Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Herschel observations of embedded protostellar clusters in the Rosette molecular cloud

Hennemann, M., Motte, F., Bontemps, S., Schneider, N., Csengeri, T., Balog, Z., Di Francesco, J., Zavagno, A., André, Ph., Men'shchikov, A., Abergel, A., Ali, B., Baluteau, J.-P., Bernard, J.-Ph., Cox, P., Didelon, P., di Giorgio, A.-M., Griffin, Matthew Joseph ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0033-177X, Hargrave, Peter Charles ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3109-6629, Hill, T., Horeau, B., Huang, M., Kirk, Jason M., Leeks, S., Li, J. Z., Marston, A., Martin, P., Molinari, S., Nguyen Luong, Q., Olofsson, G., Persi, P., Pezzuto, S., Russeil, D., Saraceno, P., Sauvage, M., Sibthorpe, B., Spinoglio, L., Testi, L., Ward-Thompson, Derek ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1140-2761, White, G., Wilson, C. and Woodcraft, Adam 2010. Herschel observations of embedded protostellar clusters in the Rosette molecular cloud. Astronomy and Astrophysics 518 , L84. 10.1051/0004-6361/201014629

[thumbnail of observations_of_embedded_protostellar_clusters.pdf]
Preview
PDF
Download (431kB) | Preview

Abstract

The Herschel OB young stellar objects survey (HOBYS) has observed the Rosette molecular cloud, providing an unprecedented view of its star formation activity. These new far-infrared data reveal a population of compact young stellar objects whose physical properties we aim to characterise. We compiled a sample of protostars and their spectral energy distributions that covers the near-infrared to submillimetre wavelength range. These were used to constrain key properties in the protostellar evolution, bolometric luminosity, and envelope mass and to build an evolutionary diagram. Several clusters are distinguished including the cloud centre, the embedded clusters in the vicinity of luminous infrared sources, and the interaction region. The analysed protostellar population in Rosette ranges from 0.1 to about 15 with luminosities between 1 and 150 , which extends the evolutionary diagram from low-mass protostars into the high-mass regime. Some sources lack counterparts at near- to mid-infrared wavelengths, indicating extreme youth. The central cluster and the Phelps & Lada 7 cluster appear less evolved than the remainder of the analysed protostellar population. For the central cluster, we find indications that about 25% of the protostars classified as Class I from near- to mid-infrared data are actually candidate Class 0 objects. As a showcase for protostellar evolution, we analysed four protostars of low- to intermediate-mass in a single dense core, and they represent different evolutionary stages from Class 0 to Class I. Their mid- to far-infrared spectral slopes flatten towards the Class I stage, and the 160 to 70 μm flux ratio is greatest for the presumed Class 0 source. This shows that the Herschel observations characterise the earliest stages of protostellar evolution in detail.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Physics and Astronomy
Subjects: Q Science > QB Astronomy
Uncontrolled Keywords: stars: formation / stars: protostars / ISM: individual objects: Rosette
Publisher: EDP Sciences
ISSN: 0004-6361
Last Modified: 03 Dec 2023 15:28
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/10991

Citation Data

Cited 36 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics