Because of the intense brightness of the OB-type multiple star system sigma Ori, the low-mass stellar and substellar populations close to the centre of the very young sigma Orionis cluster is poorly know. I present an IJHKs survey in the cluster centre, able to detect from the massive early-type stars down to cluster members below the deuterium burning mass limit. The near-infrared and optical data have been complemented with X-ray imaging. Ten objects have been found for the first time to display high-energy emission. Previously known stars with clear spectroscopic youth indicators and/or X-ray emission define a clear sequence in the I vs. I-Ks diagram. I have found six new candidate cluster members that follow this sequence. One of them, in the magnitude interval of the brown dwarfs in the cluster, displays X-ray emission and a very red J-Ks colour, indicative of a disc. Other three low-mass stars have excesses in the Ks band as well. The frequency of X-ray emitters in the area is 80+/-20 %. The spatial density of stars is very high, of up to 1.6+/-0.1 arcmin-2. There is no indication of lower abundance of substellar objects in the cluster centre. Finally, I also report two cluster stars with X-ray emission located at only 8000-11000 AU to sigma Ori AB, two sources with peculiar colours and an object with X-ray emission and near-infrared magnitudes similar to those of previously-known substellar objects in the cluster.
We report on the discovery of a mid-infrared source at a projected distance of only 1200 AU from the O9.5 V star sigma Orionis. The spatially resolved, fan-shaped morphology and the presence of an ionization front, as well as evidence in the spectrum for processed dust grains, all suggest that it is a proto-planetary disk being dispersed by the intense ultraviolet radiation from sigma Orionis. We compute the mass budget and the photo-evaporation timescale, and discuss the possible nature of this remarkable object.
VLT/FORS spectroscopy and 2MASS near-infrared photometry, together with previously known data, have been used to establish the membership and the properties of a sample of low-mass candidate members of the sigma Orionis cluster with masses spanning from 1 Msun down to about 0.013 Msun (i.e., deuterium-burning mass limit). We have observed K-band infrared excess and remarkably intense H(alpha) emission in various cluster members, which, in addition to the previously detected forbidden emision lines and the presence of LiI in absorption at 6708 A, have allowed us to tentatively classify sigma Or…
The young sigma Orionis cluster is an indispensable basis for understanding the formation and evolution of stars, brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects. Our knowledge of its stellar population is, however, incomplete. I present the Mayrit catalogue, that comprises most of the stars and high-mass brown dwarfs of the cluster. The basis of this work is an optical-near infrared correlation between the 2MASS and DENIS catalogues in a circular area of radius 30 arcmin centred on the OB-type binary sigma Ori AB. The analysis is supported on a bibliographic search of confirmed cluster members with f…
We have obtained low resolution optical spectra of 15 isolated planetary mass objects (IPMOs) in the sigma Orionis cluster, and derived spectral types by comparison with nearby M and L dwarfs. The spectral types are in the range late M - mid L, in agreement with our expectations based on colors and magnitudes for bona fide members. Therefore, most of these objects have masses below the deuterium burning limit. About 2/3 show H(alpha) in emission at our spectral resolution. From our spectroscopic and photometric data, we infer that three IPMOs in this sample may be binaries with components of s…
The nearby young sigma Orionis cluster (~360 pc, ~3 Ma) is becoming one of the most important regions for the study of ultra low-mass star formation and its extension down to the mass regimes of the brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects. Here, I introduce the sigma Orionis cluster and present three studies that the JOVIAN group is developing: a pilot programme of near-infrared adaptive-optics imaging, intermediate-resolution optical spectroscopy of a large sample of stars of the cluster and a study of the mass function down to the planetary-mass domain. This paper is a summary of the content…
