A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF STAR-FORMING REGION AFGL 490

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal 2012-06, Vol.752 (2), p.1-15
• Main Authors: MASIUNAS, L. C, GUTERMUTH, R. A, PIPHER, J. L, MEGEATH, S. T, MYERS, P. C, ALLEN, L. E, KIRK, H. M, FAZIO, G. G
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ASTRONOMY; ASTROPHYSICS; ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; Clusters; DENSITY; Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; Graph theory; MAIN SEQUENCE STARS; MASS; Molecular clouds; NEAR INFRARED RADIATION; PHOTOMETRY; SEGREGATION; Segregations; Slopes; Star formation
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/752/2/127

We present Spitzer IRAC and MIPS observations of the star-forming region containing intermediate-mass young stellar object (YSO) AFGL 490. We supplement these data with near-IR Two Micron All Sky Survey photometry and with deep Simultaneous Quad Infrared Imaging Device observations off the central high-extinction region. We have more than doubled the known membership of this region to 57 Class I and 303 Class II YSOs via the combined 1-24 mu m photometric catalog derived from these data. We construct and analyze the minimum spanning tree of their projected positions, isolating one locally overdense cluster core containing 219 YSOs (60.8% of the region's members). We find this cluster core to be larger yet less dense than similarly analyzed clusters. Although the structure of this cluster core appears irregular, we demonstrate that the parsec-scale surface densities of both YSOs and gas are correlated with a power-law slope of 2.8, as found for other similarly analyzed nearby molecular clouds. We also explore the mass segregation implications of AFGL 490's offset from the center of its core, finding that it has no apparent preferential central position relative to the low-mass members.