HST measures of Mass Accretion Rates in the Orion Nebula Cluster

The present observational understanding of the evolution of the mass accretion rates (Macc) in pre-main sequence stars is limited by the lack of accurate measurements of Macc over homogeneous and large statistical samples of young stars. Such observational effort is needed to properly constrain the theory of star formation and disk evolution. Based on HST/WFPC2 observations, we present a study of Macc for a sample of \sim 700 sources in the Orion Nebula Cluster, ranging from the Hydrogen-burning limit to M\ast \sim 2M\odot. We derive Macc from both the U-band excess and the H{\alpha} luminosity (LH{\alpha}), after determining empirically both the shape of the typical accretion spectrum across the Balmer jump and the relation between the accretion luminosity (Lacc) and LH{\alpha}, that is Lacc/L\odot = (1.31\pm0.03)\cdotLH{\alpha}/L\odot + (2.63\pm 0.13). Given our large statistical sample, we are able to accurately investigate relations between Macc and the parameters of the central star such as mass and age. We clearly find Macc to increase with stellar mass, and decrease over evolutionary time, but we also find strong evidence that the decay of Macc with stellar age occurs over longer timescales for more massive PMS stars. Our best fit relation between these parameters is given by: log(Macc/M\odot\cdotyr)=(-5.12 \pm 0.86) -(0.46 \pm 0.13) \cdot log(t/yr) -(5.75 \pm 1.47)\cdot log(M\ast/M\odot) + (1.17 \pm 0.23)\cdot log(t/yr) \cdot log(M\ast/M\odot). These results also suggest that the similarity solution model could be revised for sources with M\ast > 0.5M\odot. Finally, we do not find a clear trend indicating environmental effects on the accretion properties of the sources.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

VLTI observations of IRS~3: The brightest compact MIR source at the Galactic Centre

The dust enshrouded star IRS~3 in the central light year of our galaxy was partially resolved in a recent VLTI experiment. The presented observation is the first step in investigating both IRS~3 in particular and the stellar population of the Galactic Centre in general with the VLTI at highest angular resolution. We will outline which scientific issues can be addressed by a complete MIDI dataset on IRS~3 in the mid infrared.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, published in: The ESO Messenge

A Search for Companions to Brown Dwarfs in the Taurus and Chamaeleon Star Forming Regions

We present the results of a search for companions to young brown dwarfs in the Taurus and Chamaeleon I star forming regions (1/2-3 Myr). We have used WFPC2 on board HST to obtain F791W and F850LP images of 47 members of these regions that have spectral types of M6-L0 (0.01-0.1 Msun). An additional late-type member of Taurus, FU Tau (M7.25+M9.25), was also observed with adaptive optics at Keck Observatory. We have applied PSF subtraction to the primaries and have searched the resulting images for objects that have colors and magnitudes that are indicative of young low-mass objects. Through this process, we have identified promising candidate companions to 2MASS J04414489+2301513 (rho=0.105"/15 AU), 2MASS J04221332+1934392 (rho=0.05"/7 AU), and ISO 217 (rho=0.03"/5 AU). We reported the discovery of the first candidate in a previous study, showing that it has a similar proper motion as the primary through a comparison of astrometry measured with WFPC2 and Gemini adaptive optics. We have collected an additional epoch of data with Gemini that further supports that result. By combining our survey with previous high-resolution imaging in Taurus, Chamaeleon, and Upper Sco (10 Myr), we measure binary fractions of 14/93 = 0.15+0.05/-0.03 for M4-M6 (0.1-0.3 Msun) and 4/108 = 0.04+0.03/-0.01 for >M6 (10 AU. Given the youth and low density of these three regions, the lower binary fraction at later types is probably primordial rather than due to dynamical interactions among association members. The widest low-mass binaries (>100 AU) also appear to be more common in Taurus and Chamaeleon than in the field, which suggests that the widest low-mass binaries are disrupted by dynamical interactions at >10 Myr, or that field brown dwarfs have been born predominantly in denser clusters where wide systems are disrupted or inhibited from forming.Comment: Astrophysical Journal, in pres