The young sigma Orionis cluster in the Orion Belt is an incomparable site for studying the formation and evolution of high-mass, solar-like, and low-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and substellar objects below the deuterium burning mass limit. The first version of the Mayrit catalogue was a thorough data compilation of cluster members and candidates, which is regularly used by many authors of different disciplines. I show two new applications of the catalogue and advance preliminar results on very wide binarity and the initial mass function from 18 to 0.035 Msol in sigma Orionis. The making-up of a …
Context: The very young sigma Orionis cluster (about 3 Ma) is a cornerstone for the understanding of the formation of stars and substellar objects down to planetary masses. However, its stellar population is far to be completely known. Aims: This study has the purpose of identyfing and characterising the most massive stars of sigma Orionis to complement current and future deep searches for brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects in the cluster. Methods: I have cross-correlated the sources in the Tycho and 2MASS catalogues in a region of 30 arcmin radius with centre in the O-type star sigma Ori…
(Abridged). We have conducted deep photometric searches for substellar members of the Praesepe (0.5-1 Gyr) and sigma Orionis (3 Myr) star clusters using the Sloan i' and z' filters, the 3.5-m and the 5-m Hale telescopes on the Calar Alto and Palomar Observatories, respectively. The total area surveyed was 1177 arcmin^2 (Praesepe) and 1122 arcmin^2 (sigma Orionis) down to 5-sigma detection limits of i'= 24.5 and z'= 24 mag, corresponding to masses of 50-55 M_Jup (Praesepe) and 6 M_Jup (sigma Orionis). Besides recovering previously known cluster members reported in the literature, we have identi…
Studies of disks around young brown dwarfs are of paramount importance to our understanding of the origin, diversity and early evolution of sub-stellar objects. Here we present first results from a systematic search for disk emission in a spectroscopically confirmed sample of young objects near or below the sub-stellar boundary in a variety of star-forming regions. Our VLT and Keck L'-band observations of the sigma Orionis and TW Hydrae associations suggest that if a majority of brown dwarfs are born with disks, at least the inner regions of those disks evolve rapidly, possibly clearing out wi…
We have used precise radial velocity measurements for a large number of candidate low-mass stars and brown dwarfs, to show that the young Sigma Ori ``cluster'' consists of two spatially superimposed components which are kinematically separated by 7 km/s in radial velocity, and which have different mean ages. We examine the relationship of these two kinematic groups to other populations in the Orion OB1 association and briefly discuss the consequence of mixed age samples for ongoing investigations of the formation and evolution of low-mass objects in this much-observed region.
We present optical spectroscopy of 71 photometric candidate low-mass members of the cluster associated with Sigma Orionis. Thirty-five of these are found to pass the lithium test and hence are confirmed as true cluster members, covering a mass range of <0.055-0.3M_{sun}, assuming a mean cluster age of <5 Myr. We find evidence for an age spread on the (I, I-J) colour magnitude diagram, members appearing to lie in the range 1-7 Myr. There are, however, a significant fraction of candidates that are non-members, including some previously identified as members based on photometry alone. We see some…
We present new K- and L'-band imaging observations for members of the young (3-5 Myr) sigma Orionis cluster, obtained with UIST at UKIRT. We determine (K-L') colour excesses with respect to the photospheres, finding evidence for warm circumstellar dust around 27 out of 83 cluster members that have masses between 0.04 Msun and 1.0 Msun. This indicates a circumstellar disc frequency of at least (33 +/- 6)% for this cluster, consistent with previous determinations from smaller samples (Oliveira et al. 2004) and also consistent with the 3 Myr disc half-life suggested by Haisch et al. (2001). There…
We present new K- and L'-band imaging of a representative sample of members of the young 3-5 Myr old sigma Orionis cluster. We identified objects with (K-L') excess by analysing colour-colour diagrams and comparing the observations with empirical main-sequence colours. The derived disk frequency depends on the method used: (54 +/- 15)% if measured directly from the JHKL' colour-colour diagram; or (46 +/-14)% if excesses are computed with respect to predicted photospheric colours (according to the objects spectral types, 2-sigma excess detections). We compare the (K-L') excess with other indica…
