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Description
The Canis Major OB1 association has an intriguing scenario of star formation, especially in the region called Canis Major R1 (CMa R1) traditionally assigned to a reflection nebula, but in reality an ionized region. The authors focused on the young stellar population associated with CMa R1, for which previous results from ROSAT, optical, and near-infrared data had revealed two stellar groups with different ages, suggesting a possible mixing of populations originated from distinct star formation episodes (see the <a href="/W3Browse/rosat/cmar1xray.html">table CMAR1XRAY</a>). The authors used X-ray data to characterize the detected sources according to hardness ratios, light curves, and spectra. They also provided estimates of mass and age, using the information from likely counterparts based on the 2MASS catalogue. The 2MASS-derived data on the counterparts, where matched, are provided in the <a href="/W3Browse/xmm-newton/cmaob1nir.html">associated table (CMAOB1NIR)</a>. This table contains a catalog of 387 XMM-Newton sources, of which 78% are confirmed as members or probable members of the CMa R1 association. Flares (or similar events) were observed for 13 sources and the spectra of 21 bright sources could be fitted by a thermal plasma model. Mean values of fits parameters were used to estimate X-ray luminosities. The authors found a minimum value of log(L<sub>X</sub> [erg/s]) = 29.43, indicating that the sample of low-mass stars (M<sub>*</sub> <= 0.5 M<sub>sun</sub>), which are faint X-ray emitters, is incomplete. Among the 250 objects selected as the complete subsample (defining a "best sample"), 171 are found to the east of the cloud, near Z CMa and dense molecular gas, of which 50% of them are young (<5Myr) and 30% are older (>10Myr). The opposite happens to the west, near GU CMa, in areas lacking molecular gas: among 79 objects, 30% are young and 50% are older. These findings confirm that a first episode of distributed star formation occurred in the whole studied region ~10Myr ago and dispersed the molecular gas, while a second, localized episode (<5Myr) took place in the regions where molecular gas is still present. For this work, four fields (each about 30-arcmin diameter with some overlap) were observed with the XMM-Newton satellite. These fields are located inside the arc-shaped ionized nebula, next to Z CMa - Field E (east); around GU CMa - Field W (west); and between both - Field C (center) and Field S (south), as shown in Figure 1 of the reference paper. These observations were performed with the EPIC cameras (MOS1, MOS2, and PN) in full frame mode with a medium filter. The C, W, and S fields had an exposure time without background corrections of about 30 ks while field E had 40 ks. <pre> RA(J2000) | Dec(J2000) | Designation(s) 07 04 18.3 | -11 27 24.0 | CMa cluster east (Field E) 07 02 58.4 | -11 34 44.7 | CMa cluster center (Field C) 07 02 29.5 | -11 47 12.4 | CMa cluster south (Field S) 07 01 23.0 | -11 19 56.6 | CMa cluster west (Field W) </pre> This table was created by the HEASARC in October 2018 based upon the <a href="https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/ftp/cats/J/A+A/609/A127">CDS Catalog J/A+A/609/A127</a> file tableb1.dat. This is a service provided by NASA HEASARC .
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