238 research outputs found
V1647 Orionis: Reinvigorated Accretion and the Re-Appearance of McNeil's Nebula
In late 2003, the young eruptive variable star V1647 Orionis optically
brightened by over 5 magnitudes, stayed bright for around 26 months, and then
decline to its pre-outburst level. In August 2008 the star was reported to have
unexpectedly brightened yet again and we herein present the first detailed
observations of this new outburst. Photometrically, the star is now as bright
as it ever was following the 2003 eruption. Spectroscopically, a pronounced P
Cygni profile is again seen in Halpha with an absorption trough extending to
-700 km/s. In the near-infrared, the spectrum now possesses very weak CO
overtone bandhead absorption in contrast to the strong bandhead emission seen
soon after the 2003 event. Water vapor absorption is also much stronger than
previously seen. We discuss the current outburst below and relate it to the
earlier event.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
A Catalog of Young Stellar Groups and Clusters Within 1kpc of the Sun
We present a catalog of near-infrared surveys of young (<= a few 10^6 yr)
stellar groups and clusters within 1 kpc from the Sun, based on an extensive
search of the literature from the past ten years. We find 143 surveys from 69
published articles, covering 73 different regions. The number distribution of
stars in a region has a median of 28 and a mean of 100. About 80% of the stars
are in clusters with at least 100 members. By a rough classification of the
groups and clusters based on the number of their associated stars, we show that
most of the stars form in large clusters. The spatial distribution of cataloged
regions in the Galactic plane shows a relative lack of observed stellar groups
and clusters in the range 270 deg < l < 60 deg of Galactic longitude,
reflecting our location between the Local and Sagittarius arms. This
compilation is intended as a useful resource for future studies of nearby young
regions of multiple star formation.Comment: 16 pages, 2 tables, 2 figures. To appear in Astronomical Journa
A Disk Shadow Around the Young Star ASR 41 in NGC 1333
We present images of the young stellar object ASR 41 in the NGC 1333 star
forming region at the wavelengths of H_alpha and [SII] and in the I, J, H, and
K-bands.
ASR 41 has the near-infrared morphology of an edge-on disk object, but
appears an order of magnitude larger than typical systems of this kind.
We also present detailed models of the scattering and radiative transfer in
systems consisting of a young star surrounded by a proto-planetary disk, and
the whole system being embedded in either an infalling envelope or a uniform
molecular cloud. The best fit to the observed morphology can be achieved with a
disk of approx. 200 AU diameter, immersed in a low density cloud. The low cloud
density is necessary to stay below the sub-mm flux upper limits and to preserve
the shadow cast by the disk via single scattering.
The results demonstrate that ASR 41 is probably not inherently different from
typical edge-on disk objects, and that its large apparent size is due to the
shadow of a much smaller disk being projected into the surrounding dusty
molecular material
The 3-Dimensional Structure of HH 32 from GMOS IFU Spetroscopy
We present new high resolution spectroscopic observations of the Herbig-Haro
object HH 32 from System Verification observations made with the GMOS IFU at
Gemini North Observatory. The 3D spectral data covers a 8''.7 x 5''.85 spatial
field and 4820 - 7040 Angstrom spectral region centered on the HH~32 A knot
complex. We show the position-dependent line profiles and radial velocity
channel maps of the Halpha line, as well as line ratio velocity channel maps of
[OIII]5007/Halpha, [OI]6300/Halpha, [NII]6583/Halpha, [SII](6716+6730)/Halpha
and [SII]6716/6730. We find that the line emission and the line ratios vary
significantly on spatial scales of ~1'' and over velocities of ~50 km/s. A
``3/2-D'' bow shock model is qualitatively successful at reproducing the
general features of the radial velocity channel maps, but it does not show the
same complexity as the data and it fails to reproduce the line ratios in our
high spatial resolution maps. The observations of HH 32 A show two or three
superimposed bow shocks with separations of ~3'', which we interpret as
evidence of a line of sight superposition of two or three working surfaces
located along the redshifted body of the HH 32 outflow.Comment: Accepted for Publication in the Astronomical Journal (January 2004
Circumstellar Disks in the IC 348 Cluster
We report the results of the first sensitive L-band (3.4 micron) imaging
survey of the young IC 348 cluster in Perseus. In conjunction with previously
acquired JHK (1.25, 1.65, 2.2 micron) observations, we use L-band data to
