Do All Stars in the Solar Neighbourhood Form in Clusters?

Details Do All Stars in the Solar Neighbourhood Form in Clusters? Do All Stars in the Solar Neighbourhood Form in Clusters?

2011-02-02

arxiv.org/abs/1102.0565v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

7 Pages, 2 Figures, JENAM conference (Lisbon)

Scientific paper

We present a global study of low mass, young stellar object (YSO) surface densities (Sigma) in nearby (< 500 pc) star forming regions based on a comprehensive collection of Spitzer Space Telescope surveys. We show that the distribution of YSO surface densities is a smooth distribution, being adequately described by a lognormal function from a few to 10^3 YSOs per pc^2, with a peak at ~22 stars pc^-2. The observed lognormal Sigma is consistent with predictions of hierarchically structured star-formation at scales below 10 pc, arising from the molecular cloud structures. We do not find evidence for multiple discrete modes of star-formation (e.g. clustered and distributed). Comparing the observed Sigma distribution to previous Sigma threshold definitions of clusters show that they are arbitrary. We find that only a low fraction (< 26$) of stars are formed in dense environments where their formation/evolution (along with their circumstellar disks and/or planets) may be affected by the close proximity of their low-mass neighbours.

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