830 research outputs found
A Near-Infrared L Band Survey of the Young Embedded Cluster NGC 2024
We present the results of the first sensitive L band (3.4 micron) imaging
study of the nearby young embedded cluster NGC 2024. Two separate surveys of
the cluster were acquired in order to obtain a census of the circumstellar disk
fraction in the cluster. From an analysis of the JHKL colors of all sources in
our largest area, we find an infrared excess fraction of > 86%. The JHKL colors
suggest that the infrared excesses arise in circumstellar disks, indicating
that the majority of the sources which formed in the NGC 2024 cluster are
currently surrounded by, and likely formed with circumstellar disks. The excess
fractions remain very high, within the errors, even at the faintest L
magnitudes from our deeper surveys suggesting that disks form around the
majority of the stars in very young clusters such as NGC 2024 independent of
mass. From comparison with published JHKL observations of Taurus, we find the K
- L excess fraction in NGC 2024 to be consistent with a high initial incidence
of circumstellar disks in both NGC 2024 and Taurus. Because NGC 2024 represents
a region of much higher stellar density than Taurus, this suggests that disks
may form around most of the YSOs in star forming regions independent of
environment. We find a relatively constant JHKL excess fraction with increasing
cluster radius, indicating that the disk fraction is independent of location in
the cluster. In contrast, the JHK excess fraction increases rapidly toward the
central region of the cluster, and is most likely due to contamination of the K
band measurements by bright nebulosity in the central regions of the cluster.
We identify 45 candidate protostellar sources in the central regions of the NGC
2024 cluster, and find a lower limit on the protostellar phase of early stellar
evolution of 0.4 - 1.4 X 10^5 yr, similar to that in Taurus.Comment: 37 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables, To appear in the Astronomical Journa
Oscillating Starless Cores: The Nonlinear Regime
In a previous paper, we modeled the oscillations of a thermally-supported
(Bonnor-Ebert) sphere as non-radial, linear perturbations following a standard
analysis developed for stellar pulsations. The predicted column density
variations and molecular spectral line profiles are similar to those observed
in the Bok globule B68 suggesting that the motions in some starless cores may
be oscillating perturbations on a thermally supported equilibrium structure.
However, the linear analysis is unable to address several questions, among them
the stability, and lifetime of the perturbations. In this paper we simulate the
oscillations using a three-dimensional numerical hydrodynamic code. We find
that the oscillations are damped predominantly by non-linear mode-coupling, and
the damping time scale is typically many oscillation periods, corresponding to
a few million years, and persisting over the inferred lifetime of gobules.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Ap
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