CaltechAUTHORS
Published April 20, 2012 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

First Science Observations with SOFIA/FORCAST: Properties of Intermediate-luminosity Protostars and Circumstellar Disks in OMC-2

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Cornell University
  • 2. ROR icon Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
  • 3. ROR icon University of Toledo
  • 4. ROR icon University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
  • 5. ROR icon National Autonomous University of Mexico
  • 6. ROR icon Ames Research Center
  • 7. ROR icon Ithaca College
  • 8. ROR icon University of California, Los Angeles
  • 9. ROR icon University of Rochester
  • 10. ROR icon European Southern Observatory
  • 11. ROR icon Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Abstract

We examine eight young stellar objects in the OMC-2 star-forming region based on observations from the SOFIA/FORCAST early science phase, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Herschel Space Observatory, Two Micron All Sky Survey, Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, and other results in the literature. We show the spectral energy distributions (SED) of these objects from near-infrared to millimeter wavelengths, and compare the SEDs with those of sheet collapse models of protostars and circumstellar disks. Four of the objects can be modeled as protostars with infalling envelopes, two as young stars surrounded by disks, and the remaining two objects have double-peaked SEDs. We model the double-peaked sources as binaries containing a young star with a disk and a protostar. The six most luminous sources are found in a dense group within a 0.15 × 0.25 pc region; these sources have luminosities ranging from 300 L_☉ to 20 L_☉. The most embedded source (OMC-2 FIR 4) can be fit by a class 0 protostar model having a luminosity of ~50 L_☉ and mass infall rate of ~10^(–4) M_☉ yr^(–1).

Additional Information

© 2012 American Astronomical Society. Received 2012 January 6; accepted 2012 January 31; published 2012 March 29. We thank R. Grashius, S. Adams, H. Jakob, A. Reinacher, and U. Lampeter for their SOFIA telescope engineering and operations support. We also thank the SOFIA flight crews and mission operations team (A. Meyer, N. McKown, C. Kaminski) for their SOFIA flight planning and flight support. This work is based on observations made with the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA science mission operations are conducted jointly by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), Inc., under NASA contract NAS2-97001, and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) under DLR contract 50 OK 0901. Financial support for FORCAST was provided to Cornell University by NASA through award 8500-98-014 issued by USRA. M.O. acknowledges support from MICINN (Spain) grants AYA2008-06189-C03 and AYA2011-30228-C03-01 (co-funded with FEDER funds). This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by JPL/Caltech under NASA contract 1407. Facilities: Spitzer, SOFIA, Herschel, APEX

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
31329
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20120507-110857657

Funding

NASA
NAS2-97001
Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI)
DLR 50 OK 0901
NASA
8500-98-014
Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MICINN)
AYA2008-06189-C03
Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (MICINN)
AYA2011-30228-C03-01
FEDER Funds
NASA
1407

Dates

Created
2012-05-07
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-09
Created from EPrint's last_modified field