obtain a census of the circumstellar disk population to m_K=m_L<=12.0 in the
central 110 square arcmin region of the cluster. An analysis of the JHKL colors
of 107 sources indicates that 65% +/- 8% of the cluster membership possesses
(inner) disks. This fraction is lower than those (86% +/- 8% and 80% +/- 7%)
obtained from similar JHKL surveys of the younger NGC 2024 and Trapezium
clusters, suggesting that the disk fraction in clusters decreases with cluster
age. Sources with circumstellar disks in IC 348 have a median age of 0.9 Myr,
while the diskless sources have a median age of 1.4 Myr, for a cluster distance
of 320 pc. Although the difference in the median ages between the two
populations is only marginally significant, our results suggest that over a
timescale of 2 - 3 Myr, more than a third of the disks in the IC 348 cluster
disappear. Moreover, we find that at a very high confidence level, the disk
fraction is a function of spectral type. All stars earlier than G appear
diskless, while stars with spectral types G and later have a disk fraction
ranging between 50% - 67%, with the latest type stars having the higher disk
fraction. This suggests that the disks around stars with spectral types G and
earlier have evolved more rapidly than those with later spectral types. The
L-band disk fraction for sources with similar ages in both IC 348 and Taurus is
the same, within the errors, suggesting that, at least in clusters with no O
stars, the disk lifetime is independent of environment.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures. Paper to appear in April A
The COMPLETE Nature of the Warm Dust Ring in Perseus
The Perseus molecular cloud complex is a ~30pc long chain of molecular clouds
most well-known for the two star-forming clusters NGC1333 and IC348 and the
well-studied outflow source in B5. However, when studied at mid- to
far-infrared wavelengths the region is dominated by a ~10pc diameter shell of
warm dust, likely generated by an HII region caused by the early B-star
HD278942. Using a revised calibration technique the COMPLETE team has produced
high-sensitivity temperature and column-density maps of the Perseus region from
IRAS Sky Survey Atlas (ISSA) 60 and 100um data. In this paper, we combine the
ISSA based dust-emission maps with other observations collected as part of the
COMPLETE Survey, along with archival H-alpha and MSX observations. Molecular
line observations from FCRAO and extinction maps constructed by applying the
NICER method to the 2MASS catalog provide independent estimates of the ``true''
column-density of the shell. H-alpha emission in the region of the shell
confirms that it is most likely an HII region located behind the cloud complex,
and 8um data from MSX indicates that the shell may be interacting with the
cloud. Finally, the two polarisation components previously seen towards
background stars in the region can be explained by the association of the
stronger component with the shell. If confirmed, this would be the first
observation of a parsec-scale swept-up magnetic field.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. Figures have been compressed - full resolution
version available at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/COMPLETE/results.htm
Turbulence driven by outflow-blown cavities in the molecular cloud of NGC 1333
Outflows from young stellar objects have been identified as a possible source
of turbulence in molecular clouds. To investigate the relationship between
outflows, cloud dynamics and turbulence, we compare the kinematics of the
molecular gas associated with NGC 1333, traced in 13CO(1-0), with the
distribution of young stellar objects (YSOs) within. We find a velocity
dispersion of ~ 1-1.6 km/s in 13CO that does not significantly vary across the
cloud, and is uncorrelated with the number of nearby young stellar outflows
identified from optical and submillimeter observations. However, from velocity
channel maps we identify about 20 cavities or depressions in the 13CO intensity
of scales > 0.1-0.2 pc and velocity widths 1-3 km/s. The cavities exhibit limb
brightened rims in both individual velocity channel maps and position velocity
diagrams, suggesting that they are slowly expanding. We interpret these
cavities to be remnants of past YSO outflow activity: If these cavities are
presently empty, they would fill in on time scales of a million years. This can
exceed the lifetime of a YSO outflow phase, or the transit time of the central
star through the cavity, explaining the the absence of any clear correlation
between the cavities and YSO outflows. We find that the momentum and energy
deposition associated with the expansion of the cavities is sufficient to power
the turbulence in the cloud. In this way we conclude that the cavities are an