The Initial Mass Function of the Orion Nebula Cluster across the H-burning limit

We present a new census of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) over a large field of view (>30'x30'), significantly increasing the known population of stellar and substellar cluster members with precisely determined properties. We develop and exploit a technique to determine stellar effective temperatures from optical colors, nearly doubling the previously available number of objects with effective temperature determinations in this benchmark cluster. Our technique utilizes colors from deep photometry in the I-band and in two medium-band filters at lambda~753 and 770nm, which accurately measure the depth of a molecular feature present in the spectra of cool stars. From these colors we can derive effective temperatures with a precision corresponding to better than one-half spectral subtype, and importantly this precision is independent of the extinction to the individual stars. Also, because this technique utilizes only photometry redward of 750nm, the results are only mildly sensitive to optical veiling produced by accretion. Completing our census with previously available data, we place some 1750 sources in the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram and assign masses and ages down to 0.02 solar masses. At faint luminosities, we detect a large population of background sources which is easily separated in our photometry from the bona fide cluster members. The resulting initial mass function of the cluster has good completeness well into the substellar mass range, and we find that it declines steeply with decreasing mass. This suggests a deficiency of newly formed brown dwarfs in the cluster compared to the Galactic disk population.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

The Enigmatic HH 255

To gain insight into the nature of the peculiar Herbig-Haro object HH 255 (also called Burnham's nebula), we use previously published observations to derive information about the emission line fluxes as a function of position within HH 255 and compare them with the well-studied, and relatively well-behaved bow shock HH 1. There are some qualitative similarities in the H$\alpha$ and [O III] 5007 lines in both objects. However, in contrast to the expectation of the standard bow shock model, the fluxes of the [O I] 6300, [S II] 6731, and [N II] 6583 lines are essentially constant along the axis of the flow, while the electron density decreases, over a large distance within HH 255. We also explore the possibility that HH 255 represents the emission behind a standing or quasi-stationary shock. The shock faces upwind, and we suggest, using theoretical arguments, that it may be associated with the collimation of the southern outflow from T Tauri. Using a simplified magnetohydrodynamic simulation to illustrate the basic concept, we demonstrate that the existence of such a shock at the north edge of HH 255 could indeed explain its unusual kinematic and ionization properties. Whether or not such a shock can explain the detailed emission line stratification remains an open question.Comment: Accepted by PASP, 12 pages including 8 figure

On the Asymmetries of Extended X-ray Emission from Planetary Nebulae

Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) images have revealed that the X-ray emitting regions of the molecule-rich young planetary nebulae (PNs) BD+30 3639 (BD+30) and NGC 7027 are much more asymmetric than their optical nebulosities. To evaluate the potential origins of these X-ray asymmetries, we analyze X-ray images of BD+30, NGC 7027, and another planetary nebula resolved by CXO, NGC 6543, within specific energy bands. Image resolution has been optimized by sub-pixel repositioning of individual X-ray events. The resulting subarcsecond-resolution images reveal that the soft (E < 0.7 keV) X-ray emission from BD+30 is more uniform than the harder emission, which is largely confined to the eastern rim of the optical nebula. In contrast, soft X-rays from NGC 7027 are highly localized and this PN is more axially symmetric in harder emission. The broad-band X-ray morphologies of BD+30 and NGC 7027 are highly anticorrelated with their distributions of visual extinction, as determined from high-resolution, space- and ground-based optical and infrared imaging. Hence, it is likely that the observed X-ray asymmetries of these nebulae are due in large part to the effects of nonuniform intranebular extinction. However, the energy-dependent X-ray structures in both nebulae and in NGC 6543 -- which is by far the least dusty and molecule-rich of the three PNs, and displays very uniform intranebular extinction -- suggests that other mechanisms, such as the action of collimated outflows and heat conduction, are also important in determining the detailed X-ray morphologies of young planetary nebulae.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures; to appear in the Astrophysical Journa

The low-mass Initial Mass Function in the Orion Nebula cluster based on HST/NICMOS III imaging

