We present observations of the Auriga-California Molecular Cloud (AMC) at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, 24, 70 and 160 micron observed with the IRAC and MIPS detectors as part of the Spitzer Gould Belt Legacy Survey. The total mapped areas are 2.5 sq-deg with
IRAC and 10.47 sq-deg with MIPS. This giant molecular cloud is one of two in the nearby Gould Belt of star-forming regions, the other being the Orion A Molecular Cloud (OMC). We compare source counts, colors and magnitudes in our observed region to a subset of the SWIRE data that was processed through our pipeline. Using color-magnitude and color-color diagrams, we find evidence for a substantial population of 166 young stellar objects (YSOs) in the cloud, many of which were previously unknown. Most of this population is concentrated around the LkHalpha 101 cluster and the filament extending from it. We present a quantitative description of the degree of clustering and discuss the fraction of YSOs in the region with disks relative to an estimate of the diskless YSO population. Although the AMC is similar in mass, size and distance to the OMC, it is forming about 15 - 20 times fewer stars.
Main sequence stars, like the Sun, are often found to be orbited by circumstellar material that can be categorized into two groups, planets and debris. The latter is made up of asteroids and comets, as well as the dust and gas derived from them, whic
h makes debris disks observable in thermal emission or scattered light. These disks may persist over Gyrs through steady-state evolution and/or may also experience sporadic stirring and major collisional breakups, rendering them atypically bright for brief periods of time. Most interestingly, they provide direct evidence that the physical processes (whatever they may be) that act to build large oligarchs from micron-sized dust grains in protoplanetary disks have been successful in a given system, at least to the extent of building up a significant planetesimal population comparable to that seen in the Solar Systems asteroid and Kuiper belts. Such systems are prime candidates to host even larger planetary bodies as well. The recent growth in interest in debris disks has been driven by observational work that has provided statistics, resolved images, detection of gas in debris disks, and discoveries of new classes of objects. The interpretation of this vast and expanding dataset has necessitated significant advances in debris disk theory, notably in the physics of dust produced in collisional cascades and in the interaction of debris with planets. Application of this theory has led to the realization that such observations provide a powerful diagnostic that can be used not only to refine our understanding of debris disk physics, but also to challenge our understanding of how planetary systems form and evolve.
We present Herschel far-infrared and submillimeter maps of the debris disk associated with the HR 8799 planetary system. We resolve the outer disk emission at 70, 100, 160 and 250 um and detect the disk at 350 and 500 um. A smooth model explains the
observed disk emission well. We observe no obvious clumps or asymmetries associated with the trapping of planetesimals that is a potential consequence of planetary migration in the system. We estimate that the disk eccentricity must be <0.1. As in previous work by Su et al. (2009), we find a disk with three components: a warm inner component and two outer components, a planetesimal belt extending from 100 - 310 AU, with some flexibility (+/- 10 AU) on the inner edge, and the external halo which extends to ~2000 AU. We measure the disk inclination to be 26 +/- 3 deg from face-on at a position angle of 64 deg E of N, establishing that the disk is coplanar with the star and planets. The SED of the disk is well fit by blackbody grains whose semi-major axes lie within the planetesimal belt, suggesting an absence of small grains. The wavelength at which the spectrum steepens from blackbody, 47 +/- 30 um, however, is short compared to other A star debris disks, suggesting that there are atypically small grains likely populating the halo. The PACS longer wavelength data yield a lower disk color temperature than do MIPS data (24 and 70 um), implying two distinct halo dust grain populations.
The Hertz and SCUBA polarimeters, working at 350 micron and 850 micron respectively, have measured the polarized emission in scores of Galactic clouds. Of the clouds in each dataset, 17 were mapped by both instruments with good polarization signal-to
-noise ratios. We present maps of each of these 17 clouds comparing the dual-wavelength polarization amplitudes and position angles at the same spatial locations. In total number of clouds compared, this is a four-fold increase over previous work. Across the entire data-set real position angle differences are seen between wavelengths. While the distribution of phi(850)-phi(350) is centered near zero (near-equal angles), 64% of data points with high polarization signal-to-noise (P >= 3sigma_p) have |phi(850)-phi(350)| > 10 degrees. Of those data with small changes in position angle (<= 10 degrees) the median ratio of the polarization amplitudes is P(850)/P(350) = 1.7 +/- 0.6. This value is consistent with previous work performed on smaller samples and models which require mixtures of different grain properties and polarization efficiencies. Along with the polarization data we have also compiled the intensity data at both wavelengths; we find a trend of decreasing polarization with increasing 850-to-350 micron intensity ratio. All the polarization and intensity data presented here (1699 points in total) are available in electronic format.
Observations of outflows associated with pre-main-sequence stars reveal details about morphology, binarity and evolutionary states of young stellar objects. We present molecular line data from the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association array and Five
Colleges Radio Astronomical Observatory toward the regions containing the Herbig Ae/Be stars LkHa 198 and LkHa 225S. Single dish observations of 12CO 1-0, 13CO 1-0, N2H+ 1-0 and CS 2-1 were made over a field of 4.3 x 4.3 for each species. 12CO data from FCRAO were combined with high resolution BIMA array data to achieve a naturally-weighted synthesized beam of 6.75 x 5.5 toward LkHa 198 and 5.7 x 3.95 toward LkHa 225S, representing resolution improvements of factors of approximately 10 and 5 over existing data. By using uniform weighting, we achieved another factor of two improvement. The outflow around LkHa 198 resolves into at least four outflows, none of which are centered on LkHa 198-IR, but even at our resolution, we cannot exclude the possibility of an outflow associated with this source. In the LkHa 225S region, we find evidence for two outflows associated with LkHa 225S itself and a third outflow is likely driven by this source. Identification of the driving sources is still resolution-limited and is also complicated by the presence of three clouds along the line of sight toward the Cygnus molecular cloud. 13CO is present in the environments of both stars along with cold, dense gas as traced by CS and (in LkHa 225S) N2H+. No 2.6 mm continuum is detected in either region in relatively shallow maps compared to existing continuum observations.
