We compare APOGEE radial velocities (RVs) of young stars in the Orion A cloud with CO line gas emission and find a correlation between the two at large scales in agreement with previous studies. However, at smaller scales we find evidence for the presence of a substructure in the stellar velocity field. Using a friends-of-friends approach we identify 37 stellar groups with almost identical RVs. These groups are not randomly distributed, but form elongated chains or strings of stars with five or more members with low velocity dispersion across lengths of 1-1.5pc. The similarity between the kinematic properties of the APOGEE strings and the internal velocity field of the chains of dense cores and fibers recently identified in the dense interstellar medium is striking and suggests that for most of the Orion A cloud, young stars keep memory of the parental gas substructure where they originated.
We present an analysis of spectroscopic and astrometric data from APOGEE-2 and Gaia DR2 (Cat. I/345) to identify structures toward the Orion Complex. By applying a hierarchical clustering algorithm to the six-dimensional stellar data, we identify spatially and/or kinematically distinct groups of young stellar objects with ages ranging from 1 to 12 Myr. We also investigate the star-forming history within the Orion Complex and identify peculiar subclusters. With this method we reconstruct the older populations in the regions that are currently largely devoid of molecular gas, such as Orion C (which includes the {sigma} Ori cluster) and Orion D (the population that traces Ori OB1a, OB1b, and Orion X). We report on the distances, kinematics, and ages of the groups within the Complex. The Orion D group is in the process of expanding. On the other hand, Orion B is still in the process of contraction. In {lambda} Ori the proper motions are consistent with a radial expansion due to an explosion from a supernova; the traceback age from the expansion exceeds the age of the youngest stars formed near the outer edges of the region, and their formation would have been triggered when they were halfway from the cluster center to their current positions. We also present a comparison between the parallax and proper-motion solutions obtained by Gaia DR2 and those obtained toward star-forming regions by the Very Long Baseline Array.
The Orion Star-forming Complex (OSFC) is a central target for the APOGEE-2 Young Cluster Survey. Existing membership catalogs span limited portions of the OSFC, reflecting the difficulty of selecting targets homogeneously across this extended, highly structured region. We have used data from wide-field photometric surveys to produce a less biased parent sample of young stellar objects (YSOs) with infrared (IR) excesses indicative of warm circumstellar material or photometric variability at optical wavelengths across the full 420deg^2^ extent of the OSFC. When restricted to YSO candidates with H<12.4, to ensure S/N~100 for a six-visit source, this uniformly selected sample includes 1307 IR excess sources selected using criteria vetted by Koenig & Leisawitz (2014ApJ...791..131K) and 990 optical variables identified in the Pan-STARRS1 3{pi} survey: 319 sources exhibit both optical variability and evidence of circumstellar disks through IR excess. Objects from this uniformly selected sample received the highest priority for targeting, but required fewer than half of the fibers on each APOGEE-2 plate. We filled the remaining fibers with previously confirmed and new color-magnitude selected candidate OSFC members. Radial velocity measurements from APOGEE-1 and new APOGEE-2 observations taken in the survey's first year indicate that ~90% of the uniformly selected targets have radial velocities consistent with Orion membership. The APOGEE-2 Orion survey will include >1100 bona fide YSOs whose uniform selection function will provide a robust sample for comparative analyses of the stellar populations and properties across all sub-regions of Orion.
This paper presents new high angular resolution ALMA 1.3mm dust continuum observations of the protoplanetary system AS 209 in the Ophiuchus star forming region. The dust continuum emission is characterized by a main central core and two prominent rings at r=75au and r=130au intervaled by two gaps at at r=62au and r=103au. The two gaps have different widths and depths, with the inner one being narrower and shallower. We determined the surface density of the millimeter dust grains using the 3D radiative transfer disk code dali. According to our fiducial model the inner gap is partially filled with millimeter grains while the outer gap is largely devoid of dust. The inferred surface density is compared to 3D hydrodynamical simulations (FARGO-3D) of planet-disk interaction. The outer dust gap is consistent with the presence of a giant planet (M_planet_~0.8M_Saturn_); the planet is responsible for the gap opening and for the pile-up of dust at the outer edge of the planet orbit. The simulations also show that the same planet could be the origin of the inner gap at r=62au. The relative position of the two dust gaps is close to the 2:1 resonance and we have investigated the possibility of a second planet inside the inner gap. The resulting surface density (including location, width and depth of the two dust gaps) are in agreement with the observations. The properties of the inner gap pose a strong constraint to the mass of the inner planet (M_planet_<0.1M_J_). In both scenarios (single or pair of planets), the hydrodynamical simulations suggest a very low disk viscosity ({alpha}<10^-4^). Given the young age of the system (0.5-1Myr), this result implies that the formation of giant planets occurs on a timescale of <~1Myr.
