The Spitzer Legacy survey “From Molecular Cores to Planet-forming Disks” (c2d Evans et al. 2003) provided infrared observations of sources that span the evolutionary sequence from molecular cores to proto-planetary disks, encompassing a wide range of starforming environments. These overall observations allowed to study crucial steps in the formation of stars and planets with unprecedented sensitivity. We present some results from the Spitzer observations and complementary data in the low-mass star forming regions in Chamaeleon II and Lupus. We focus, in particular, on the star-formation history and activity of these clouds, the low-mass end of their IMF and the envelope/disk properties of their
Context. Most studies of the stellar and substellar populations of star-forming regions rely on using the signatures of accretion, outflows, disks, or activity characterizing the early stages of stellar evolution. However, these signatures rapidly decay with time.Aims. We present the results of a wide-area study of the stellar population of clouds in the Lupus star-forming region. When combined with 2MASS photometry, our data allow us to fit the spectral energy distributions of over 150 000 sources and identify possible new members based on their photospheric fluxes, independent of any display of the signposts of youth.Methods. We used the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at the La Silla 2.2 m telescope to image an area of more than 6 square degrees in the Lupus 1, 3 and 4 clouds in the RC, IC, and zWFI bands, selected so as to overlap with the areas observed in the Spitzer Legacy Program “From molecular cores to planet-forming disks”. We complement our data with 2MASS photometry to sample the spectral energy distribution from 0.6 μm to 2.2 μm. We validate our method on the census of known members of the Lupus clouds, for which spectroscopic classification is available. The temperatures derived for cool objects are generally accurate, with most of the exceptions attributed to veiling, strong emission lines at short wavelengths, near-infrared excess, variability, or the presence of close companions.Results. Considering that the dereddened fluxes of most cool (Teff < 3500 K) young stellar objects at the distance of Lupus occupy a gap between those typical both of field cool dwarfs and of background giants, we identify a new population of cool members of Lupus 1 and 3. The approximately 130 new members are only moderately concentrated toward the densest clouds, they appear to have ages in the same range as the known members, and very few show the infrared excess caused by warm disks. This population is absent in Lupus 4.Conclusions. This new population of Lupus members seems to be composed of stars and brown dwarfs that have lost their inner disks on a timescale of a few Myr or less. Almost all these objects are in low extinction regions. We speculate that dissipation of unshielded disks caused by nearby O stars or fast collapse of the pre-(sub)stellar cores triggered by the passage of old supernova shocks may have led to disk properties and evolutionary paths very different from those resulting from the more quiescent environment provided by dense molecular clouds.
We report on the Herschel Gould Belt survey (HGBS) of ChaII, focusing on the detection of Class I to III young stellar objects (YSOs). We aim at characterizing the circumstellar material around these YSOs and understanding which disk parameters are most likely constrained by the new HGBS data. We recovered 29 out of the 63 known YSOs in ChaII with a detection in at least one of the PACS/SPIRE pass-bands: 3 Class I YSOs (i.e.,100%), 1 Flat source (i.e., 50%), 21 Class II objects (i.e., 55%), 3 Class III objects (i.e, 16%) and the unclassified source IRAS 12522-7640. We explore PACS/SPIRE colors of this sample and present modeling of their SEDs using the RADMC-2D radiative transfer code. We find that YSO colors are confined in specific regions of PACS/SPIRE color-color diagrams. These color ranges are expected to be only marginally contaminated by extragalactic sources and field stars and, hence, provide a useful YSO selection tool when applied altogether. We were able to model the SED of 26 out of the 29 detected YSOs. We discuss the degeneracy/limitations of our SED fitting results and adopt the Bayesian method to estimate the probability of different values for the derived disk parameters. The Cha II YSOs present typical disk inner radii around 0.1 AU. The lower limit to Rc is typically around 50 AU. The lower limits to Mdisk are proportional to the stellar masses with a typical 0.3% ratio, i.e., in the range estimated in the literature for young Class II stars and brown dwarfs across a broad range of stellar masses. The estimated flaring angles, although very uncertain, point towards rather flat disks (1+phi less than 1.2), as found for low-mass M-type YSO samples in other star forming regions. Thus, our results support the idea that disk properties show a dependence on stellar properties.
Context. We report on the Herschel Gould Belt survey (HGBS) of the Chamaeleon II (Cha II) star-forming region, focusing on the detection of Class I to III young stellar objects (YSOs).