We present new mid-infrared observations of objects in the vicinity of the O-star sigma Orionis, obtained with TIMMI-2 at ESO. By constraining their near- and mid-infrared spectral energy distributions, we established the nature of previously known IRAS sources and identified new mid-infrared sources as young stellar objects with circumstellar disks, likely massive members of the sigma Ori cluster. For two of these objects we have obtained spectroscopy in the 8-13 micron range in order to investigate the chemistry of the dust grains. TX Ori exhibits a typical silicate emission feature at 10 mi…
I have re-visited the spatial distribution of stars and high-mass brown dwarfs in the sigma Orionis cluster (~3 Ma, ~360 pc). The input was a catalogue of 340 cluster members and candidates at separations less than 30 arcmin to sigma Ori AB. Of them, 70 % have features of extreme youth. I fitted the normalised cumulative number of objects counting from the cluster centre to several power-law, exponential and King radial distributions. The cluster seems to have two components: a dense core that extends from the centre to r ~ 20 arcmin and a rarified halo at larger separations. The radial distri…
We present K-band photometry and low-resolution near-infrared spectroscopy from 1.44 to 2.45 micron of isolated planetary-mass candidate members in the sigma Orionis cluster found by Zapatero Osorio et al. The new data have been obtained with NIRC at the Keck I telescope. All of our targets, except for one, are confirmed as likely cluster members. Hence, we also confirm that the planetary-mass domain in the cluster is well populated. Using our deep K-band images we searched for companions to the targets in the separation range 0.3" to 10" up to a maximum faint limit of K=19.5 mag. One suspecte…
We report on the analysis of 2MASS near-infrared data of a sample of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the sigma Orionis cluster. Youth and cluster membership have been spectroscopically confirmed using the Li I spectral line. We find little evidence in the JHKs colour-colour diagram for near-infrared excess emission for these cluster members. By comparison with model expectations, at most 2 out of 34 stars show (H-K) colour consistent with a near-infrared excess. This scarcity of near-infrared signatures of circumstellar disks in the lower-mass and substellar regimes of this cluster contrast…
We have carried out an extensive search for X-ray emission from young, very low-mass objects near and beyond the substellar limit, making use of archived ROSAT PSPC and HRI observations pointed at Brown Dwarfs and Brown Dwarf candidates in the young sigma Orionis and Taurus-Auriga associations. In sigma Ori we identify three Brown Dwarf candidates with X-ray sources; in Taurus-Auriga we add one further X-ray detection of a Brown Dwarf to the list published earlier. We combine this data with all previously X-ray detected Brown Dwarfs and Brown Dwarf candidates in young stellar associations and …
(Abridged) The nature of S Ori 70, a faint mid-T type object found towards the direction of the young sigma Orionis cluster, is still under debate. We intend to disentangle whether it is a field brown dwarf or a 3-Myr old planetary-mass member of the cluster. We report on near-infrared JHK_s and mid-infrared [3.6] and [4.5] IRAC/Spitzer photometry recently obtained for S Ori 70. The new near-infrared images (taken 3.82 yr after the discovery data) have allowed us to derive a very small proper motion (11.0 +/- 5.9 mas/yr) for this object, which is consistent with the proper motion of the cluste…
The sigma Orionis cluster is a young association evolving under the disruptive influence of its massive O-star namesake. We are analysing this cluster as part of a program to characterise the influence of O-stars on the early stages of stellar evolution. At an age of approximately 4 Myr, this cluster is at a crucial stage in terms of disk evolution and therefore it is a key case to better constrain disk dissipation timescales. We have obtained RI photometry and optical spectroscopy of the sigma Ori cluster; we have analysed the Li I and Na I features to establish cluster membership. We have th…
Aims: We investigated in detail nine sources in the direction of the young sigma Orionis cluster, which is considered a unique site for studying stellar and substellar formation. The nine sources were selected because of some peculiar properties, such as extremely red infrared colours or too strong Halpha emission for their blue optical colours. Methods: We took high-quality, low-resolution spectroscopy (R ~ 500) of the nine targets with ALFOSC at the Nordic Optical Telescope. We also re-analyzed [24]-band photometry from MIPS/Spitzer and compiled the best photometry available at the ViJHKs pa…
