar luminosity. Far IR observations from the Herschel/Hi-GAL key project for a survey of the Galactic plane are also used to obtain a band-merged photometric catalog of Herschel sources aimed to independently search for protostars. We find 122 Herschel cores located on the molecular cloud, 30 of which are protostellar and 92 starless. The global protostellar luminosity function is obtained by merging the Spitzer and Herschel protostars. Considering that 10 protostars are found in both Spitzer and Herschel list it follows that in the investigated region we find 53 protostars and that the Spitzer selected protostars account for approximately two-thirds of the total.
Context The Vela Molecular Ridge is one of the nearest (700 pc) giant molecular cloud (GMC) complexes hosting intermediate-mass (up to early B, late O stars) star formation, and is located in the outer Galaxy, inside the Galactic plane. Vela C is one of the GMCs making up the Vela Molecular Ridge, and exhibits both sub-regions of robust and sub-regions of more quiescent star formation activity, with both low- and intermediate(high)-mass star formation in progress. Aims We aim to study the individual and global properties of dense dust cores in Vela C, and aim to search for spatial variations in these properties which could be related to different environmental properties and/or evolutionary stages in the various sub-regions of Vela C. Methods We mapped the submillimetre (345 GHz) emission from vela C with LABOCA (beam size 19.2, spatial resolution ~0.07 pc at 700 pc) at the APEX telescope. We used the clump-finding algorithm CuTEx to identify the compact submillimetre sources. We also used SIMBA (250 GHz) observations, and Herschel and WISE ancillary data. The association with WISE red sources allowed the protostellar and starless cores to be separated, whereas the Herschel dataset allowed the dust temperature to be derived for a fraction of cores. The protostellar and starless core mass functions (CMFs) were constructed following two different approaches, achieving a mass completeness limit of 3.7 Msun. Results We retrieved 549 submillimetre cores, 316 of which are starless and mostly gravitationally bound (therefore prestellar in nature). Both the protostellar and the starless CMFs are consistent with the shape of a Salpeter initial mass function in the high-mass part of the distribution. Clustering of cores at scales of 1--6 pc is also found, hinting at fractionation of magnetised, turbulent gas.
We present deep near-infrared (J, H, Ks) images toward an embedded cluster which lies in a C18O clump in the cloud C of the Vela Molecular Ridge. This cluster has at least ~ 350 members and a radius of ~ 0.5 pc. The stellar surface number density is approximately 3000 stars pc^-2 in the central 0.1 pc x 0.1 pc region of the cluster. This is much higher than most of the young clusters within 1 kpc of the Sun. From the comparison of the luminosity function and near-infrared excess fraction with those of other embedded clusters, we estimate that the age of this cluster is approximately 2-3 Myr. This cluster exhibits an excess of brighter stars in its central region, from which we conclude that the more massive stars are located near the cluster center.
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