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Post Info TOPIC: Coronet cluster
Blobrana


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Corona Australis Star Forming Region
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Title: The Corona Australis Star Forming Region
Authors: Ralph Neuhäuser (1), Jan Forbrich (2) ((1) AIU, Jena, Germany, (2) CfA, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.)

At a distance of about 130 pc, the Corona Australis molecular cloud complex is one of the nearest regions with ongoing and/or recent star formation. It is a region with highly variable extinction of up to AV~45 mag, containing, at its core, the Coronet protostar cluster. There are now 55 known optically detected members, starting at late B spectral types. At the opposite end of the mass spectrum, there are two confirmed brown dwarf members and seven more candidate brown dwarfs. The CrA region has been most widely surveyed at infrared wavelengths, in X-rays, and in the millimetre continuum, while follow-up observations from centimetre radio to X-rays have focused on the Coronet cluster.

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Blobrana


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RE: Coronet cluster
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Title: Very Low-Mass Objects in the Coronet Cluster: The Realm of the Transition Disks
Authors: Aurora Sicilia-Aguilar, Thomas Henning, Attila Juhász, Jeroen Bouwman, Gordon Garmire, Audrey Garmire

We present optical and IR spectra of a set of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the Coronet cluster (aged ~1Myr), obtained with the multifibre spectrograph FLAMES/VLT and IRS/Spitzer. The optical spectra reveal spectral types between M1 and M7.5, confirm the youth of the objects (via Li 6708 A absorption), and show the presence of accretion (via Halpha) and shocks (via forbidden line emission). The IRS spectra, together with IR photometry from the IRAC/MIPS instruments on Spitzer and 2MASS, confirm the presence of IR excesses characteristic of disks around ~70% of the objects. Half of the disks do not exhibit any silicate emission, or present flat features characteristic of large grains. The rest of the disks show silicate emission typical of amorphous and crystalline silicate grains a few microns in size. About 50% of the objects with disks do not show near-IR excess emission, having "transitional" disks, according to their classical definition. This is a very high fraction for such a young cluster. The large number of "transitional" disks suggests lifetimes comparable to the lifetimes of typical optically thick disks. Therefore, these disks may not be in a short-lived phase, intermediate between Class II and Class III objects. The median spectral energy distribution of the disks in the Coronet cluster is also closer to a flat disk than observed for the disks around solar-type stars in regions with similar age. The differences in the disk morphology and evolution in the Coronet cluster could be related to fact that these objects have very late spectral types compared to the solar-type stars in other cluster studies. Finally, the optical spectroscopy reveals that one of the X-ray sources is produced by a Herbig Haro object in the cloud.

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Blobrana


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Title: Coronae in the Coronet: A very deep X-ray look into a stellar nursery
Authors: Jan Forbrich (1,2), Thomas Preibisch (1) ((1) MPIfR Bonn, (2) AIU Jena)

In order to study the X-ray properties of young stellar objects (YSOs), we analyse an exceptionally sensitive Chandra dataset of the Coronet cluster in the CrA star-forming region, achieving a limiting luminosity of LXmin=5E26 erg/sec for lightly absorbed sources. This dataset represents one of the most sensitive X-ray observations ever obtained of a star-forming region. The X-ray data are used to investigate the membership status of tentative members of the region, to derive plasma temperatures and X-ray luminosities of the YSOs, and to investigate variability on the timescale of several years. 46 of the 92 X-ray sources in the merged Chandra image can be identified with optical or near/mid-infrared counterparts. X-ray emission is detected from all of the previously known optically visible late-type (spectral types G to M) stellar cluster members, from five of the eight brown dwarf candidates, and from nine embedded objects ("protostars") with class 0, class I, or flat-spectrum SEDs in the field of view. While the Herbig Ae/Be stars TY CrA and R CrA, a close companion of the B9e star HD 176386, and the F0e star T CrA are detected, no X-ray emission is found from any of the Herbig-Haro (HH) objects or the protostellar cores without infrared source. We find indications for diffuse X-ray emission near R CrA / IRS 7. The observed X-ray properties of the Coronet YSOs are consistent with coronal activity; no soft spectral components hinting towards X-ray emission from accretion shocks were found. The X-ray emission of the AeBe stars TY CrA and HD 176386 originates probably from close late-type companions. The Ae star R Cra shows a peculiar X-ray spectrum and an extremely hot plasma temperature. Finally, we discuss the differences of the X-ray properties of YSOs in different evolutionary stages.

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Blobrana


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While perhaps not quite as well known as its star-formation cousin Orion, the Corona Australis region (containing, at its heart, the Coronet cluster) is one of the nearest and most active regions of ongoing star formation. At only about 420 light-years away, the Coronet is over three times closer than the Orion nebula is to Earth. The Coronet contains a loose cluster of a few dozen young stars with a wide range of masses and at various stages of evolution, giving astronomers an opportunity to observe embryonic stars simultaneously in several wavelengths.

Object type: star cluster
Distance: 424 light-years
Constellation: Corona Australis

Position (J2000): RA: 19h01m45.00s Dec: -36d58m9.00s

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Coronet cluster.kmz
Google Sky file

-- Edited by Blobrana at 14:47, 2008-01-12

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