We present intermediate- and low-resolution optical spectra around Halpha and LiI 6708 A for a sample of 25 low mass stars and 2 brown dwarfs with confirmed membership in the pre-main sequence stellar sigma Orionis cluster. Our observations are intended to investigate the age of the cluster. The spectral types derived for our target sample are found to be in the range K6-M8.5, which corresponds to a mass interval of roughly 1.2-0.02 Msun on the basis of state-of-the-art evolutionary models. Radial velocities (except for one object) are found to be consistent with membership in the Orion comple…
We present an RI photometric survey covering an area of 430 arcmin^2 around the multiple star Sigma Orionis. The observations were conducted with the 0.8 m IAC-80 Telescope at the Teide Observatory. The survey limiting R and I magnitudes are 22.5 and 21, and completeness magnitudes 21 and 20, respectively. We have selected 53 candidates from the I vs. R-I colour-magnitude diagram (I=14-20) that follow the previously known photometric sequence of the cluster. Adopting an age of 2-4 Myr for the cluster, we find that these objects span a mass range from 0.35 Msol to 0.015 Msol. We have performed …
We combine results from imaging searches for substellar objects in the sigma Orionis cluster and follow-up photometric and spectroscopic observations to derive a census of the brown dwarf population in a region of 847 arcmin^2. We identify 64 very low-mass cluster member candidates in this region. We have available three color (IZJ) photometry for all of them, spectra for 9 objects, and K photometry for 27% of our sample. These data provide a well defined sequence in the I vs I-J, I-K color magnitude diagrams, and indicate that the cluster is affected by little reddening despite its young age …
Nearby young clusters are privileged places to study the star formation history. Over the last decade, the sigma-Orionis cluster has been a prime location for the study of young very low mass stars, substellar and isolated planetary mass objects and the determination of the initial mass function. To extend previous studies of this association to its core, we searched for ultracool members and new multiple systems within the 1.5'x1.5' central region of the cluster. We obtained deep multi-conjugate adaptive optics (MCAO) images of the core of the sigma-Orionis cluster with the prototype MCAO fac…
We investigate the mass function in the substellar domain down to a few Jupiter masses in the young sigma Orionis open cluster (3+/-2 Ma, d = 360^+70_-60 pc). We have performed a deep IJ-band search, covering an area of 790 arcmin^2 close to the cluster centre. This survey was complemented with an infrared follow-up in the HKs- and Spitzer 3.6-8.0 mum-bands. Using colour-magnitude diagrams, we have selected 49 candidate cluster members in the magnitude interval 16.1 mag < I < 23.0 mag. Accounting for flux excesses at 8.0 mum and previously known spectral features of youth, 30 objects are bona …
We present results of a 90 ksec Chandra X-ray observation of the young sigma Orionis cluster (age ~3 Myr) obtained with the High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer. We use the high resolution grating spectrum and moderate resolution CCD spectrum of the massive central star sigma Ori AB (O9.5V + B0.5V) to test wind shock theories of X-ray emission and also analyze the high spatial resolution zero-order ACIS-S image of the central cluster region. Chandra detected 42 X-ray sources on the primary CCD (ACIS-S3). All but five have near-IR or optical counterparts and about one-fourth are variab…
We have carried out multi-epoch, time-series differential I-band photometry of a large sample of objects in the south-east region of the young (~3 Myr), nearby (~350 pc) sigma Orionis open cluster. A field of ~1000 arcmin^2 was monitored during four nights over a period of two years. Using this dataset, we have studied the photometric variability of twenty-eight brown dwarf cluster candidates with masses ranging from the stellar-substellar boundary down to the planetary-mass domain. We have found that about 50% of the sample show photometric variability on timescales from less than one hour to…
The recent detection by direct imaging of three giant planets at wide separation (50-250 AU) from their primaries has raised the question about the ``true isolation'' of planetary-mass objects in clusters. Our goal was to test the possibility that some free-floating planetary-mass object could in fact be part of wide planetary systems. We searched in the literature for stellar and brown-dwarf member candidates of the sigma Orionis cluster at small angular separations from published candidate planetary-mass objects. We found one candidate planetary system, SE 70, composed of an X-ray source and…
