Variability of Massive Young

Stellar Objects in Cygnus-X

Nancy Thomas,
University of Washington
Advisor: Dr. Joseph Hora,
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
2012 SAO Astronomy Intern Symposium
Outline
Introduction
Observations
PAIRITEL
Spitzer
Analysis & Discussion
Stetson index
Periodicity
Changes in color
SEDs
Classication of
variables
Future Work
Artists conception of a disk around a
massive baby star ESO/ L. Calada
Cloud collapse
Protostar with disk
outflow
Formation planets Solar system
t=0
t=10
5
yr
t=10
6
-10
7
yr
t>10
8
yr
Spitzer probes dust at temperatures between 100 and 1500 K.
Scenario for star- and planet formation
Formation planets Solar system
t=10
6
-10
7
yr
t>10
8
yr (?)
Class II Star
Disk
Class III
?
?
Young Stellar Objects (YSOs)
(Lada et al. 1987)
Standard Evolutionary Scenario
Cloud collapse
Protostar with disk
infall
outflow
Formation planets Solar system
Factor 1000
smaller
t=0
t=10
5
yr
t=10
6
-10
7
yr
t>10
8
yr
Single isolated low-mass star
n~10
4
-10
5
cm
-3
T~10 K
n~10
5
-10
8
cm
-3
T~10-300 K
Class I
Class 0
Note axis change! Between stages!
S
t
a
g
e
s

C
l
a
s
s
e
s

?
?
Cloud collapse
Protostar with disk
outflow
Formation planets Solar system
t=0
t=10
5
yr
t=10
6
-10
7
yr
t>10
8
yr
Spitzer probes dust at temperatures between 100 and 1500 K.
Scenario for star- and planet formation
Formation planets Solar system
t=10
6
-10
7
yr
t>10
8
yr (?)
Class II Star
Disk
Class III
?
?
Massive YSOs
High mass stars (1-10
M
!
) trigger individual
or cluster star formation
Massive YSOs group at
the center of giant
molecular clouds
Much is unknown about
how massive stars form
Optical and IR
variability caused by
stellar rotation or
variations in the disk or
accretion
Artists conception from an article
by Tom Greene in the American
Scientist, 2001, Volume 89, 316
Cygnus-X and DR21
Cygnus-X is one of the brightest regions of
the sky at all wavelengths
One of the richest known star formation
regions in the Galaxy, and the closest (1.4
kpc) one of this size
Cygnus-X is a 300 pc diameter

massive star-
forming complex
DR21 is one of the most powerful giant
molecular outows in the Galaxy and a site of
active star formation at a variety of
evolutionary stages
Spitzer IRAC image of DR21
Ground-based observational component from PAIRITEL at the
Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona
Simultaneous J (1.25 m), H (1.65 m) and K
s
(2.16 m) lter
observations
Observations of 9 elds covering DR21 obtained from 27 May
2011 to 23 June 2012
PAIRITEL Photometry
Masked unreliable data in each epoch
Used scripts to identify and perform photometry
on each object
Matched the sources identied across all three
bands into a common catalog for the epoch
Calibrated the photometry by matching to 2MASS
(Two Micron All Sky Survey Table)
Compiled all photometry measurements into one
table
Identied 9681 point sources in the DR21 eld
PAIRITEL Sensitivity
4. 0
6. 0
8. 0
1e01
2. 0
4. 0
6. 0
8. 0
1e02
2. 0
4. 0
6. 0
8. 0
1e03
2. 0
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Magni tude
N
u
m
b
e
r
J
H
K
PAIRITEL Mosaic
J (1.25 m)
H (1.65 m)
K
s
(2.16 m)
Space-based mid-IR component from The
CygnusX Legacy Project (Hora et al.
2011)
Using IRAC (I1 3.6 m, I2 4.5 m, I3 5.8
m, and I4 8.0 m) and MIPS (24 m)
Observing a 24 square degree region
centered near 20:35:25, +40:00 (J2000)
Spitzer Mosaic
I1 (3.6 m)
I4 (8.0 m)
MIPS (24 m)
Wavelength Comparison
K
s
(2.16 m) MIPS (24 m) I3 (5.8 m) I4 (8.0 m)
J (1.25 m) H (1.65 m) I1 (3.6 m) I2 (4.5 m)
To calculate the Stetson variability index S (Stetson 1996), we
use the following equation:










