The Disk Population of North America and Pelican Nebulae Observed by IRAC and MIPS


First Author:
Sylvain Guieu
Email: guieu AT ipac.caltech.edu
SSC
1200 East California Blvd
Pasadena CA 91125
Coauthors:
Guieu, Sylvain, SSC
Rebull, Luisa, SSC
Stauffer, John, SSC
Hillenbrand, Lynne, Caltech
Noriega-Crespo, Alberto, SSC
Carpenter, John, Caltech
Padgett, Deborah, SSC
Stapefeldt, Karl, JPL
Strom, Stephen, NOAO
Carey, Sean, SSC

Abstract

Much of our current knowledge regarding star-forming patterns and circumstaller disk evolution derives from study of molecular cloud complexes within a few hundred parsecs of the sun. Among this group are a large number of lower-mass clouds such as Taurus and, more infrequent, are dense clouds like the Orion nebula cluster which the prototypical high-mass and high density star forming region. These nearby cloud complexes has served as our primary empirical guide to understanding the formation and early evolution of stars. However, they provide snapshot of just extrema of the star-formation process. That is important that we study more than just the nearest examples of the extrema of star formations models. The nearby (600 pc) North America and Pelican nebula are such mixed-mode star formation regions. We have conducted a large infrared imaging with the SPITZER telescope on these regions. 5 deg2 has been observed with IRAC and 6.2 deg2 with MIPS. We possess as well BV I CCD imaging for the ~2 x 2 degrees region encompassed by the complex. Thanks to IRAC and 2MASS data we found more than 1000 sources with infrared excess characteristic of young stars objects (YSOs). We have plotted the SED of each YSO from optical (when available) to MIPS 24 um and classified them to usual class III / II / Flat and I. In this contribution we discuss proportions of different YSO classes, compare them to other star forming regions, and discuss implication on cloud properties. Moreover, we discuss about the clustered spatial distribution of YSOs among the cloud and discuss the degree of cauterization function to YSO's classes.
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