2,693 research outputs found
The Initial Mass Function of the Orion Nebula Cluster across the H-burning limit
We present a new census of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) over a large field
of view (>30'x30'), significantly increasing the known population of stellar
and substellar cluster members with precisely determined properties. We develop
and exploit a technique to determine stellar effective temperatures from
optical colors, nearly doubling the previously available number of objects with
effective temperature determinations in this benchmark cluster. Our technique
utilizes colors from deep photometry in the I-band and in two medium-band
filters at lambda~753 and 770nm, which accurately measure the depth of a
molecular feature present in the spectra of cool stars. From these colors we
can derive effective temperatures with a precision corresponding to better than
one-half spectral subtype, and importantly this precision is independent of the
extinction to the individual stars. Also, because this technique utilizes only
photometry redward of 750nm, the results are only mildly sensitive to optical
veiling produced by accretion. Completing our census with previously available
data, we place some 1750 sources in the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram and assign
masses and ages down to 0.02 solar masses. At faint luminosities, we detect a
large population of background sources which is easily separated in our
photometry from the bona fide cluster members. The resulting initial mass
function of the cluster has good completeness well into the substellar mass
range, and we find that it declines steeply with decreasing mass. This suggests
a deficiency of newly formed brown dwarfs in the cluster compared to the
Galactic disk population.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
HST measures of Mass Accretion Rates in the Orion Nebula Cluster
The present observational understanding of the evolution of the mass
accretion rates (Macc) in pre-main sequence stars is limited by the lack of
accurate measurements of Macc over homogeneous and large statistical samples of
young stars. Such observational effort is needed to properly constrain the
theory of star formation and disk evolution. Based on HST/WFPC2 observations,
we present a study of Macc for a sample of \sim 700 sources in the Orion Nebula
Cluster, ranging from the Hydrogen-burning limit to M\ast \sim 2M\odot. We
derive Macc from both the U-band excess and the H{\alpha} luminosity
(LH{\alpha}), after determining empirically both the shape of the typical
accretion spectrum across the Balmer jump and the relation between the
accretion luminosity (Lacc) and LH{\alpha}, that is Lacc/L\odot =
(1.31\pm0.03)\cdotLH{\alpha}/L\odot + (2.63\pm 0.13). Given our large
statistical sample, we are able to accurately investigate relations between
Macc and the parameters of the central star such as mass and age. We clearly
find Macc to increase with stellar mass, and decrease over evolutionary time,
but we also find strong evidence that the decay of Macc with stellar age occurs
over longer timescales for more massive PMS stars. Our best fit relation
between these parameters is given by: log(Macc/M\odot\cdotyr)=(-5.12 \pm 0.86)
-(0.46 \pm 0.13) \cdot log(t/yr) -(5.75 \pm 1.47)\cdot log(M\ast/M\odot) +
(1.17 \pm 0.23)\cdot log(t/yr) \cdot log(M\ast/M\odot). These results also
suggest that the similarity solution model could be revised for sources with
M\ast > 0.5M\odot. Finally, we do not find a clear trend indicating
environmental effects on the accretion properties of the sources.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
A New Method for the Assessment of Age and Age-Spread of Pre-Main Sequence Stars in Young Stellar Associations of the Magellanic Clouds
We present a new method for the evaluation of the age and age-spread among
pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars in star-forming regions in the Magellanic Clouds,
accounting simultaneously for photometric errors, unresolved binarity,
differential extinction, stellar variability, accretion and crowding. The
application of the method is performed with the statistical construction of
synthetic color-magnitude diagrams using PMS evolutionary models. We convert
each isochrone into 2D probability distributions of artificial PMS stars in the
CMD by applying the aforementioned biases that dislocate these stars from their
original CMD positions. A maximum-likelihood technique is then applied to
derive the probability for each observed star to have a certain age, as well as
the best age for the entire cluster. We apply our method to the photometric
catalog of ~2000 PMS stars in the young association LH 95 in the LMC, based on
the deepest HST/ACS imaging ever performed toward this galaxy, with a detection
limit of V~28, corresponding to M~0.2 Msun. Our treatment shows that the age
determination is very sensitive to the considered grid of evolutionary models
and the assumed binary fraction. The age of LH 95 is found to vary from 2.8 Myr
to 4.4 Myr, depending on these factors. Our analysis allows us to disentangle a
real age-spread from the apparent CMD-broadening caused by the physical and
observational biases. We find that LH 95 hosts an age-spread well represented
by a gaussian distribution with a FWHM of the order of 2.8 Myr to 4.2 Myr
depending on the model and binary fraction. We detect a dependence of the
average age of the system with stellar mass. This dependence does not appear to
have any physical meaning, being rather due to imperfections of the PMS
