177 research outputs found
A Study of starless dark cloud LDN 1570: Distance, Dust properties and Magnetic field geometry
We wish to map the magnetic field geometry and to study the dust properties
of the starless cloud, L1570, using multi-wavelength optical polarimetry and
photometry of the stars projected on the cloud. We made R-band imaging
polarimetry of the stars projected on a cloud, L1570, to trace the magnetic
field orientation. We also made multi-wavelength polarimetric and photometric
observations to constrain the properties of dust in L1570. We estimated a
distance of 394 +/- 70 pc to the cloud using 2MASS JHKs colours. Using the
values of the Serkowski parameters namely , ,
{\lambda}max and the position of the stars on near infrared color-color
diagram, we identified 13 stars that could possibly have intrinsic polarization
and/or rotation in their polarization angles. One star, 2MASS
J06075075+1934177, which is a B4Ve spectral type, show the presence of diffuse
interstellar bands in the spectrum apart from showing H{\alpha} line in
emission. There is an indication for the presence of slightly bigger dust
grains towards L1570 on the basis of the dust grain size-indicators such as
{\lambda}max and Rv values. The magnetic field lines are found to be parallel
to the cloud structures seen in the 250{\mu}m images (also in 8{\mu}m and
12{\mu}m shadow images) of L1570. Based on the magnetic field geometry, the
cloud structure and the complex velocity structure, we believe that L1570 is in
the process of formation due to the converging flow material mediated by the
magnetic field lines. Structure function analysis showed that in the L1570
cloud region the large scale magnetic fields are stronger when compared with
the turbulent component of magnetic fields. The estimated magnetic field
strengths suggest that the L1570 cloud region is sub-critical and hence could
be strongly supported by the magnetic field lines.Comment: 26 pages, 22 figures, and 7 tables; Accepted for its publication in
A&
Multi-wavelength Stellar Polarimetry of the Filamentary Cloud IC5146: I. Dust Properties
We present optical and near-infrared stellar polarization observations toward
the dark filamentary clouds associated with IC5146. The data allow us to
investigate the dust properties (this paper) and the magnetic field structure
(Paper II). A total of 2022 background stars were detected in -, -,
-, and/or -bands to mag. The ratio of the polarization
percentage at different wavelengths provides an estimate of ,
the wavelength of peak polarization, which is an indicator of the small-size
cutoff of the grain size distribution. The grain size distribution seems to
significantly change at 3 mag, where both the average and dispersion
of decrease. In addition, we found
0.6-0.9 m for mag, which is larger than the 0.55 m
in the general ISM, suggesting that grain growth has already started in low
regions. Our data also reveal that polarization efficiency (PE ) decreases with as a power-law in -, -, and
-bands with indices of -0.710.10, -1.230.10 and -0.530.09.
However, -band data show a power index change; the PE varies with
steeply (index of -0.950.30) when mag but softly
(index of -0.250.06) for greater values. The soft decay of PE in
high regions is consistent with the Radiative Aligned Torque model,
suggesting that our data trace the magnetic field to mag.
Furthermore, the breakpoint found in -band is similar to the where we
found the dispersion significantly decreased. Therefore, the
flat PE- in high regions implies that the power index changes result
from additional grain growth.Comment: 31 pages, 17 figures, and 3 tables; accepted for publication in Ap
Deep optical survey of the stellar content of Sh2-311 region
The stellar content in and around Sh2-311 region have been studied using the
deep optical observations as well as near-infrared (NIR) data from 2MASS. The
region contains three clusters, viz. NGC 2467, Haffner 18 and Haffner 19. We
have made an attempt to distinguish the stellar content of these individual
regions as well as to re-determine their fundamental parameters such as
distance, reddening, age, onto the basis of a new and more extended optical and
infrared photometric data set. NGC 2467 and Haffner 19 are found to be located
in the Perseus arm at the distances of 5.0 0.4 kpc and 5.7 0.4 kpc,
respectively, whereas Haffner 18 is located at the distance of 11.2 1.0
kpc. The clusters NGC 2467 and Haffner 19 might have formed from the same
molecular cloud, whereas the cluster Haffner 18 is located in the outer
galactic arm, i.e. the Norma-Cygnus arm. We identify 8 class II young stellar
objects (YSOs) using the NIR two colour diagram. We have
estimated the age and mass of the YSOs identified in the present work and those
by Snider et al. (2009) using the colour-magnitude diagram. The
estimated ages and mass range of the majority of the YSOs are 1 Myr
and 0.4 - 3.5 \msun, respectively, indicating that these sources could be
T-Tauri stars or their siblings. Spatial distribution of the YSOs shows that
some of the YSOs are distributed around the H II region Sh2-311, suggesting a
triggered star formation at its periphery.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, 9 table; Accepted for publication in New
Astronom
1.3 mm Polarized emission in the circumstellar disk of a massive protostar