We have obtained multi-epoch, high-resolution spectroscopy of 218 candidate low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the young clusters around sigma Ori and lambda Ori. We find that 196 targets are cluster members based on their radial velocity, the equivalent width of their NaI 8200 lines and the spectral type from their TiO band strength. We have identified 11 new binary stars among the cluster members based on their variable radial velocity and an additional binary from the variation in its line width and shape. The sample covers the magnitude range Ic=14-18.9 (mass =~ 0.55-0.03 Msun), but all of…
We present radial velocities for 38 low-mass candidate members of the sigma Orionis young group. We have measured their radial velocities by cross-correlation of high resolution (R~6000) AF2/WYFFOS spectra of the gravity sensitive NaI doublet at 8183, 8195Angstroms. The total sample contained 117 objects of which 54 have sufficient signal-to-noise to detect NaI at an equivalent width of 3Angstroms, however we only detect NaI in 38 of these. This implies that very low-mass members of this young group display weaker NaI absorption than similarly aged objects in the Upper Scorpius OB association.…
Intermediate resolution (R=7000) spectroscopy is presented for 76 photometrically selected very low mass (0.04<M<0.3M_{sun}) candidate members of the Sigma Orionis cluster. More than two thirds appear to be genuine cluster members on the basis of Li I absorption, weak Na I features and radial velocities. Photometric selection alone therefore appears to be very effective in identifying cluster members in this mass range. Only 6 objects appear to be certain non-members, however a substantial subset of 13 have ambiguous or contradictory indications of membership and lack Li absorption. Four candi…
We present a CCD-based photometric survey covering 870 sq. arcmin in a young stellar cluster around the young multiple star sigma Orionis. Our survey limiting R, I, and Z magnitudes are 23.2, 21.8, and 21.0, respectively. From our colour-magnitude diagrams, we have selected 49 faint objects, which smoothly extrapolate the photometric sequence defined by more massive known members. Adopting the currently accepted age interval of 2-10 Myr for the Orion 1b association and considering recent evolutionary models, our objects may span a mass range from 0.1 down to 0.02 Msun, well within the substell…
Aims: The objective of this study is to determine the general X-ray properties of the young stars in the external regions of the sigma Orionis cluster (tau ~ 3 Ma, d ~ 385 pc) and yield constraints on the X-ray emission of brown dwarfs. Methods: We carried out a careful analysis of public data taken in an unexplored region to the west of the centre of the cluster with the three EPIC cameras onboard the XMM-Newton mission. We looked for new X-ray young stars among the 41 identified X-ray sources in the area with maximum likelihood parameters L > 15 by cross-correlation with the USNO-B1, DENIS, …
The massive OB-type binary sigma Ori AB is in the centre of the very young sigma Orionis cluster. I have computed the most probable distances and masses of the binary for several ages using a dynamical parallax-like method. It incorporates the BVRIH-band apparent magnitudes of both components, precise orbital parameters, interstellar extinction and a widely used grid of stellar models from the literature, the Kepler's third law and a chi^2 minimisation. The derived distance is 334^(+25)_(-22) pc for an age of 3+/-2 Ma; larger ages and distances are unlikely. The masses of the primary and the s…
We have performed a census of disks around brown dwarfs in the Sigma Ori cluster using all available images from IRAC onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. To search for new low-mass cluster members with disks, we have measured photometry for all sources in the Spitzer images and have identified the ones that have red colors that are indicative of disks. We present 5 promising candidates, which may consist of 2 brown dwarfs, 2 stars with edge-on disks, and a low-mass protostar if they are bona fide members. Spectroscopy is needed to verify the nature of these sources. We have also used the Spit…
We report on the discovery of a free-floating methane dwarf toward the direction of the young star cluster sigma Orionis. Based on the object's far-red optical and near-infrared photometry and spectroscopy, we conclude that it is a possible member of this association. We have named it as S Ori J053810.1-023626 (S Ori 70 is the abridged name). If it is a true member of sigma Orionis, the comparison of the photometric and spectroscopic properties of S Ori 70 with state-of-the-art evolutionary models yields a mass of 3 (+5/-1) Jupiter mass for ages between 1 Myr and 8 Myr. The presence of such a …
