Young stellar objects and triggered star formation in the vulpecula ob association
Abstract
The Vulpecula OB association, VulOB1, is a region of active star formation located in the Galactic plane at 2.3 kpc from the Sun. Previous studies suggest that sequential star formation is propagating along this 100 pc long molecular complex. In this paper, we use Spitzer MIPSGAL and GLIMPSE data to reconstruct the star formation history of VulOB1, and search for signatures of past triggering events. We make a census of young stellar objects (YSOs) in Vul OB1 based on IR color and magnitude criteria, and we rely on the properties and nature of these YSOs to trace recent episodes of massive star formation. We find 856 YSO candidates, and show that the evolutionary stage of the YSO population in Vul OB1 is rather homogeneous—ruling out the scenario of propagating star formation. We estimate the current star formation efficiency to be ~8%. We also report the discovery of a dozen pillar-like structures, which are confirmed to be sites of small scale triggered star formation.
Additional Information
© 2010 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2009 November 16; accepted 2010 February 5; published 2010 March 8. The authors thank S. Bontemps for providing the extinction map of Vul OB1. This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. This research used the facilities of the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre operated by the National Research Council of Canada with the support of the Canadian Space Agency. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The Virginia Tech Spectral-Line Survey (VTSS) is supported by the National Science Foundation. This research has made use of the SIMBAD database, operated at CDS, Strasbourg, France. This research has made use of the NASA/ IPAC Infrared Science Archive, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Facilities: SpitzerAttached Files
Published - Billot2010p7390Astrophys_J.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 17830
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20100331-112817584
- NSF
- Created
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2010-04-02Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)