We carried out a deep near-infrared survey of a bright-rimmed molecular cloud, BRC 14 (IC 1848A). The 10{sigma} limiting magnitude of the survey is 17.7mag at the K-band. Seventy-four sources are classified as young stellar object (YSO) candidates based on a near-infrared color-color diagram. The faintest YSO candidates may have masses on the order of tenths of the solar mass, assuming an age of 1Myr. We examined three values as indicators of star formation: fraction of the YSO candidates, extinctions of all sources, and near-infrared excesses of the YSO candidates. All indicators increase from outside of the rim to the center of the molecular cloud, which suggests that the formation of the low-mass stars in the BRC 14 region proceeds from outside to the center of the cloud.
To study how the structure of the envelopes of young stellar objects (YSOs) evolve, we carried out a deep JHK'-band imaging survey of the M17 star-forming region using a near-infrared camera and the Infrared Camera and Spectrograph with adaptive optics mounted on the Subaru Telescope. In this survey, we found 51 dark silhouettes against bright near-infrared nebula emissions as background lights. They are regarded as envelopes associated with YSOs due to their size and association with the YSOs. We derived size, morphology, extinction, and mass for each silhouette envelope.
Deep high-resolution JHK images of a 2'x2' field around the OB association A24 near the 7kpc spiral arm in M31 were measured to yield photometric data of more than 3000 stars with the faintest magnitude being J=21.3, H=20.5, and K=19.6. The photometric data for the 1037 stars that are brightest in the K band are presented. Judging from the color-magnitude and the two-color diagrams, we find that the majority of the observed stars are AGB stars including large-amplitude variables. They are distributed smoothly over the observed field, and we find no clear evidence of varying extinction over the field for these red stars. The present sample includes bright AGB stars of M_K_<=-8 and about 30 young blue objects of (J-H)<0.75 that are brighter than M_J_~=-6.5.
We present the results of an extensive near-infrared (JHK) imaging survey of the NGC 1333 star forming region. Our survey covers an area more than 4 times larger than the previous imaging survey of this cloud reported by Aspin et al. (1994, Cat. <J/A+AS/106/165>) and is sufficiently sensitive to render an accurate census of the embedded stellar population in the cloud. We detected 275 sources with m_K_<14.5mag within the 432 square arcminute region surveyed.
We combined new near-infrared VLT/HAWK-I data of the globular clusters (GCs) in the isolated edge-on S0 galaxy NGC 3115 with optical and spectroscopic ones taken from the literature, with the aim of analyzing the multiband GC color distributions. A recent study from the SLUGGS survey has shown that the GCs in this galaxy follow a bimodal distribution of CaII triplet indices. Thus, NGC3115 presents a critical example of a GC system with multiple, distinct, metallicity subpopulations, and this may argue against the "projection" scenario, which posits that the ubiquitous color bimodality mainly results from nonlinearities in the color- metallicity relations. Using optical, NIR, and spectroscopic data, we found strong and consistent evidence of index bimodality, which independently confirms the metallicity bimodality in NGC 3115 GCs. At the same time, we also found evidence for some color-color nonlinearity. Taken in the broader context of previous studies, the multicolor consistency of the GC bimodality in NGC 3115 suggests that in cases where GC systems exhibit clear differences between their optical and optical-NIR color distributions (as in some giant ellipticals), the apparent inconsistencies most likely result from nonlinearities in the color-metallicity relations.
Near-infrared photometric measurements for 131 Northern Galactic Cepheids are presented. The Cepheid light curves are sampled with an average of 22 measurements per star fully covering the phase of each Cepheid. The J, H, and K light curves for each Cepheid were uniformly interpolated to find the intensity mean magnitudes within each band. The results are consistent within +/-1% for 26 stars in common with previous studies. This paper is the first in a projected series of two papers which will provide additional fundamental data for Cepheids in the Galaxy, namely, NIR photometry and line-of-sight extinction. In the course of this project, 93 additional variables were fortuitously observed within the Cepheid program fields, 82 of which have previously not been identified.
Near-IR imaging in the direction of the IRAS 15408-5356 point source, which is associated with the RCW 95 HII region, revealed a young and massive stellar cluster. We detected 136 member candidates up to our completeness limit, embedded in an infrared nebula and concentrated in an area of about 3pc^2^. About 60% of the candidates detected in all three of the J, H, and K bands present infrared excess at 2.2{mu}m. he UV photons provided by the most massive stars are enough to explain the observed free-free emission at radio wavelengths and the integrated infrared luminosity produced by the heated dust. The near-IR counterpart of the IRAS point source was identified using a more accurate position from the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) catalog; it coincides with the peak of emission in the MSX mid-IR bands. The measured integrated flux density of the infrared nebula at the K band is compatible with the expected free-free emission derived from the radio data, but an excess at the J and H bands was detected and may be due to either nonhomogeneous absorption across the nebula or to the presence of scattered stellar light, more prominent at smaller wavelengths.
This work aims to study the Sh 2-307 HII region and related stellar population. Near-infrared imaging and spectroscopic observations in the direction of Sh 2-307 were performed using the Ohio State InfraRed Imager/Spectrometer (OSIRIS) at the Southern Observatory for Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope. The photometric data were analysed from colour-colour and colour-magnitude diagrams, while the spectroscopic results were interpreted from the comparison of the science spectra with those obtained from known OB stars.