Using the high-level Balmer lines and continuum, we trace the density structure of two magnetospheric disk segments of the prototypical Bp star sigma Ori E (B2p) as these segments occult portions of the star during the rotational cycle. High-resolution spectra of the Balmer lines >H9 and Balmer edge were obtained on seven nights in January-February 2007 at an average sampling of 0.01 cycles. We measured equivalent width variations due to the star occultations by two disk segments 0.4 cycles apart and constructed differential spectra of the migrations of the corresponding absorptions across the…
We report very intense and variable Halpha emission (pseudo-equivalent widths of ~180, 410 A) of S Ori 55, a probable free-floating, M9-type substellar member of the young sigma Orionis open star cluster. After comparison with state-of-the-art evolutionary models, we infer that S Ori 55 is near or below the cluster deuterium-burning mass borderline, which separates brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects. We find its mass to be 0.008-0.015 Msun for ages between 1 Myr and 8 Myr, with ~0.012 Msun the most likely value at the cluster age of 3 Myr. The largest Halpha intensity reached the saturati…
Aims: We look for new regions for the search of substellar objects. Methods: Two circular areas, 45 arcmin-radius each, centred on the young massive star systems Alnilam and Mintaka in the Orion Belt, have been explored. The regions are very young (less than 10 Ma), have low extinction, and are neighbours to sigma Orionis (~3 Ma), a young open cluster very rich in brown dwarfs and planetary-mass objects. We have used Virtual Observatory tools, the astro-photometric Tycho-2, DENIS and 2MASS catalogues, 10 control fields at similar galactic latitudes, and X-ray, mid-infrared and spectroscopic da…
In this paper we present the mass functions in the substellar regime of three young open clusters, IC 348, $σ$ Orionis and Pleiades, as derived using the data from the 2 Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) catalogue which has a limiting magnitude of K_s ~ 15, and the latest version of the Guide Star Catalogue (GSC) which has a limiting magnitude of F ~ 21 where F refers to the POSS II IIIa-F passband. Based on recent evolutionary models for low mass stars, we have formulated the selection criteria for stars with masses below 0.5 solar mass. Using a statistical approach to correct for the background …
We report here on the photometric and kinematic properties of a well defined group of nearly 200 low-mass pre-main sequence stars, concentrated within ~ 1 deg of the early-B star 25 Ori, in the Orion OB1a sub-association. We refer to this stellar aggregate as the 25 Orionis group. The group also harbors the Herbig Ae/Be star V346 Ori and a dozen other early type stars with photometry, parallaxes, and some with IR excess emission, consistent with group membership. The number of high and low-mass stars is in agreement with expectations from a standard Initial Mass Function. The velocity distribu…
We report new near-infrared, long-baseline interferometric observations at the AU scale of the pre-main-sequence star FU Orionis with the PTI, IOTA and VLTI interferometers. This young stellar object has been observed on 42 nights over a period of 6 years from 1998 to 2003. We have obtained 287 independent measurements of the fringe visibility with 6 different baselines ranging from 20 to 110 meters in length, in the H and K bands. Our extensive (u,v)-plane coverage, coupled with the published spectral energy distribution data, allows us to test the accretion disk scenario. We find that the mo…
We report new Spitzer Space Telescope observations from the IRAC and MIPS instruments of the young (~ 3 Myr) sigma Orionis cluster. We identify 336 stars as members of the cluster using optical and near-infrared color magnitude diagrams. Using the spectral energy distribution (SED) slopes in the IRAC spectral range, we place objects in several classes: non-excess stars, stars with optically thick disks(like classical T Tauri stars), class I (protostellar) candidates, and stars with ``evolved disks''; the last exhibit smaller IRAC excesses than optically thick disk systems. In general, this cla…