We present star formation activity in the infrared dark cloud (IRDC) G53.2, a remarkable IRDC located at Galactic coordinates (l,b)~(53.2{deg},0.0{deg}) based on the census of young stellar object (YSO) candidates. IRDC G53.2 was previously identified as several IRDCs in mid-IR images, but it is in fact a long (>~45pc) cloud, well consistent with a CO cloud at v~23km/s (or at d~1.7kpc). We present a point-source catalog of IRDC G53.2 that contains ~370 sources from our photometry of the Spitzer MIPS 24{mu}m data and Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) Catalog. The classification of the identified sources based on their spectral index and control field analysis to remove field star contamination reveals that IRDC G53.2 is an active star-forming region with ~300 YSO candidates. We compare the YSO classification based on spectral index, mid-IR colors, and the wavelength range used, which results in consistent classification, except for flat-spectrum objects, with some ambiguity between Class I and II. Comparison of the YSO population in IRDC G53.2 with those of other nearby star-forming clusters indicates that they are similar in age; on the other hand, stronger association with mid-IR stellar sources in IRDC G53.2 compared with other IRDCs indicates that IRDC G53.2 is at a later evolutionary stage among IRDCs. Spatial distribution of the YSO candidates in IRDC G53.2 shows a good correlation with ^13^CO column density and far-IR emission, and earlier-class objects tend to be more clustered in the regions with higher density.
We have performed mid-IR photometry of the young open cluster NGC 2264 using the images obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera and Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer instruments and presented a normalized classification scheme of young stellar objects in various color-color diagrams to make full use of the information from multicolor photometry. These results are compared with the classification scheme based on the slope of the spectral energy distribution (SED). From the spatial distributions of Class I and II stars, we have identified two subclusterings of Class I objects in the CONE region of Sung et al. (Cat. J/AJ/135/441). The disked stars in the other star-forming region S Mon are mostly Class II objects. In addition, we have derived a somewhat higher value of the primordial disk fraction for NGC 2264 members located below the main pre-main-sequence locus (so-called BMS stars). This result supports the idea that BMS stars are young stars with nearly edge-on disks.
Our goal is to better understand the origin and the star-formation history of regions NGC 6334 and NGC 6357. We focus our study on the young stars (young stellar objects and OB stars) kinematics in both regions using mainly Gaia-DR2 data. For both regions we compiled OB stars and young stellar objects catalogues from literature and we complemented them using VPHAS+ DR2 and Spitzer IRAC/GLIMPSE photometry catalogues. A cross-match is performed with the Gaia-DR2 catalogue in order to obtain the parallax and transverse motion information. We confirm that NGC 6334 and NGC 6357 are in the far side of the Saggitarius-Carina arm at a distance of 1.76kpc. For NGC 6357, OB stars show strong clustering and ordered star motion with Vlon~-10.7km/s and Vlat ~3.7km/s while for NGC 6334, no significant systemic motion is observed. The OB stars motions and distribution in NGC 6334 suggest to classify it as an association. Ten and two runaway candidates can be related to NGC 6357 and NGC 6334, respectively. The spatial distributions of the runaway candidates in and around NGC 6357 favor a dynamical (and early) ejection during the cluster(s) formation. Because such stars are likely to be ejected during cluster's formation the fact of not observing as many of such stars towards NGC 6334 suggest different formation conditions than for NGC 6357.
By matching infrared-selected, massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) and compact HII regions in the Red MSX Source survey to massive clumps found in the submillimetre ATLASGAL (APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy) survey, we have identified ~1000 embedded young massive stars between 280{deg}<l<350{deg} and 10{deg}<l<60{deg} with |b|<1.5{deg}. Combined with an existing sample of radio-selected methanol masers and compact HII regions, the result is a catalogue of ~1700 massive stars embedded within ~1300 clumps located across the inner Galaxy, containing three observationally distinct subsamples, methanol-maser, MYSO and HII-region associations, covering the most important tracers of massive star formation, thought to represent key stages of evolution.
We test state-of-the-art model atmospheres for young very-low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the infrared, by comparing the predicted synthetic photometry over 1.2-24{mu}m to the observed photometry of M-type spectral templates in star-forming regions. We find that (1) in both early and late young M types, the model atmospheres imply effective temperatures (Teff) several hundred Kelvin lower than predicted by the standard pre-main sequence (PMS) spectral type-Teff conversion scale (based on theoretical evolutionary models). It is only in the mid-M types that the two temperature estimates agree. (2) The Teff discrepancy in the early M types (corresponding to stellar masses >~0.4M_{sun}_ at ages of a few Myr) probably arises from remaining uncertainties in the treatment of atmospheric convection within the atmospheric models, whereas in the late M types it is likely due to an underestimation of dust opacity. (3) The empirical and model-atmosphere J-band bolometric corrections are both roughly flat, and similar to each other, over the M-type Teff range. Thus the model atmospheres yield reasonably accurate bolometric luminosities (Lbol), but lead to underestimations of mass and age relative to evolutionary expectations (especially in the late M types) due to lower Teff. We demonstrate this for a large sample of young Cha I and Taurus sources. (4) The trends in the atmospheric model J-K_s_ colors, and their deviations from the data, are similar at PMS and main sequence ages, suggesting that the model dust opacity errors we postulate here for young ages also apply at field ages.
We have mapped the Auriga/California molecular cloud with the Herschel PACS and SPIRE cameras and the Bolocam 1.1mm camera on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory with the eventual goal of quantifying the star formation and cloud structure in this giant molecular cloud (GMC) that is comparable in size and mass to the Orion GMC, but which appears to be forming far fewer stars. We have tabulated 60 compact 70/160 {mu}m sources that are likely pre-main-sequence objects and correlated those with Spitzer and WISE mid-IR sources. At 1.1 mm, we find 18 cold, compact sources and discuss their properties. The most important result from this part of our study is that we find a modest number of additional compact young objects beyond those identified at shorter wavelengths with Spitzer.
