2004/05/31 by Lori E. Allen, Nuria Calvet, Allen, Lori E. +25
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0406003
To appear in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement, Special Spitzer Space Telescope Issue
arxiv created 2004/05/31 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We compare the infrared colors predicted by theoretical models of protostellar envelopes and protoplanetary disks with initial observations of young stellar objects made with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space Telescope (Werner et al. 2004, Fazio et al. 2004). Disk and envelope models characterized by infall and/or accretion rates found in previous studies can quantitatively account for the range of IRAC colors found in four young embedded clusters: S 140, S 171, NGC 7129, and Cep C. The IRAC color-color diagram ([3.6]-[4.5] vs. [5.8]-[8.0]) can be used to help to distinguish between young stars with only disk emission and protostars with circumstellar envelopes.