Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21546326d&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #463.26; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 36, p.1114
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We report on the preliminary results of our investigation of the properties of star formation in the 30 Doradus region, in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This study makes use of the panchromatic observations recently obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the HST in a number of broad- and narrow-band filters at visible and near infrared wavelengths (U, B, V, Halpha, I, J, H). The data clearly reveal the presence of considerable differential extinction across the field. We characterise and quantify this effect using both young main sequence stars and old red giants, showing that the two populations have different extinction properties, and use this information to derive a statistical reddening correction for each star in the field. We then search for pre-main sequence stars looking for objects with a strong (> 5 sigma) Halpha excess emission and find more than 1000 of them over the entire field. Comparison of their location in the H-R diagram with theoretical pre-main sequence evolutionary tracks reveals that about half of these objects have an age of 3 Myr, compatible with that of the massive stars in the field, whereas the rest have an age of 15 Myr, indicating that more than one episode of star formation has taken place in the recent past in this area.
This paper is based on Early Release Science observations made by the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee. We are grateful to the Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute for awarding Director's Discretionary time for this programme.
Andersen Morten
de Marchi Guido
Mutchler Max
Panagia Nino
Paresce Francesco
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