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Register a new userNear-Infrared Variability in the Orion Nebula Cluster
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Using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope on Mauna Kea, we have carried out a new near-infrared J, H, K monitoring survey of almost a square degree of the star-forming Orion Nebula Cluster with observations on 120 nights over three observing seasons, spanning a total of 894 days. We monitored ~15,000 stars down to J=20 using the WFCAM instrument, and have extracted 1203 significantly variable stars from our data. By studying variability in young stellar objects (YSOs) in the H-K, K color-magnitude diagram, we are able to distinguish between physical mechanisms of variability. Many variables show color behavior indicating either dust-extinction or disk/accretion activity, but we find that when monitored for longer periods of time, a number of stars shift between these two variability mechanisms. Further, we show that the intrinsic timescale of disk/accretion variability in young stars is longer than that of dust-extinction variability. We confirm that variability amplitude is statistically correlated with evolutionary class in all bands and colors. Our investigations of these 1203 variables have revealed 73 periodic AA Tau type variables, many large-amplitude and long-period (P > 15 day) YSOs, including three stars showing widely-spaced periodic brightening events consistent with circumbinary disk activity, and four new eclipsing binaries. These phenomena and others indicate the activity of long-term disk/accretion variability processes taking place in young stars. We have made the light curves and associated data for these 1203 variables available online.
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Large organic molecules and carbon clusters are basic building blocks of life, but their existence in the universe has not been confirmed beyond doubt. A number of unidentified absorption features (arising in the diffuse inter-stellar medium), usually called ``Diffuse Inter-stellar Bands (DIBs), are hypothesized to be produced by large molecules. Among these, buckminsterfullerene C_60 has gained much attention as a candidate for DIB absorbers because of its high stability in space. Two DIBs at ~9577A and 9632A have been reported as possible features of C_60^+. However, it is still not clear how their existence depends on their environment. We obtained high-resolution spectra of three stars in/around the Orion Nebula, to search for any correlations of the DIB strength with carriers physical conditions, such as dust-abundance and UV radiation field. We find three DIBs at ~9017A, 9210A, and 9258A as additional C_60^+ feature candidates, which could support this identification. These DIBs have asymmetric profiles similar to the longer wavelength features. However, we also find that the relative strengths of DIBs are close to unity and differ from laboratory measurements, a similar trend as noticed for the 9577/9632 DIBs.
Wide-field (~8 x 8) and deep near-infrared (JHKs bands) polarization images of the Orion nebulae (IRNe) around young stellar objects (YSOs), both massive and low-mass. We found the IRNe around both IRc2 and BN to be very extensive, suggesting that there might be two extended (>0.7 pc) bipolar/monopolar IRNe in these sources. We discovered at least 13 smaller-scale (~0.01-0.1 pc) IRNe around less-massive YSOs including the famous source theta^2 Ori C. We also suggest the presence of many unresolved (<690 AU) systems around low-mass YSOs and young brown dwarfs showing possible intrinsic polarizations. Wide-field infrared polarimetry is thus demonstrated to be a powerful technique in revealing IRNe and hence potential disk/outflow systems among high-mass to substellar YSOs.
We present a deep centimeter-wavelength catalog of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), based on a 30h single-pointing observation with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in its high-resolution A-configuration using two 1 GHz bands centered at 4.7 GHz and 7.3 GHz. A total of 556 compact sources were detected in a map with a nominal rms noise of 3 muJy/bm, limited by complex source structure and the primary beam response. Compared to previous catalogs, our detections increase the sample of known compact radio sources in the ONC by more than a factor of seven. The new data show complex emission on a wide range of spatial scales. Following a preliminary correction for the wideband primary-beam response, we determine radio spectral indices for 170 sources whose index uncertainties are less than +/-0.5. We compare the radio to the X-ray and near-infrared point-source populations, noting similarities and differences.
We report new spectral types or spectral classification constraints for over 600 stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) based on medium resolution R~ 1500-2000 red optical spectra acquired using the Palomar 200 and Kitt Peak 3.5m telescopes. Spectral types were initially estimated for F, G, and early K stars from atomic line indices while for late K and M stars, constituting the majority of our sample, indices involving TiO and VO bands were used. To ensure proper classification, particularly for reddened, veiled, or nebula-contaminated stars, all spectra were then visually examined for type verification or refinement. We provide an updated spectral type table that supersedes Hillenbrand (1997), increasing the percentage of optically visible ONC stars with spectral type information from 68% to 90%. However, for many objects, repeated observations have failed to yield spectral types primarily due to the challenges of adequate sky subtraction against a bright and spatially variable nebular background. The scatter between our new and our previously determined spectral types is approximately 2 spectral sub-classes. We also compare our grating spectroscopy results with classification based on narrow-band TiO filter photometry from Da Rio et al. (2012, finding similar scatter. While the challenges of working in the ONC may explain much of the spread, we highlight several stars showing significant and unexplained bona fide spectral variations in observations taken several years apart; these and similar cases could be due to a combination of accretion and extinction changes. Finally, nearly 20% of ONC stars exhibit obvious Ca II triplet emission indicative of strong accretion.
We present results from an Halpha emission-line survey in a one square degree area centered on the Orion Nebula Cluster, obtained with the Wide Field Grism Spectrograph-2 on the 2.2-meter telescope of the University of Hawaii. We identified 587 stars with Halpha emission, 99 of which, located mainly in the outer regions of the observed area, have not appeared in previous Halpha surveys. We determined the equivalent width (EW) of the line, and based on it classified 372 stars as classical T Tauri stars (CTTS) and 187 as weak line T Tauri stars (WTTS). Simultaneous r, i photometry indicates a limiting magnitude of r ~ 20 mag, but the sample is incomplete at r > 17 mag. The surface distribution of the Halpha emission stars reveals a clustered and a dispersed population, the former consisting of younger and more massive young stars than the latter. Comparison of the derived EWs with those found in the literature indicates variability of the Halpha line. We found that the typical amplitudes of the variability are not greater than a factor 2-3 in the most cases. We identified a subgroup of low-EW stars with infrared signatures indicative of optically thick accretion disks. We studied the correlations between the equivalent width and other properties of the stars. Based on literature data we examined several properties of our CTTS and WTTS subsamples and found significant differences in mid-infrared color indices, average rotational periods, and spectral energy distribution characteristics of the subsamples.
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