Aims. We aim at determining the rotational periods and the starspot properties in very young low-mass stars belonging to the Ori OB1c star forming region, contributing to the study of the angular momentum and magnetic activity evolution in these objects. Methods. We performed an intensive photometric monitoring of the PMS stars falling in a field of about 10 in the vicinity of the Orion nebula cluster (ONC), also containing the BD eclipsing system 2MASS J05352184-0546085. Photometric data were collected between November 2006 and January 2007 with the REM telescope in the bands. The largest number of observations is in the I band (about 2700 images) and in J and H bands (about 500 images in each filter). From the observed rotational modulation, induced by the presence of surface inhomogeneities, we derived the rotation periods. The long time-baseline (nearly three months) allowed us to detect rotation periods, also for the slowest rotators, with sufficient accuracy (). The analysis of the spectral energy distributions and, for some stars, of high-resolution spectra provided us with the main stellar parameters (luminosity, effective temperature, mass, age, and ) which are essential for the discussion of our results. Moreover, the simultaneous observations in six bands, spanning from optical to near-infrared wavelengths, enabled us to derive the starspot properties for these very young low-mass stars.Results. In total, we were able to determine the rotation periods for 29 stars, spanning from about 0.6 to 20 days. Thanks to the relatively long time-baseline of our photometry, we derived periods for 16 stars and improved previous determinations for the other 13. We also report the serendipitous detection of two strong flares in two of these objects. In most cases, the light-curve amplitudes decrease progressively from the R to H band as expected for cool starspots, while in a few cases, they can only be modelled by the presence of hot spots, presumably ascribable to magnetospheric accretion. The application of our own spot model to the simultaneous light curves in different bands allowed us to deduce the spot parameters and particularly to disentangle the spot temperature and size effects on the observed light curves.
We searched for isolated planetary-mass T-dwarfs in the 3Myr old Serpens Core cluster. We performed a deep imaging survey of the central part of this cluster using the WIRCam camera at the CFHT. Observations were performed through the narrow-band CH4_off and CH4_on filters, to identify young T-dwarfs from their 1.6micr methane absorption bands, and the broad-band JHK filters, to better characterize the selected candidates. We complemented our WIRCam photometry with optical imaging data from MegaCam at CFHT and Suprime-Cam at the Subaru telescope and mid-IR flux measurements from the Spitzer c2d Legacy Survey. We report four faint T-dwarf candidates in the direction of the Serpens Core with CH4_on-CH4_off above 0.2 mag, estimated visual extinction in the range 1-9 mag and spectral type in the range T1-T5 based on their dereddened CH4_on-CH4_off colors. Comparisons with T-dwarf spectral models and optical to mid-IR color-color and color-magnitude diagrams, indicate that two of our candidates (ID1 and 2) are background contaminants (most likely heavily reddened low-redshift quasars). The properties of the other two candidates (ID3 and 4) are consistent with them being young members of the Serpens Core cluster, although our analysis can not be considered conclusive. In particular, ID3 may also be a foreground T-dwarf. It is detected by the Spitzer c2d survey but only flux upper limits are available above 5.8 microns and, hence, we can not assess the presence of a possible disk around this object. However, it presents some similarities with other young T-dwarf candidates (SOri70 in the Sigma Ori cluster and CFHTJ0344+3206 in the direction of IC348). If ID3 and 4 belong to Serpens, they would have a mass of a few Jupiter masses and would be amongst the youngest, lowest mass objects detected in a star-forming region so far.
We present c2d Spitzer/IRAC observations of the Lupus I, III and IV dark clouds and discuss them in combination with optical and near-infrared and c2d MIPS data. With the Spitzer data, the new sample contains 159 stars, 4 times larger than the previous one. It is dominated by low- and very-low mass stars and it is complete down to M $\approx$ 0.1M$_\odot$. We find 30-40 % binaries with separations between 100 to 2000 AU with no apparent effect in the disk properties of the members. A large majority of the objects are Class II or Class III objects, with only 20 (12%) of Class I or Flat spectrum sources. The disk sample is complete down to ``debris''-like systems in stars as small as M $\approx$ 0.2 M$_\odot$ and includes sub-stellar objects with larger IR excesses. The disk fraction in Lupus is 70 -- 80%, consistent with an age of 1 -- 2 Myr. However, the young population contains 20% optically thick accretion disks and 40% relatively less flared disks. A growing variety of inner disk structures is found for larger inner disk clearings for equal disk masses. Lupus III is the most centrally populated and rich, followed by Lupus I with a filamentary structure and by Lupus IV, where a very high density core with little star-formation activity has been found. We estimate star formation rates in Lupus of 2 -- 10 M$_\odot$ Myr$^{-1}$ and star formation efficiencies of a few percent, apparently correlated with the associated cloud masses.
