Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21741101k&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #411.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We approach the fundamental question "How does environment affect star formation and the properties of nascent stars?” by comparing populations of protostars in diverse environments. In our study, we present a sample of over 900 Spitzer-identified protostars from the nearby (within 1 kpc) star forming clouds Orion A & B, Cep OB3, Serpens, Perseus, Ophiuchus, Taurus, Lupus, Chamaeleon, and Mon R2, and the more distant massive star forming region Cyg X (at 1700 pc); these encompass a range of cloud environments including regions of clustered and isolated star formation and regions of low and high mass star formation. Using Spitzer 3 to 24 micron photometry combined with 2MASS J, H, and K photometry we calculate SED slope and mid-IR luminosities for each of our protostars. We then use a sample of c2d protostars with known bolometric luminosities to create an empirical mid-IR/bolometric luminosity relationship, and determine bolometric luminosities for our protostars. Luminosity functions are then created for each cloud and corrected for contamination due to background galaxies, edge-on Class II YSOs, and reddened Class II YSOs. In each cloud, the luminosity function peaks near 1 Lsun, and in the more massive clouds that form higher mass stars, the luminosity functions show a tail extending up towards 1000 Lsun. We compare the luminosity functions in the different clouds and identify significant differences between the functions in different clouds, demonstrating that the luminosity function depends on the host cloud. We examine luminosity functions as a function of the surrounding density of young stars, and find that in Orion and Cyg X, and to some extent Ophiuchus, the luminosity functions of protostars in dense environments are statistically different than those in more isolated environments, with the luminosity function in dense environments in Orion and Cyg X extending to higher luminosities.
Kryukova E. E.
Megeath S.
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