2007/04/13 by John R. Stauffer, J. R. Stauffer, Lee W. Hartmann +24 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/518961
Accepted to ApJS; data tables and embedded-figure version available at http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/stauffer/pleiades07/
arxiv created 2007/04/13 · openalex publication_date 2007/09/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We make use of new near- and mid-IR photometry of the Pleiades cluster in order to help identify proposed cluster members. We also use the new photometry with previously published photometry to define the single-star main-sequence locus at the age of the Pleiades in a variety of color-magnitude planes. The new near- and mid-IR photometry extend effectively 2 mag deeper than the 2MASS All-Sky Point Source catalog, and hence allow us to select a new set of candidate very low-mass and substellar mass members of the Pleiades in the central square degree of the cluster. We identify 42 new candidate members fainter than K s = 14 (corresponding to 0.1 M ☉ ). These candidate members should eventually allow a better estimate of the cluster mass function to be made down to of order 0.04 M ☉ . We also use new IRAC data, in particular the images obtained at 8 μm, in order to comment briefly on interstellar dust in and near the Pleiades. We confirm, as expected, that—with one exception—a sample of low-mass stars recently identified as having 24 μm excesses due to debris disks do not have significant excesses at IRAC wavelengths. However, evidence is also presented that several of the Pleiades high-mass stars are found to be impacting with local condensations of the molecular cloud that is passing through the Pleiades at the current epoch.