We present the first resolved observations of the 1.3 mm polarized emission from the disk-like structure surrounding the high-mass protostar Cepheus A HW2. These CARMA data partially resolve the dust polarization, suggesting a uniform morphology of polarization vectors with an average position angle of 57° ± 6° and an average polarization fraction of 2.0% ± 0.4%. The distribution of the polarization vectors can be attributed to (1) the direct emission of magnetically aligned grains of dust by a uniform magnetic field, or (2) the pattern produced by the scattering of an inclined disk. We show that both models can explain the observations, and perhaps a combination of the two mechanisms produces the polarized emission. A third model including a toroidal magnetic field does not match the observations. Assuming scattering is the polarization mechanism, these observations suggest that during the first few 104 years of high-mass star formation, grain sizes can grow from1 mm to several 10s μm.Fil: Fernandez Lopez, Manuel. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comision de Investigaciones CientÃficas. Instituto Argentino de RadioastronomÃa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones CientÃficas y Técnicas. Centro CientÃfico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomia; ArgentinaFil: Stephens, I. W.. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Estados Unidos. Boston University; Estados Unidos. University of Illinois; Estados UnidosFil: Girart, J. M.. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Estados Unidos. Institut de Ciències de l’Espai; EspañaFil: Looney, L.. University of Illinois; Estados UnidosFil: Curiel, S.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Segura Cox, D.. University of Illinois; Estados UnidosFil: Eswaraiah, C.. National Tsing Hua University; República de ChinaFil: Lai, S. P.. National Tsing Hua University; República de Chin
Optical and Near-infrared survey of the stellar contents associated with the star-forming Complex Sh2-252
We present the analyses of the stellar contents associated with the HII
region Sh2-252 using UBVRI photometry, slit and slitless spectroscopy along
with the NIR data from 2MASS for an area ~1 degree x 1 degree. We studied the
sub-regions of Sh2-252 which includes four compact-HII (CHII) regions, namely
A, B, C and E and two clusters NGC 2175s and Teutsch 136 (Teu 136). Of the
fifteen spectroscopically observed bright stars, eight have been identified as
massive members of spectral class earlier than B3. From the spectro-photometric
analyses, we derived the average distance of the region as 2.4+/-0.2 kpc and
the reddening of the massive members is found to vary between 0.35 to 2.1 mag.
We found that NGC 2175s and Teu 136, located towards the eastern edge of the
complex are the sub-clusters of Sh2-252. The stellar surface density
distribution in K-band shows clustering associated with the regions A, C, E,
NGC 2175s and Teu 136. We have also identified the candidate ionizing sources
of the CHII regions. 61 H_alpha emission sources are identified using slitless
spectroscopy. The distribution of the H_alpha emission sources and candidate
YSOs with IR excess on the V/(V-I) CMD shows that a majority of them have
approximate ages between 0.1 - 5 Myr and masses in the range of 0.3 - 2.5
M_sun. The CMDs of the candidate YSOs in the individual regions also show an
age spread of 0.1 - 5 Myr for each of them. We calculated the KLFs for the
sub-regions A, C, E, NGC 2175s and Teu 136. Within errors, the KLFs for all the
sub-regions are found to be similar and comparable to that of young clusters of
age < 5 Myr. We also estimated the mass functions (MFs) of the PMS sample of
the individual regions in the mass range of 0.3 - 2.5 M_sun. In general, the
slopes of the MFs of all the sub-regions are found comparable to the Salpeter
value.Comment: published in MNRA
Young stellar population and ongoing star formation in the HII complex Sh2-252
In this paper an extensive survey of the star forming complex Sh2-252 has
been undertaken with an aim to explore its hidden young stellar population as
well as to understand the structure and star formation history. This complex is
composed of five embedded clusters associated with the sub-regions A, C, E, NGC
2175s and Teu 136. Using 2MASS-NIR and Spitzer-IRAC, MIPS photometry we
identified 577 young stellar objects (YSOs), of which, 163 are Class I, 400 are
Class II and 14 are transition disk YSOs. Spatial distribution of the candidate
YSOs shows that they are mostly clustered around the sub-regions in the western
half of the complex, suggesting enhanced star formation activity towards its
west. Using the spectral energy distribution and optical colour-magnitude
diagram based age analyses, we derived probable evolutionary status of the
sub-regions of Sh2-252. Our analysis shows that the region A is the youngest (~
0.5 Myr), the regions B, C and E are of similar evolutionary stage (~ 1-2 Myr)
and the clusters NGC 2175s and Teu 136 are slightly evolved (~ 2-3 Myr).
Morphology of the region in the 1.1 mm map shows a semi-circular shaped
molecular shell composed of several clumps and YSOs bordering the western
ionization front of Sh2-252. Our analyses suggest that next generation star
formation is currently under way along this border and that possibly
fragmentation of the matter collected during the expansion of the HII region as
one of the major processes responsible for such stars. We observed the densest
concentration of YSOs (mostly Class I, ~ 0.5 Myr) at the western outskirts of
the complex, within a molecular clump associated with water and methanol masers
and we suggest that it is indeed a site of cluster formation at a very early
evolutionary stage, sandwiched between the two relatively evolved CHII regions
A and B.Comment: 19 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
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