Pre-protostelláris felhőmagok fizikája = Physics of pre-protostellar cloud cores

Bizonyítottuk, hogy jelentős szerepe van a külső hatásoknak a kistömegű csillagok keletkezésében már a pre-protostelláris felhőmagok kialakulásától kezdve. 1. A Naprendszer 2kpc sugarú környezetében a hideg csillagközi anyag kb. 40%-a van lassú frontok és a csillagközi ionizáló sugárzási tér (trigger) hatása alatt. 2. A csillagközi felhők relatív száma a nyugalomban lévő és külső hatás alatt lévő térrészben hasonló, de a sűrű felhőmagok gyakoribbak a triggerelt csillagközi anyagban. 3. A külső trigger hatások alkalmasak a csillagkeletkezés beindítására a sűrűség fluktuációk megnövelésén keresztül. 4. A trigger esetek száma jelentős, minden harmadik a Naphoz hasonló tömegű fiatal csillag triggerelt csillagközi felhőben születik. További eredményeink: Több mint 10 új felhőmagot azonosítottunk. Felfedeztünk több mint egy tucat új T-asszociációt. A szakirodalomban elsőként felfedeztünk egy keletkező barna törpe jelöltet a Taurusban. Megadtuk a Taurus Molecular Ring szerkezeti és kinematikai leírását. | Trigger mechanisms play an important role in the low mass star formation already in the formation of pre-protostellar cores. 1) As much as 40% of the nearby (within 2kpc) interstellar medium (ISM) mass is exposed to slow interstellar shock fronts, and an enhanced ionizing interstellar radiation field, i.e. the typical trigger mechanisms. 2) Clouds form with the same frequency in the relaxed and in the triggered ISM, but there are far more dense cores in triggered clouds. 3) Triggers like above may turn ISM density enhancements to star forming cloud cores. 4) The triggered fraction of low mass star formation is statistically significant in large Galactic regions, at least 30% of the solar type low mass stars are formed in triggered clouds. Further results: We identified more than a dozen of new cloud cores, and T-associations. A candidate brown dwarf was discovered in Taurus, still in the phase of formation. The Taurus Molecular Ring ISM structure and kinematics was uncovered

Pre-main sequence stars in the Cepheus flare region

We present results of optical spectroscopic and BVR_CI_C photometric observations of 77 pre-main sequence (PMS) stars in the Cepheus flare region. A total of 64 of these are newly confirmed PMS stars, originally selected from various published candidate lists. We estimate effective temperatures and luminosities for the PMS stars, and comparing the results with pre-main sequence evolutionary models we estimate stellar masses of 0.2-2.4M_sun and stellar ages of 0.1-15 Myr. Among the PMS stars, we identify 15 visual binaries with separations of 2-10 arcsec. From archival IRAS, 2MASS, and Spitzer data, we construct their spectral energy distributions and classify 5% of the stars as Class I, 10% as Flat SED, 60% as Class II, and 3% as Class III young stellar objects (YSOs). We identify 12 CTTS and 2 WTTS as members of NGC 7023, with mean age of 1.6 Myr. The 13 PMS stars associated with L1228 belong to three small aggregates: RNO 129, L1228A, and L1228S. The age distribution of the 17 PMS stars associated with L1251 suggests that star formation has propagated with the expansion of the Cepheus flare shell. We detect sparse aggregates of 6-7 Myr old PMS stars around the dark clouds L1177 and L1219, at a distance of 400 pc. Three T Tauri stars appear to be associated with the Herbig Ae star SV Cep at a distance of 600 pc. Our results confirm that the molecular complex in the Cepheus flare region contains clouds of various distances and star forming histories.Comment: 61 pages, 27 figures, 8 tables; accepted for publication by ApJ