Near- and Mid-Infrared Photometry of the Pleiades and a New List of Substellar Candidate Members

October 2007 • 2007ApJS..172..663S

Authors • Stauffer, John R. • Hartmann, Lee W. • Fazio, Giovanni G. • Allen, Lori E. • Patten, Brian M. • Lowrance, Patrick J. • Hurt, Robert L. • Rebull, Luisa M. • Cutri, Roc M. • Ramirez, Solange V. • Young, Erick T. • Rieke, George H. • Gorlova, Nadya I. • Muzerolle, James C. • Slesnick, Cathy L. • Skrutskie, Michael F.

Abstract • We make use of new near- and mid-IR photometry of the Pleiades cluster in order to help identify proposed cluster members. We also use the new photometry with previously published photometry to define the single-star main-sequence locus at the age of the Pleiades in a variety of color-magnitude planes. The new near- and mid-IR photometry extend effectively 2 mag deeper than the 2MASS All-Sky Point Source catalog, and hence allow us to select a new set of candidate very low-mass and substellar mass members of the Pleiades in the central square degree of the cluster. We identify 42 new candidate members fainter than K_s=14 (corresponding to 0.1 M_solar). These candidate members should eventually allow a better estimate of the cluster mass function to be made down to of order 0.04 M_solar. We also use new IRAC data, in particular the images obtained at 8 μm, in order to comment briefly on interstellar dust in and near the Pleiades. We confirm, as expected, that-with one exception-a sample of low-mass stars recently identified as having 24 μm excesses due to debris disks do not have significant excesses at IRAC wavelengths. However, evidence is also presented that several of the Pleiades high-mass stars are found to be impacting with local condensations of the molecular cloud that is passing through the Pleiades at the current epoch.

This work is based (in part) on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under NASA contract 1407.

This publication makes use of data products from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, which is a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center/California Institute of Technology, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation.

Links

• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/0704.1832
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1086%2F518961
• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2007ApJS..172..663S
• PDF https://stacks.iop.org/0067-0049/172/663/pdf
• DATA http://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJS/172/663
• DATA https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJS/172/663
• DATA https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/bibdata/2007/S/2007ApJS..172..663S.html