Hidden power of near-infrared data for the study of young clusters: Illustrative case of RCW 38

Abstract

Studies of star formation rely heavily on observations in the near-infrared, but they typically need information from other wavelengths for interpretation. We show that we can infer distances and estimate the membership of young stellar objects for young clusters independently using (ground-based) near-infrared, $J$, $H,$ and $K_S$ broadband data alone. We also show that we can estimate a lower limit for the fraction of sources with $2.2\mu$m excess emission with a sensitivity comparable to that of mid-infrared space data, but with better resolution and fewer biases. Finally, we show that the typical methods for inferring masses from these data may produce substantially unreliable results. This method is applied to the young, massive cluster RCW 38, for which we estimate a distance of 1.5 kpc and a $K_S$-band excess fraction larger than 60\%.

arXiv comment15 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

References in corpus (49)

• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• PARSEC: stellar tracks and isochrones with the PAdova and TRieste Stellar Evolution Code
• New evolutionary models for pre-main sequence and main sequence low-mass stars down to the hydrogen-burning limit
• Protoplanetary Disks and Their Evolution
• Color Transformations for the 2MASS Second Incremental Data Release
• The Wavelength Dependence of Interstellar Extinction from 1.25 to 8.0 microns Using GLIMPSE Data
• Gaia Data Release 2: using Gaia parallaxes
• Accretion Disks around Young Objects. I. The Detailed Vertical Structure
• Accretion Disks Around Young Objects. III. Grain Growth
• Accretion Disks Around Young Objects. II. Tests of Well-Mixed Models with Ism Dust
• Observations of IC348: The Disk Population at 2-3 Million Years
• Photoevaporation of Circumstellar Disks due to External FUV Radiation in Stellar Aggregates
• The Luminosity & Mass Function of the Trapezium Cluster: From B stars to the Deuterium Burning Limit
• Interstellar Extinction Law toward the Galactic Center III: J, H, Ks bands in the 2MASS and the MKO systems, and 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0 micron in the Spitzer/IRAC system
• An ALMA Survey of Protoplanetary Disks in the $\sigma$ Orionis Cluster
• Constraints on the Stellar/Sub-stellar Mass Function in the Inner Orion Nebula Cluster
• Protoplanetary disc evolution and dispersal: the implications of X-ray photoevaportion
• The Initial Mass Function of the Massive Star-forming Region NGC 3603 from Near-Infrared Adaptive Optics observations
• Accretion disks in luminous young stellar objects
• External photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs in sparse stellar groups: the impact of dust growth
• ALMA Observations of the Orion Proplyds
• The secrets of the nearest starburst cluster: II. The present-day mass function in NGC 3603
• SPITZER/IRAC-MIPS Survey of NGC2244: Protostellar Disk Survival in the Vicinity of Hot Stars
• T Tauri candidates and accretion rates using IPHAS: method and application to IC1396
• Correlation between the spatial distribution of the circumstellar disks and the massive stars in the open cluster NGC 6611. Compiled catalog and cluster parameters
• Star formation and disk properties in Pismis 24
• Age Gradients in the Stellar Populations of Massive Star Forming Regions Based on a New Stellar Chronometer
• The evolution of dust in discs influenced by external photoevaporation
• X-ray and IR Point Source Identification and Characteristics In the Embedded, Massive Star-Forming Region RCW 38
• Near-Infrared properties of the X-ray emitting young stellar objects in the Carina Nebula
• Early planet formation as a trigger for further planet formation
• Correlation between the spatial distribution of circumstellar disks and massive stars in the young open cluster NGC 6611. II: Cluster members selected with Spitzer/IRAC
• Disk Evolution in OB Associations - Deep Spitzer/IRAC Observations of IC 1795
• The low-mass content of the massive young star cluster RCW 38
• X-ray Photoevaporation-starved T Tauri Accretion
• Disks in the Arches cluster -- survival in a starburst environment
• Where can a Trappist-1 planetary system be produced?
• The Arches cluster out to its tidal radius: dynamical mass segregation and the effect of the extinction law on the stellar mass function
• Chronology of star formation and disk evolution in the Eagle Nebula
• No evidence for protoplanetary disk destruction by OB stars in the MYStIX sample
• The bimodal initial mass function in the Orion Nebula Cloud
• Substellar Objects in Nearby Young Clusters VII: The substellar mass function revisited
• The Structure of the Star-forming Cluster RCW 38
• A Chandra X-ray study of the young star cluster NGC 6231: low-mass population and initial mass function
• A VLT/NACO Study of Star Formation in the Massive Embedded Cluster RCW 38
• A benchmark for multi-conjugated AO: VLT-MAD observations of the young massive cluster Trumpler 14
• Protoplanetary disks in the hostile environment of Carina
• Deep near-infrared adaptive optics observations of a young embedded cluster at the edge of the RCW 41 HII region
• Infrared extinction in the Inner Milky Way through the red clump giants