The Stetson Index
where p is the number of band pairs (a and b) of simultaneous
observations.
is the product of the relative error of simultaneous observations.
The relative error is dened as:

for a given band where m is the average of m
i
over the epochs.
Observed Variability

Identied 362
variable objects
with S > 1
Mean S = 0.375
for 4584 point
sources

Photospheres Type I
YSOs
Type II
YSOs
Transitional
disks
Not classied
244 2 35 1 11
Spitzer catalog classications of objects with S > 1

2MASS PAIRITEL
PAIRITEL Mosaic
J (1.25 m)
H (1.65 m)
K
s
(2.16 m)
Photospheres
Unclassied
Class I YSOs
Class II YSOs
Stetson > 1
Periodicity
Applied Lomb (1976) and Scargle (1982) Fourier
spectrum periodogram analysis using the NStED
Periodogram Service
1
Identied 6 periodic variables mean period of 8.07 days
1
http://nsted.ipac.caltech.edu/periodogram/cgi-bin/Periodogram/nph-simpleupload

Changes in Color
We identied 2MASS
20384635+4224397
as a near-IR excess
variable Class I YSO
Reddening over a
time period of
approximately one
year indicating the
presence of an
optically thick disk











Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs)
Robitaille online SED tting tool based on a large
grid of precomputed models (Robitaille et al. 2007)
Model parameters including stellar age, mass and
luminosity
Modeled 22 YSOs with masses from 1.3 to 7.3 M
!

and ages from 145,000 to 8,460,000 years old

Classication of Variables
Identied four categories of variability:
Periodic variability (6)
Random variability (320)
Long-term variability (174)
Dipping variability (36)
Periodic Variables
Example: 2MASS 20392050+4224085 (period of 10.58 days)
Caused by cold or hot spots on the star
"
#
$
%
&
'
(
)
*

2MASS 20392050+4224085
Periodogram from
NSteD indicating the
most likely period
10.58 days
Folded lightcurve
shown for 2 phases
"
#
$
%
&
'
(
)
*

+,#-*
Random Variables
Example: 20383035+4220061
Possibly due to random and chaotic variations
in the disk and accretion onto the star
"
#
$
%
&
'
(
)
*

Long-term Variables
Identied 174 long-term variable objects with greater than 0.5 mag
dierence from 2MASS measurements (time period of 10 years)
15 of these objects also displayed short term variability (S > 1)
Could be caused by changes in accretion rate over time or changes in
disk structure, size or density
Dippers
Smooth pattern followed by short dip in magnitude
2MASS 20381280+4223584 variation in all bands
Most likely caused by disk obscuring part of star at
that viewing angle
"
#
$
%
&
'
(
)
*

Future Work
Additional Spitzer observations of the
DR21 eld to characterize mid-IR
variability
Continue ground-based monitoring of
DR21 and other elds in Cygnus-X
Use optical and/or near-IR spectra of the
sources to classify spectral type,
temperature, and mass

Acknowledgements
My advisor, Joe Hora

SAO REU Program: Marie Machacek, Jonathan
McDowell, Christine Jones, and my fellow interns

This work is supported in part by the National
Science Foundation REU and Department of Defense
ASSURE programs under grant no. 0754568 and by
the Smithsonian Institution

Thank you!
Changes in Color
Observations of near-IR colors
Identied 203 NIR variables in JHK colorspace
0. 2
0. 4
0. 6
0. 8
1. 0
1. 2
1. 4
1. 6
1. 8
2. 0
2. 2
2. 4
2. 6
2. 8
3. 0
0. 0 0. 2 0. 4 0. 6 0. 8 1. 0 1. 2 1. 4 1. 6 1. 8 2. 0
H-K
J
-
H
Type I YSOs
Type II YSOs
S>1
NIR variables
Red variables
Observations of mid-IR colors
Identied 52 IRAC red variables (IRAC 13-I4 >
0.5)

Changes in Color
0. 0
0. 2
0. 4
0. 6
0. 8
1. 0
1. 2
1. 4
1. 6
1. 8
2. 0
2. 2
2. 4
2. 6
2. 8
3. 0
3. 2
-2.0 -1.5 -1.0 -0.5 0. 0 0. 5 1. 0 1. 5 2. 0 2. 5
I3-I4
I
1
-
I
2
Type I YSOs
Type II YSOs
Photospheres
Unclassed
S>1
NIR variables
Red variables
Changes in Color Field Distribution
IRAC Red Variables
PAIRITEL NIR Variables