BRC Proposal
Contents
Instructions
Background on Star Formation
Luisa's tutorial on star formation from cool cosmos
Notes from a U of Oregon lecture on star formation ... not as good as Luisa's lecture notes but a good launching point ... http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/ast122/lectures/lec13.html
A more detailed explanation of Star Formation from a textbook. There's more math here than we'll need. File:SF.pdf --CJohnson 11:05, 1 February 2011 (PST)
Target Selection
The list of sources that Lori suggests we consider are here:
- target selection for brc34 21h32m51.2s +58d08m43s
- target selection for brc36 21h35m32.6s +57d31m50s
- target selection for brc31 20h50m43.4s +44d21m53s
- target selection for brc27 07h04m07.8s -11d16m43s
- target selection for brc38 21h40m02.2s +58d20m31s RULE THIS OUT BECAUSE SPITZER DATA IS DONE
Let's collect information on literature references for each of these. Look in both ADS and SIMBAD for papers and previously known sources within about 30' 10' of these positions.
Help on: Basic Literature Searching -- Advanced Literature Searching -- Getting data from other wavelengths -- Guide to NITARP participants for use of the wiki
CONCLUSION OF VOTES: we should do BRC 27 AND BRC 34!
Introduction/Background
Star formation: Diane
Stars are the most numerous objects in our nighttime sky, and astronomers want to understand the details of their processes. Nebulae have long been identified as “stellar nurseries”, and few issues in astronomy are more fundamental than knowing how stars form. While forming within the clouds of gas and dust, protostars are non-luminous and shielded within their nebula, so are not visible through optical telescopes. However, infrared telescopes are able to peer through obscuring clouds of dust to find the young stellar objects forming within. Only lately has attention turned to Bright Rimmed Clouds (BRC’s) as potential loci for star formation; their “speck globules” and “cometary globules” presented interesting sites for possible star formation.
The role of BRC’s in star-formation processes makes them a topic of ongoing interest. Whether external ionization shocks compress the neutral gas into compact globules or bright rims, the boundary between neutral gas and gas ionized by incident photons is thought to be rich in potential sites for star formation. Drawn from the lists of Sugitani, Fukui, and Ogura (1991), and Sugitani and Ogura (1994), Allen and Peterson (2010?) imaged 32 of the closest bright-rimmed clouds located at estimated distances d < 1.2 kpc, finding young stellar objects in 75% of the clouds they studied.
We propose to conduct further examinations of BRC 27 and BRC 34 to search for additional young stellar objects. BRC 27 is located in the molecular cloud Canis Majoris R1. BRC 34 has a variety of features worthy of deeper examination; dark nebulae, molecular and IC clouds, emission stars, and IR sources. Allen and Peterson (2010?) found one Class I protostar in BRC 27 and 34. Far more Class II T-Tauri stars were found in those same BRC's. Beyond that, these two BRC’s have not been well studied. We believe there is more to find in these BRC’s using Spitzer Space Telescope wavelengths. --Sartore 15:01, 23 February 2011 (PST)
BRC 27: John
BRC 34: Marcella
... drop what you have here ...
Analysis Plan
--Legassie 15:53, 23 February 2011 (PST)
Outline
Available Data
- Archival Spitzer IRAC 4 bands & MIPS (Programs TBD) o Collaboration with Lori Allen (NOAO) for access to already reduced data - 2MASS ? - Optical? - Spot visualization of Spitzer data?
Data Reduction
Analysis Plan - Plan is to combine all available data and examine properties of previously known YSOs (Allen et al 2010) as well as look for new YSOs - Looking for infrared excess emission from material surrounding new stars will be the main focus of the research - Using photometry measurements, team will generate and examine several diagrams, looking for infrared excesses o Color-Color diagrams o Color-Magnitude diagrams o Spectral Energcy Distribution (SED) plots - Analysis will also involve vis
Tools - MOPEX - to create mosaics (Makovoz & Marleau 2005) - Aperture Photometry Tool (APT) - to obtain photometry (Laher et al. 2010) - Hands-On Universe Image Processing (HO-IP) for data analysis - MS Excel – to generate data diagrams (color-color, SEDs)
Education and Outreach
Starting with a general introduction to the physical properties of light, students and teachers will collaborate to synthesize observations across the spectrum. They will compare images obtained by IRAC, MIPS and IRAS to learn about spatial resolution. Evidence will be presented to help students understand how the universe is changing, how stars and planets are forming, and how stars evolve from birth to eventual death. Combining images at different wavelengths, students will be able to produce false-color images that enhance the features of young stellar objects and the ISM composition and structures.
A key initiative in science education is authentic research. Using archival Spitzer data in this project allows our students the experience to assume an active role in the process of project development, teamwork, data collection and analysis, interpretation of results, and formal scientific presentations. They will learn about the instrumentation used in infrared astronomy and the necessity of space-based telescopes. Students and teachers will use spreadsheet and graphing programs to generate color-color plots and color-magnitude diagrams to determine stellar properties. These activities will be age-appropriate and will be shared with other teachers through educational presentations at state, regional and national conferences.
Communication is an important tool in science education. Modeling the collaboration of scientists across the world, students will use the CoolWiki to post their queries and hold on-line discussions about their analysis methods and subsequent results. The CoolWiki is designed to provide a place for teachers, students, and scientists to interact and share the materials they've developed, work on new materials, and collaborate on current projects. The wiki also provides a resource for other teachers to learn how to use the materials we've developed. The wiki is a dynamic place, constantly changing and growing. (need to develop this thought further...)
Team Spitzer at Breck School Similar to previous NITARP/Spitzer projects, a small cadre of Breck School juniors and seniors will work together on this BRC project. Beginning with short tutorials on the general principles of star formation, scientific articles will be read and discussed in weekly "brown-bag discussions." Once the students feel comfortable with the material, the team will be divided into pairs to work cooperatively on the data analysis.
Marcella:
John:
Diane:
... drop one paragraph per teacher here ...
--CJohnson 19:40, 22 February 2011 (PST)