We present deep HST/NICMOS Camera 3 F110W and F160W imaging of a 26'x33', corresponding to 3.1pcx3.8pc, non-contiguous field towards the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). The main aim is to determine the ratio of low--mass stars to brown dwarfs for the cluster as a function of radius out to a radial distance of 1.5pc. The sensitivity of the data outside the nebulous central region is F160W=21.0 mag, significantly deeper than previous studies of the region over a comparable area. We create an extinction limited sample and determine the ratio of low-mass stars (0.08-1Msun) to brown dwarfs (0.02-0.08Msun and 0.03-0.08Msun) for the cluster as a whole and for several annuli. The ratio found for the cluster within a radius of 1.5pc is R(02)=N(0.08-1Msun)/N(0.02-0.08Msun)=1.7+-0.2, and R(03)=N(0.08-1Msun)/N(0.03-0.08Msun)=2.4+-0.2, after correcting for field stars. The ratio for the central 0.3pcx0.3pc region down to 0.03Msun was previously found to be R(03)=3.3+0.8-0.7, suggesting the low-mass content of the cluster is mass segregated. We discuss the implications of a gradient in the ratio of stars to brown dwarfs in the ONC in the context of previous measurements of the cluster and for other nearby star forming regions. We further discuss the current evidence for variations in the low-mass IMF and primordial mass segregation.Comment: Accepted to A&

A multi-color optical survey of the orion nebula cluster. II. The H-R diagram

We present a new analysis of the stellar population of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) based on multi-band optical photometry and spectroscopy.We study the color–color diagrams in BVI, plus a narrowband filter centered at 6200 Å, finding evidence that intrinsic color scales valid for main-sequence dwarfs are incompatible with the ONC in the M spectral-type range, while a better agreement is found employing intrinsic colors derived from synthetic photometry, constraining the surface gravity value as predicted by a pre-main-sequence isochrone.We refine these model colors even further, empirically, by comparison with a selected sample of ONC stars with no accretion and no extinction. We consider the stars with known spectral types from the literature, and extend this sample with the addition of 65 newly classified stars from slit spectroscopy and 182 M-type from narrowband photometry; in this way, we isolate a sample of about 1000 stars with known spectral type. We introduce a new method to self-consistently derive the stellar reddening and the optical excess due to accretion from the location of each star in the BVI color–color diagram. This enables us to accurately determine the extinction of the ONC members, together with an estimate of their accretion luminosities. We adopt a lower distance for the Orion Nebula than previously assumed, based on recent parallax measurements. With a careful choice of also the spectral-type–temperature transformation, we produce the new Hertzsprung–Russell diagram of the ONC population, more populated than previous works. With respect to previous works, we find higher luminosity for late-type stars and a slightly lower luminosity for early types. We determine the age distribution of the population, peaking from ~2 to ~3 Myr depending on the model. We study the distribution of the members in the mass–age plane and find that taking into account selection effects due to incompleteness, removes an apparent correlation between mass and age.We derive the initial mass function for low- and intermediate mass members of the ONC, which turns out to be model dependent and shows a turnover at M ≲ 0.2 M_⊙

Low-Mass Pre-Main Sequence Stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud - III: Accretion Rates from HST-WFPC2 Observations

We have measured the present accretion rate of roughly 800 low-mass (~1-1.4 Mo) pre-Main Sequence stars in the field of Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC, Z~0.3 Zo). It is the first time that this fundamental parameter for star formation is determined for low-mass stars outside our Galaxy. The Balmer continuum emission used to derive the accretion rate positively correlates with the Halpha excess. Both these phenomena are believed to originate from accretion from a circumstellar disk so that their simultaneous detection provides an important confirmation of the pre-Main Sequence nature of the Halpha and UV excess objects, which are likely to be the LMC equivalent of Galactic Classical TTauri stars. The stars with statistically significant excesses are measured to have accretion rates larger than 1.5x10^{-8}Mo/yr at an age of 12-16 Myrs. For comparison, the time scale for disk dissipation observed in the Galaxy is of the order of 6 Myrs. Moreover, the oldest Classical TTauri star known in the Milky Way (TW Hydrae, with 10 Myrs of age) has a measured accretion rate of only 5x10^{-10} Mo/yr, ie 30 times less than what we measure for stars at a comparable age in the LMC. Our findings indicate that metallicity plays a major role in regulating the formation of low-mass stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal (10 June 2004), 28 pages, 9 figures. Typo corrected in the abstract on 21 February 200