The Stellar Population of RCW 38

Author(s)
S. Wolk, B. Spitzbart, T. Bourke, J. Alves
Abstract

We report on results of a 96.7 ks Chandra observation of one of the

youngest, most embedded and massive young stellar clusters studied to

date in X-rays -- RCW 38. In addition to its mass and youth, this

cluster is remarkable due to its extended X-ray emission which is

surrounded by a continuum radio ring. With Chandra, we detect 485 point

sources ranging down to a sensitivity limit of ˜ 1028

ergs s-1. Of these sources, about 200 appear to be cluster

members and most of these have IR counterparts in our VLT data. We have

modeled the coronae as Raymond-Smith plasmas. We find that the column

densities vary from 1020 to 1023 NH and

temperature varies from 0.2 to 8 keV. Five percent of the sources

exhibit flares while about 30% are classified as variable.

 

We acknowledge support from CXC contract (NAS8-39073) and and NASA/CXC

grant GO2-3105X.

Organisation(s)
Department of Astrophysics
External organisation(s)
Joint ALMA Observatory, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Journal
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
Volume
35
Pages
1219
ISSN
0002-7537
Publication date
12-2003
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103004 Astrophysics
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/the-stellar-population-of-rcw-38(af9117e3-5683-4211-bcb6-ff02ae7f5bca).html