405 research outputs found
Optical-NIR dust extinction towards Galactic O stars
[ABRIDGED] Context. O stars are excellent tracers of the intervening ISM
because of their high luminosity, blue intrinsic SED, and relatively
featureless spectra. We are currently conducting GOSSS, which is generating a
large sample of O stars with accurate spectral types within several kpc of the
Sun. Aims. To obtain a global picture of the properties of dust extinction in
the solar neighborhood based on optical-NIR photometry of O stars with accurate
spectral types. Methods. We have processed a photometric set with the CHORIZOS
code to measure the amount and type of extinction towards 562 O-type stellar
systems. We have tested three different families of extinction laws and
analyzed our results with the help of additional archival data. Results. The
Ma\'iz Apell\'aniz et al. (2014) family of extinction laws provides a better
description of Galactic dust that either the Cardelli et al. (1989) or
Fitzpatrick (1999) families, so it should be preferentially used. In many cases
O stars and late-type stars experience similar amounts of extinction at similar
distances but some O stars are located close to the molecular clouds left over
from their births and have larger extinctions than the average for nearby
late-type populations. In qualitative terms, O stars experience a more diverse
extinction than late-type stars, as some are affected by the small-grain-size,
low-R_5495 effect of molecular clouds and others by the large-grain-size,
high-R_5495 effect of H II regions. Late-type stars experience a narrower range
of grain sizes or R_5495, as their extinction is predominantly caused by the
average, diffuse ISM. We propose that the reason for the existence of
large-grain-size, high-R_5495 regions in the ISM in the form of H II regions
and hot-gas bubbles is the selective destruction of small dust grains by EUV
photons and possibly by thermal sputtering by atoms or ions.Comment: 33 pages, accepted for publication in A&A. This second version
includes language editing, other minor changes to the text, and the solution
to formatting issues in the main tabl
An HST/NICMOS view of the prototypical giant HII region NGC604 in M33
We present the first high-spatial resolution near-infrared (NIR) imaging of
NGC 604, obtained with the NICMOS camera aboard the Hubble Space Telescope
(HST). These NICMOS broadband images reveal new NIR point sources, clusters,
and diffuse structures. We found an excellent spatial correlation between the
8.4 GHz radio continuum and the 2.2mu-m nebular emission. Moreover, massive
young stellar object candidates appear aligned with these radio peaks,
reinforcing the idea that those areas are star-forming regions. Three different
scaled OB associations are recognized in the NICMOS images. The brightest NIR
sources in our images have properties that suggest that they are red supergiant
stars, of which one of them was previously known. This preliminary analysis of
the NICMOS images shows the complexity of the stellar content of the NGC 604
nebula.Comment: Paper presented in the Workshop "Young massive star clusters: initial
conditions and environments" (Granada, Spain - Sept 2007). Astrophysics &
Space Science in press, 7 pages, 4 figure
The little-studied cluster Berkeley 90. II. The foreground ISM
Context: Nearly one century after their discovery, the carrier(s) of Diffuse
Interstellar Bands is/are still unknown and there are few sightlines studied in
detail for a large number of DIBs. Aims: We want to study the ISM sightlines
towards LS III +46 11 and LS III +46 12, two early-O-type stellar systems, and
LS III +46 11 B, a mid-B-type star. The three targets are located in the
stellar cluster Berkeley 90 and have a high extinction. Methods: We use the
multi-epoch high-S/N optical spectra presented in paper I (Ma\'iz Apell\'aniz
et al. 2015), the extinction results derived there, and additional spectra.
Results: We have measured equivalent widths, velocities, and FWHMs for a large
number of absorption lines in the rich ISM spectrum in front of Berkeley 90.
The absorbing ISM has at least two clouds at different velocities, one with a
lower column density (thinner) in the K I lines located away from Berkeley 90
and another one with a higher column density (thicker) associated with the
cluster. The first cloud has similar properties for both O-star sightlines but
the second one is thicker for LS III +46 11. The comparison between species
indicate that the cloud with a higher column density has a denser core,
allowing us to classify the DIBs in a sigma-zeta scale, some of them for the
first time. The LS III +46 12 sightline also has a high-velocity redshifted
component.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
The infrared Hourglass cluster in M8
A detailed study of the Hourglass Nebula in the M8 star forming region is
presented. The study is mainly based on recent subarcsec-resolution JHKs images
taken at Las Campanas Observatory and complemented with archival HST images and
longslit spectroscopy retrieved from the ESO Archive Facility. Using the new
numerical code CHORIZOS, we estimate the distance to the earliest stars in the
region to be 1.25 kpc. Infrared photometry of all the sources detected in the
field is given. From analysis of the JHKs colour-colour diagrams, we find that
an important fraction of these sources exhibit significant infrared excess.
