Clarifying our View of Star Formation in Massive Young Clusters with Adaptive Optics
Abstract
Observations of massive (> 10^4 M_⊙), young (<10 Myr) star clusters within our Galaxy allow us to fully sample the upper end of the initial mass function within a single star formation event. Such clusters also reside in a range of environments including the Galactic disk, the Galactic center region, and immediately surrounding the supermassive black hole in our Galactic nucleus. However, studies of these clusters are limited by crowding in the dense cores, strong and variable visible extinction, and confusion between cluster members and contaminating field stars. Using Keck laser-guided adaptive optics observations, we obtain high-resolution images and high-precision proper motions to both identify individual cluster members and investigate the kinematic properties of such clusters. As we build up complete proper motion data sets for several massive young clusters, our multi-color near-infrared photometry will yield precise mass functions that can be compared to search for environmental dependencies.
Additional Information
© 2011 Astronomical Society of the Pacific. J. R. Lu's support for this work was provided by the California Institute of Technology's Millikan Postdoctoral Fellowship. The W. M. Keck Observatory is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Mauna Kea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain.Attached Files
Published - Lu2011p13930Up2010_Have_Observations_Revealed_A_Variable_Upper_End_Of_The_Initial_Mass_Function.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 24179
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110623-094921842
- Caltech Millikan Fellowship
- Created
-
2011-06-23Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2019-11-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Space Astrophysics Laboratory
- Series Name
- ASP Conference Series
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 440