evolutionary models, which tend to predict lower ages for the intermediate
masses, and higher ages for low-mass stars.Comment: 19 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication by the Astrophysical
Journa
Quantitative Evidence for an Intrinsic Age Spread in the Orion Nebula Cluster
Aims. We present a study of the distribution of stellar ages in the Orion
Nebula Cluster (ONC) based on accurate HST photometry taken from the HST
Treasury Program observations of the ONC utilizing the most recent estimate of
the cluster's distance (Menten et al. 2007). We investigate the presence of an
intrinsic age spread in the region and a possible trend of age with the spatial
distribution. Methods. We estimate the extinction and accretion luminosity
towards each source by performing synthetic photometry on an empirical
calibration of atmospheric models (Da Rio et al. 2010) using the package
Chorizos (Maiz-Apellaniz 2004). The position of the sources in the HR-diagram
is compared with different theoretical isochrones to estimate the mean cluster
age and age dispersion. Through Monte Carlo simulations we quantify the amount
of intrinsic age spread in the region, taking into account uncertainties on the
distance, spectral type, extinction, unresolved binaries, accretion and
photometric variability. Results. According to Siess et al. (2000) evolutionary
models the mean age of the Cluster is 2.2 Myr with a scatter of few Myrs. With
Monte Carlo simulations we find that the observed age spread is inconsistent
with a coeval stellar population, but is in agreement with a star formation
activity between 1.5 and 3.5 Myrs. We also observe light evidence for a trend
of ages with spatial distribution.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
Common methods of valuation in Brazil
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/96896/1/MBA_Ferreira_Rogerio_Fall_1998final.pd
IN-SYNC. VIII. Primordial Disk Frequencies in NGC 1333, IC 348, and the Orion A Molecular Cloud
In this paper, we address two issues related to primordial disk evolution in
three clusters (NGC 1333, IC 348, and Orion A) observed by the INfrared Spectra
of Young Nebulous Clusters (IN-SYNC) project. First, in each cluster, averaged
over the spread of age, we investigate how disk lifetime is dependent on
stellar mass. The general relation in IC 348 and Orion A is that primordial
disks around intermediate mass stars (2--5) evolve faster than those
around loss mass stars (0.1--1), which is consistent with previous
results. However, considering only low mass stars, we do not find a significant
dependence of disk frequency on stellar mass. These results can help to better
constrain theories on gas giant planet formation timescales. Secondly, in the
Orion A molecular cloud, in the mass range of 0.35--0.7, we provide
the most robust evidence to date for disk evolution within a single cluster
exhibiting modest age spread. By using surface gravity as an age indicator and
employing 4.5 excess as a primordial disk diagnostic, we observe a
trend of decreasing disk frequency for older stars. The detection of
intra-cluster disk evolution in NGC 1333 and IC 348 is tentative, since the
slight decrease of disk frequency for older stars is a less than 1-
effect.Comment: 25 pages, 26 figures; submitted for publication (ApJ
O "menu químico" das plantas: uma abordagem ao ensino da química no ensino secundário
O papel da interdisciplinaridade na sedimentação de conceitos básicos e estruturantes para o desenvolvimento da aprendizagem em química pode ser implementado através de pequenos projetos que implicam a realização de procedimentos laboratoriais repetitivos conducentes ao desenvolvimento da memória de longo prazo, bem como criativos e de interligação de conceitos. O projeto aqui apresentado é uma proposta de trabalho para implementação nas escolas de ensino secundário, em atividades paralelas à sala de aula. Tendo como objeto de estudo os sistemas biológicos, é proposta a monitorização de diversos parâmetros químicos, necessários ao desenvolvimento de espécies hortícolas selecionadas, com o objetivo de dinamizar a aprendizagem de um conjunto significativo de conceitos químicos incorporados nos programas curriculares dos 10.º, 11.º e 12.º anos do ensino secundário.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
The Core Mass Function in the Massive Protocluster G286.21+0.17 revealed by ALMA
We study the core mass function (CMF) of the massive protocluster
G286.21+0.17 with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array via 1.3~mm
continuum emission at a resolution of 1.0\arcsec\ (2500~au). We have mapped a
field of 5.3\arcmin5.3\arcmin\ centered on the protocluster clump. We
measure the CMF in the central region, exploring various core detection
algorithms, which give source numbers ranging from 60 to 125, depending on
parameter selection. We estimate completeness corrections due to imperfect flux
recovery and core identification via artificial core insertion experiments. For
masses , the fiducial dendrogram-identified CMF can be fit
with a power law of the form
with , slightly shallower than, but still consistent with, the
index of the Salpeter stellar initial mass function of 1.35.
Clumpfind-identified CMFs are significantly shallower with
. While raw CMFs show a peak near ,
completeness-corrected CMFs are consistent with a single power law extending
down to , with only a tentative indication of a shallowing
of the slope around . We discuss the implications of these
results for star and star cluster formation theories.Comment: 11 pages, accepted by Ap
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