important intermediary step between the conversion of YSO outflow energy and
momentum into cloud turbulent motions.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. Check out
http://astro.pas.rochester.edu/~aquillen/coolpics.html for channel map and
PosVel movies of N133
V2494 cyg: A unique FU ori type object in the cygnus OB7 complex
A photometric and spectral study of the variable star V2494 Cyg in the L 1003 dark cloud is presented. The brightness of the star, formerly known as HH 381 IRS, increased by 2.5 mag in R (probably in the 1980s) and since then has remained nearly constant. Since the brightness increase, V2494 Cyg has illuminated a bipolar cometary nebula. The stellar spectrum has several features typical of the FU Ori (FUor) type, plus it exhibits very strong Ha and forbidden emissionlines with high-velocity components. These emission lines originate in the Herbig-Haro (HH) jet near the star. The kinematic age of the jet is consistent with it forming at the time of the outburst leading to the luminosity increase. V2494 Cyg also produces a rather extended outflow; it is the first known FUor with both an observed outburst and a parsec-sized HH flow. The nebula, illuminated by V2494 Cyg, possesses similar morphological and spectral characteristics to Hubble's variable nebula (R Monocerotis/NGC 2261). © 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
2MASS Observations of the Perseus, Orion A, Orion B, and Monoceros R2 Molecular Clouds
We use the 2MASS Second Incremental Release Point Source Catalog to
investigate the spatial distribution of young stars in the Perseus, Orion A,
Orion B, and MonR2 molecular clouds. After subtracting a semi-empirical model
of the field star contamination from the observed star counts, stellar surface
density maps are used to identify compact clusters and any stellar population
found more uniformly distributed over the molecular cloud. Each cloud contains
between 2 to 7 clusters, with at least half of the cluster population found in
a single, rich cluster. In addition, a distributed stellar population is
inferred in the Orion A and MonR2 molecular clouds within the uncertainties of
the field star subtraction with a surface density between 0.013 - 0.083
arcmin**-2. The fraction of the total stellar population contained in clusters
for the nominal extinction model ranges from ~50-100% if the distributed
population is relatively young (< 10 Myr), to ~25%-70% if it is relatively old
(~100 Myr). The relatively high fraction of stars contained in clusters
regardless of the age of the distributed population, in conjunction with the
young ages generally inferred for embedded clusters in nearby molecular clouds,
indicates that a substantial fraction of the total stellar population in these
regions has formed within the past few million years in dense clusters. This
suggests that either the star formation rate in each these clouds has recently
peaked if one assumes clouds have ages > 10 Myr, or molecular clouds are
younger than typically thought if one assumes that the star formation rate has
been approximately constant in time.Comment: to appear in AJ, December 2000; see also
http://astro.caltech.edu/~jmc/papers/2mass_cloud
Spitzer Observations of NGC 1333: A Study of Structure and Evolution in a Nearby Embedded Cluster
We present a comprehensive analysis of structure in the young, embedded
cluster, NGC 1333 using members identified with Spitzer and 2MASS photometry
based on their IR-excess emission. In total, 137 members are identified in this
way, composed of 39 protostars and 98 more evolved pre-main sequence stars with
disks. Of the latter class, four are transition/debris disk candidates. The
fraction of exposed pre-main sequence stars with disks is 83% +/- 11%, showing
that there is a measurable diskless pre-main sequence population. The sources
in each of the Class I and Class II evolutionary states are shown to have very
different spatial distributions relative to the distribution of the dense gas
in their natal cloud. However, the distribution of nearest neighbor spacings
among these two groups of sources are found to be quite similar, with a strong
peak at spacings of 0.045 pc. Radial and azimuthal density profiles and surface
density maps computed from the identified YSOs show that NGC 1333 is elongated
and not strongly centrally concentrated, confirming previous claims in the
literature. We interpret these new results as signs of a low velocity
dispersion, extremely young cluster that is not in virial equilibrium.Comment: 59 pages, 20 figures, accepted to ApJ, verion with full resolution
figures available at
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~rgutermuth/preprints/gutermuth_ngc1333.pdf .
Updated to fix astro-ph figure garblin
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