These objects are candidates to be low- and intermediate-mass pre-main sequence
stars. Based on HST observations, the spatial distribution of gas, dust and
stars in the region is analyzed. The morphological analysis of these images
also reveals a rich variety of structures related to star formation (proplyds,
jets, bow shocks), similar to those observed in M16 and M42, along with the
detection of the first four Herbig-Haro objects in the region. Furthermore, a
longslit spectrum obtained with NTT confirms the identification of one of them
(HH 870) in the core of the Hourglass nebula, providing the first direct
evidence of active star formation by accretion in M8.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, submitted to MNRAS. A preprint with
high-resolution figures is available at
http://www.dfuls.cl/~rbarba/arias_hourglass.pd
VdBH 222: a starburst cluster in the inner Milky Way
Context. It has been suggested that the compact open cluster VdBH 222 is a young massive distant object.Aims. We set out to characterise VdBH 222 using a comprehensive set of multi-wavelength observations.Methods.We obtained multi-band optical (UBVR) and near-infrared (JHKS) photometry of the cluster field, as well as multi-object and long-slit optical spectroscopy for a large sample of stars in the field. We applied classical photometric analysis, as well as more sophisticated methods using the CHORIZOS code, to determine the reddening to the cluster. We then plotted dereddened HR diagrams and determined cluster parameters via isochrone fitting.Results. We have identified a large population of luminous supergiants confirmed as cluster members via radial velocity measurements. We find nine red supergiants (plus one other candidate) and two yellow supergiants. We also identify a large population of OB stars. Ten of them are bright enough to be blue supergiants. The cluster lies behind ≈7.5 mag of extinction for the preferred value of RV = 2.9. Isochrone fitting allows for a narrow range of ages between 12 and 16 Ma. The cluster radial velocity is compatible with distances of ~6 and ~10 kpc. The shorter distance is inconsistent with the age range and Galactic structure. The longer distance implies an age ≈ 12 Ma and a location not far from the position where some Galactic models place the far end of the Galactic bar.Conclusions. VdBH 222 is a young massive cluster with a likely mass >20 000 M⊙. Its population of massive evolved stars is comparable to that of large associations, such as Per OB1. Its location in the inner Galaxy, presumably close to the end of the Galactic bar, adds to the increasing evidence for vigorous star formation in the inner regions of the Milky Way
Direct Detection of the Tertiary Component in the Massive Multiple HD 150 136 with VLTI
Massive stars are of fundamental importance for almost all aspects of
astrophysics, but there still exist large gaps in our understanding of their
properties and formation because they are rare and therefore distant. It has
been found that most O-stars are multiples. HD 150 136 is the nearest system to
Earth with >100 M_sol, and provides a unique opportunity to study an extremely
massive system. Recently, evidence for the existence of a third component in HD
150 136, in addition to the tight spectroscopic binary that forms the main
component, was found in spectroscopic observations. Our aim was to image and
obtain astrometric and photometric measurements of this component using long
baseline optical interferometry to further constrain the nature of this
component. We observed HD150136 with the near-infrared instrument AMBER
attached to the ESO VLT Interferometer. The recovered closure phases are robust
to systematic errors and provide unique information on the source asymmetry.
Therefore, they are of crucial relevance for both image reconstruction and
model fitting of the source structure. The third component in HD 150 136 is
clearly detected in the high-quality data from AMBER. It is located at a
projected angular distance of 7.3 mas, or about 13 AU at the line-of-sight
distance of HD 150 136, at a position angle of 209 degrees East of North, and
has a flux ratio of 0.25 with respect to the inner binary. We resolved the
third component of HD 150 136 in J, H and K filters. The luminosity and color
of the tertiary agrees with the predictions and shows that it is also an O
main-sequence star. The small measured angular separation indicates that the
tertiary may be approaching the periastron of its orbit. These results, only
achievable with long baseline near infrared interferometry, constitute the
first step towards the understanding of the massive star formation mechanisms
The Galactic O-Star Spectroscopic Survey (GOSSS). II. Bright Southern Stars
We present the second installment of GOSSS, a massive spectroscopic survey of
Galactic O stars, based on new homogeneous, high signal-to-noise ratio, R ~
2500 digital observations from both hemispheres selected from the Galactic
O-Star Catalog (GOSC). In this paper we include bright stars and other objects
drawn mostly from the first version of GOSC, all of them south of delta = -20
degrees, for a total number of 258 O stars. We also revise the northern sample
of paper I to provide the full list of spectroscopically classified Galactic O
stars complete to B = 8, bringing the total number of published GOSSS stars to
448. Extensive sequences of exceptional objects are given, including the early
Of/WN, O Iafpe, Ofc, ON/OC, Onfp, Of?p, and Oe types, as well as
double/triple-lined spectroscopic binaries. The new spectral subtype O9.2 is
also discussed. The magnitude and spatial distributions of the observed sample
are analyzed. We also present new results from OWN, a multi-epoch
high-resolution spectroscopic survey coordinated with GOSSS that is assembling
the largest sample of Galactic spectroscopic massive binaries ever attained.
The OWN data combined with additional information on spectroscopic and visual
binaries from the literature indicate that only a very small fraction (if any)
of the stars with masses above 15-20 M_Sol are born as single systems. In the
future we will publish the rest of the GOSSS survey, which is expected to
include over 1000 Galactic O stars.Comment: 110 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in ApJS. Some figures
have low quality due to arXiv file size limitations, alternative version
available at http://jmaiz.iaa.es/files/Sotaetal14.pd
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