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A Tale of Three Cities: OmegaCAM discovers multiple sequences in the color-magnitude diagram of the Orion Nebula Cluster

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 نشر من قبل Giacomo Beccari
 تاريخ النشر 2017
  مجال البحث فيزياء
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As part of the Accretion Discs in H$alpha$ with OmegaCAM (ADHOC) survey, we imaged in r, i and H-alpha a region of 12x8 square degrees around the Orion Nebula Cluster. Thanks to the high-quality photometry obtained, we discovered three well-separated pre-main sequences in the color-magnitude diagram. The populations are all concentrated towards the clusters center. Although several explanations can be invoked to explain these sequences we are left with two competitive, but intriguing, scenarios: a population of unresolved binaries with an exotic mass ratio distribution or three populations with different ages. Independent high-resolution spectroscopy supports the presence of discrete episodes of star formation, each separated by about a million years. The stars from the two putative youngest populations rotate faster than the older ones, in agreement with the evolution of stellar rotation observed in pre-main sequence stars younger than 4 Myr in several star forming regions. Whatever the final explanation, our results prompt for a revised look at the formation mode and early evolution of stars in clusters.



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The high-quality OmegaCAM photometry of the 3x3 deg around the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) in r, and i filters by Beccari et al.(2017) revealed three well-separated pre-main sequences in the color-magnitude diagram (CMD). The objects belonging to the individual sequences are concentrated towards the center of the ONC. The authors concluded that there are two competitive scenarios: a population of unresolved binaries and triples with an exotic mass ratio distribution, or three stellar populations with different ages. We use Gaia DR2 in combination with the photometric OmegaCAM catalog to test and confirm the presence of the putative three stellar populations. We also study multiple stellar systems in the ONC for the first time using Gaia DR2. We confirm that the second and third sequence members are more centrally concentrated towards the center of the ONC. In addition we find an indication that the parallax and proper motion distributions are different among the members of the stellar sequences. The age difference among stellar populations is estimated to be 1-2 Myr. We use Gaia measurements to identify and remove as many unresolved multiple system candidates as possible. Nevertheless we are still able to recover two well-separated sequences with evidence for the third one, supporting the existence of the three stellar populations. We were able to identify a substantial number of wide binary objects (separation between 1000-3000 au). This challenges previously inferred values that suggested no wide binary stars exist in the ONC. Our inferred wide-binary fraction is approx 5%. We confirm the three populations correspond to three separated episodes of star formation. Based on this result, we conclude that star formation is not happening in a single burst in this region. (abridged)
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