Initial Results from the Spitzer Young Stellar Cluster Survey

By S. Megeath, L. Allen, R. Gutermuth, J. Pipher, P. Myers, N. Calvet, L. Hartmann, J. Muzerolle, G. Fazio. 2004

165 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We report initial results from IRAC observations of four young stellar clusters. These regions are part of a larger Spitzer Space Telescope survey of 31 young stellar groups and clusters within 1 kpc of the Sun. In each of the four clusters, there are between 39 and 85 objects with colors inconsistent with reddened stellar photospheres. We identify these objects as young stars with significant emission from circumstellar dust. Applying an analysis developed in a companion paper, we classify these objects as either pre-main-sequence stars with disks (Class II) or protostellar objects (Class I). These show that the sites of recent star formation are distributed over multiparsec size scales. In two clusters, Cepheus C and S140, we find protostars embedded in filamentary dark clouds seen against diffuse emission in the IRAC bands.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6c2e2ffadf03897bf184bd3e27208a8dce6dd7c1

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. K. Luhman
2. P. Myers
3. N. Evans II
4. L. Hartmann
5. L. Allen
6. Eric Mamajek
7. N. Calvet
8. R. Gutermuth

Citations in the corpus

• The Spitzer c2d Survey of Large, Nearby, Interstellar Clouds. III. Perseus Observed with IRAC (2006, methodology): “10 show the location of the different groups of sources in two other diagrams that have been used for classifying YSOs from samples of Spitzer sources, the [3.6] − [4.5] vs. [5.8] − [8.0] (Megeath et al. 2004) and H − Ks vs. Ks − [4.5] (Gutermuth et al. 2004) color-color diagrams.”
• On the fraction of star formation occurring in bound stellar clusters (2012, background): “…of stars are born in unbound stellar associations over a broad range of physical scales (e.g. Blaauw 1964; Clarke, Bonnell & Hillenbrand 2000; Megeath et al. 2004; Portegies Zwart, McMillan & Gieles 2010; Gieles & Portegies Zwart 2011; Bastian et al. 2012), and in rare cases individual stars…”
• A Spitzer Census of the IC 348 Nebula (2007, result): “For comparison to other Spitzer studies of YSOs in clusters that use color-color classification techniques (e.g., Megeath et al. 2004), we plot two such diagrams in Figure 3.”
• Clustered and Triggered Star Formation in W5: Observations with Spitzer (2008, methodology): “Schemes developed in Whitney et al. (2003), Allen et al. (2004), Megeath et al. (2004) and Muzerolle et al. (2004) and tested by (for example) Hartmann et al. (2005) have demonstrated the power of this technique for classifying young stellar objects using Spitzer IRAC and MIPS photometry.”
• Spitzer Observations of NGC 1333: A Study of Structure and Evolution in a Nearby Embedded Cluster (2007, methodology): “There are now several methods in the literature to identify and classify YSOs with such photometry (cf. Allen et al. 2004; Megeath et al. 2004; Lada et al. 2006).”
• THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE SURVEY OF THE ORION A AND B MOLECULAR CLOUDS. I. A CENSUS OF DUSTY YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS AND A STUDY OF THEIR MID-INFRARED VARIABILITY (2012, methodology): “Stellar photometry with the IRAC and MIPS instruments can be used to detect excess infrared emission due to starlight reprocessed by dust grains in disks and envelopes (Megeath et al. 2004; Allen et al. 2004, 2007; Muzerolle et al. 2004; Whitney et al. 2004; Hartmann et al. 2005).”
• WFCAM, Spitzer/IRAC and SCUBA observations of the massive star-forming region DR21/W75 - I. The collimated molecular jets (2006, background): “Megeath et al. (2004) note that from Spitzer colours alone it is possible to mis-identify reddened Class II sources or Class II sources with edge-on disks as Class I sources.”
• Infrared Extinction toward Nearby Star-forming Regions (2007, methodology): “Allen et al. (2004) and Megeath et al. (2004) develop a classification scheme to differentiate young stellar objects based on their IRAC colors, and Muzerolle et al. (2004) present a scheme utilizing 24µm data in combination with IRAC data.”
• A CORRELATION BETWEEN SURFACE DENSITIES OF YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS AND GAS IN EIGHT NEARBY MOLECULAR CLOUDS (2011, methodology): “Numerous surveys of nearby star formation regions have been performed using Spitzer (e.g. Gutermuth et al. 2004; Megeath et al. 2004; Jørgensen et al. 2006; Harvey et al. 2007; Allen et al. 2007).”
• The Disk Population of the Chamaeleon I Star-forming Region (2008, methodology): “Because of its high spatial resolution, excellent sensitivity, and large field of view, Spitzer is proficient at identifying disk-bearing members of young clusters (Allen et al. 2004; Gutermuth et al. 2004; Megeath et al. 2004; Muzerolle et al. 2004).”
• SDC13 infrared dark clouds: longitudinally collapsing filaments? (2013, background): “Depending on their colours, sources of different classes are expected to sit in different regions of such diagram (Allen et al. 2004; Megeath et al. 2004).”
• The UKIDSS galactic plane survey (2007, background): “Whitney et al.2004; Churchwell et al.2004; Allen et al.2004; Megeath et al.2004).”
• The spatial distribution of star formation in the solar neighbourhood: do all stars form in dense clusters? (2010, methodology): “The Taurus and Orion YSOs are classified by using colour-colour diagrams (Allen et al. 2004; Megeath et al. 2004; Gutermuth et al. 2005, 2009).”
• The Initial Configuration of Young Stellar Clusters: A K-Band Number Counts Analysis of the Surface Density of Stars (2004, methodology): “Furthermore, the Spitzer Space Telescope is now providing detailed images of young clusters in the mid-IR, allowing us for the first time to identify young stars with disks and infalling envelopes efficiently in clusters out to 1 kpc and beyond (e.g., Megeath et al. 2004; Whitney et al. 2004).”
• THE DISK POPULATION OF THE TAURUS STAR-FORMING REGION (2009, background): “…also appears in Luhman (2006), Luhman et al. (2006), and Kenyon et al. (2008), and probably originated in the former two papers. disks and yet they do not require knowledge of the individual stellar properties, such as spectral types and extinctions (Allen et al. 2004; Megeath et al. 2004).”
• A SPITZER SURVEY OF YOUNG STELLAR CLUSTERS WITHIN ONE KILOPARSEC OF THE SUN: CLUSTER CORE EXTRACTION AND BASIC STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS (2009, methodology): “These aperture and annulus sizes have been adopted as a practical way of adequately sampling the core of the point-spread function (PSF) while minimizing contamination from resolved background emission and other nearby sources (Megeath et al. 2004).”
• Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) Colors of Young Stellar Objects (2004, result): “IRAC observations of four young clusters (Megeath et al. 2004) are consistent with the model predictions.”
• Dust Evolution and the Formation of Planetesimals (2016, background): “…of star-forming regions/clusters with ages from 1Myr to tens of Myrs have been surveyed by various projects with Spitzer (e.g. Allen et al. 2004; Megeath et al. 2004; Luhman 2007; Evans et al. 2009; Gutermuth et al. 2009; Fang et al. 2009; Luhman et al. 2010; Megeath et al. 2012; Fang et al.…”