We present XMM-Newton observations of the young (~2-5 Myr) cluster around the hot (O9.5V) star sigma Orionis AB, aimed at obtaining a high resolution RGS spectrum of the hot star as well as EPIC imaging data for the whole field. We show that the RGS spectrum of sigma Ori AB may be contaminated by weaker nearby sources which required the development of a suitable procedure to extract a clean RGS spectrum and to determine the thermal structure and wind properties of the hot star. We also report on the detection of a flare from the B2Vp star sigma Ori E and we discuss whether the flare originated…
We report differential I-band and J-band photometry of S Ori 45, a cool (M8.5), young (1-8 Myr) brown dwarf of the sigma Orionis cluster with a likely mass estimated at around 20 times the mass of Jupiter. We detect variability (amplitudes ranging from 34 to 81 mmag) and observe a modulation at a period of 2.5-3.6 h in both optical and near-infrared light curves. The most recent optical data set, however, presents a modulation at the very short period of 46.4+/-1.5 min, which remains a mystery. The origin of the 2.5-3.6 h modulation is analized in terms of various scenarios: inhomogeneous feat…
We present the results of an XMM-Newton observation of the young (~2-4 Myr) cluster around the hot star sigma Orionis. In a previous paper we presented the analysis of the RGS spectrum of the central hot star; here we discuss the results of the analysis of the full EPIC field. We have detected 175 X-ray sources, 88 of which have been identified with cluster members, including very low-mass stars down to the substellar limit. We detected eleven new possible candidate members from the 2MASS catalogue. We find that late-type stars have a median log L_X/L_bol ~ -3.3, i.e. very close to the saturat…
The existence of complex stellar populations in some star clusters challenges the understanding of star formation. E.g. the ONC or the sigma Orionis cluster host much older stars than the main bulk of the young stars. Massive star clusters (omega Cen, G1, M54) show metallicity spreads corresponding to different stellar populations with large age gaps. We show that (i) during star cluster formation field stars can be captured and (ii) very massive globular clusters can accrete gas from a long-term embedding inter stellar medium and restart star formation.
We use several main-sequence models to derive distances (and extinctions), with statistically meaningful uncertainties for 11 star-forming-regions and young clusters. The model dependency is shown to be small, allowing us to adopt the distances derived using one model. Using these distances we have revised the age order for some of the clusters of Mayne et al (2007). The new (approximate) nominal ages are: 2 Myrs for NGC6530 and the ONC, 3 Myrs for Lambda Orionis, NGC2264 and Sigma Orionis, 4-5 Myrs for NGC2362, 13 Myrs for h and chi Per, 20 Myrs for NGC1960 and 40 Myrs for NGC2547. In cases o…
We estimate the rate at which stars are captured by supermassive black holes (BHs) in the centres of bulges and elliptical galaxies assuming that these initially had an isothermal cusp (rho ~ r^{-2} with velocity dispersion sigma_*). If radial orbits can be adequately replenished a BH can grow significantly by capturing stars and particles of the dark halo; the latter could be up to 20--40 percent of the total mass captured. A tight relation M_bh 10^8 (sigma_*/200\kms)^5 between BH hole mass and stellar velocity dispersion arises at the high mass end M_bh >= 10^8 M_sun if these giant BHs grow …
We present a statistical method to derive the mass functions of open clusters using sky survey data such as the 2 Micron All Sky Survey and the Guide Star Catalogue. We have used this method to derive the mass functions in the stellar/substellar regime of three young, nearby open clusters, namely IC 348, Sigma-Orionis and Pleiades. The mass function in the low mass range (M < 0.5 solar mass) is appreciably flatter than the stellar Salpeter function for all three open clusters. The contribution of objects below 0.5 solar mass to the total mass of the cluster is ~40% and the contribution of obje…
We study the spatial structure and sub-structure of regions rich in Hipparcos stars with blue B_T-V_T colours. These regions, which comprise large stellar complexes, OB associations, and young open clusters, are tracers of on-going star formation in the Galaxy. The DBSCAN (Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise) data clustering algorithm is used to look for spatial overdensities of early-type stars. Once an overdensity, "agglomerate", is identified, we carry out a data and bibliographic compilation of their star member candidates. The actual membership in agglomerate of ea…
