The Faint End of the Trapezium Cluster Luminosity Function

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

1

Scientific paper

We present the preliminary results from a deep HST/WFPC2 survey of the Orion Trapezium cluster (d 450 pc, age 1 Myr). The goal of this work is to determine the low-mass end of the initial mass function, to search for brown dwarfs, and to explore the close binary population in the cluster. The Trapezium region was surveyed in 10 separate pointings with the WFPC2 covering an area of 6 x 6 arcminutes centered on the cluster. Exposures of 60 s + 2 x 500 s through the F547M filter and 60 s + 2 x 300 s through the F791W filter were made at each position. The combined deep exposures give us limiting magnitudes of V 23 and I 22. Ultimately these data will enable us to determine the effects of environment -- star/gas densities and the presence of massive stars -- on the form of the initial mass function and binary distribution as well as to extend the search for brown dwarfs in this very young cluster to 0.02 Msun. We present here a color-magnitude diagram for all stars in the region of our survey and a luminosity function for faint candidate members of the Trapezium cluster as derived from our data. This work is supported in part by NASA grant GO-06666.01-95A from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The Faint End of the Trapezium Cluster Luminosity Function does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Faint End of the Trapezium Cluster Luminosity Function, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Faint End of the Trapezium Cluster Luminosity Function will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1740089

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.