We use three--integral models to infer the distribution function (DF) of the boxy E3-E4 galaxy NGC 1600 from surface brightness and line profile data on the minor and major axes. We assume axisymmetry and that the mass-to-light ratio is constant in the central ~1 R_e. Stars in the resulting gravitational potential move mainly on regular orbits. We use an approximate third integral K from perturbation theory, and write the DF as a sum of basis functions in the three integrals E, L_z and K. We then fit the projected moments of these basis functions to the kinematic observables and deprojected de…
This proceeding summarises the talk of the awardee of the Spanish Astronomical Society award to the the best Spanish thesis in Astronomy and Astrophysics in the two-year period 2006-2007. The thesis required a tremendous observational effort and covered many different topics related to brown dwarfs and exoplanets, such as the study of the mass function in the substellar domain of the young sigma Orionis cluster down to a few Jupiter masses, the relation between the cluster stellar and substellar populations, the accretion discs in cluster brown dwarfs, the frequency of very low-mass companions…
We report on the finding of the strongest H(alpha) emission -pseudoequivalent width of 705 Angstrom- known so far in a young, late type dwarf. This object, named as SOri71, is a substellar candidate member of the 1-8 Myr star cluster sigma Orionis. Due to its overluminous location in color-magnitude diagrams, SOri71 might be younger than other cluster members, or a binary of similar components. Its mass is in the range 0.021-0.012 M(sun), depending on evolutionary models and possible binarity. The broad H(alpha) line of SOri71 appears asymmetric, indicative of high velocity mass motions in the…
The cold dark matter (CDM) scenario generically predicts the existence of triaxial dark matter haloes which contain notable amounts of substructure. However, analytical halo models with smooth, spherically symmetric density profiles are routinely adopted in the modelling of light propagation effects through such objects. In this paper, we address the biases introduced by this procedure by comparing the surface mass densities of actual N-body haloes against the widely used analytical model suggested by Navarro, Frenk and White (1996) (NFW). We conduct our analysis in the redshift range of 0.0 -…
We conduct an intensive study of the rich, X-ray luminous galaxy cluster A773 at z=0.22 containing a diffuse radio halo to determine its dynamical status. Our analysis is based on new spectroscopic data obtained at the TNG telescope for 107 galaxies, 37 spectra recovered from the CFHT archive and new photometric data obtained at the INT telescope. We use statistical tools to select 100 cluster members (out to ~1.8 Mpc from the cluster centre), to analyse the kinematics of cluster galaxies and to determine the cluster structure. Our analysis is also performed by using X-ray data stored in the C…
'Isolated planetary mass objects' (IPMOs) have masses close to or below the Deuterium-burning mass limit (~15 Jupiter masses) -- at the bottom of the stellar initial mass function. We present an exploratory survey for disks in this mass regime, based on a dedicated observing campaign with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our targets include the full sample of spectroscopically confirmed IPMOs in the Sigma Orionis cluster, a total of 18 sources. In the mass range 8... 20 MJup, we identify 4 objects with >3sigma colour excess at a wavelength of 8.0mu, interpreted as emission from dusty disks. We thu…
We have compiled and studied photometric and spectroscopic data published in the literature of several star forming regions and young open clusters (Orion, Taurus, IC348, Sco-Cen Complex, Chamaeleon I, TW Hya association, sigma Orionis cluster, IC2391, alpha Per cluster and the Pleiades). Our goal was to seek the definition of a simple empirical criterion to classify stars or brown dwarfs which are accreting matter from a disk on the sole basis of low-resolution optical spectroscopic data. We show that using Halpha equivalent widths and spectral types we can statistically classify very young s…
We analyse absorption line-strength indices for ~3000 red-sequence galaxies in 94 nearby clusters, to investigate systematic variations of their stellar content with location in the host cluster. The data are drawn from the NOAO Fundamental Plane Survey. Our adopted method is a generalization of that introduced by Nelan et al. to determine the global age-mass and metallicity-mass relations from the same survey. We find strong evidence for a change in galaxy properties, at fixed mass, over a range from the cluster centre to the virial radius, R_200. For example, red-sequence galaxies further ou…
