Pre-main sequence stellar evolution with mass loss
Pre-main sequence /T Tauri/ stellar evolution, discussing mass loss rates and star formation by interstellar cloud violent hydrodynamic compression
SEARCH · Search NASA
Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
Pre-main sequence /T Tauri/ stellar evolution, discussing mass loss rates and star formation by interstellar cloud violent hydrodynamic compression
Meteorite heating by dynamo induction from pre- main sequence T Tauri type solar wind
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The preliminary results of the Einstein Observatory stellar X-ray survey are presented. To date, 143 soft X-ray sources have been identified with stellar counterparts, leaving no doubt that stars in general constitute a pervasive class of low-luminosity galactic X-ray sources. Stars along the entire main sequence, of all luminosity classes, pre-main sequence stars as well as very evolved stars have been detected. Early type OB stars have X-ray luminosities in the range 10 to the 31st to 10 to the 34th ergs/s; late type stars show a somewhat lower range of X-ray emission levels, from 10 to the 26th to 10 to the 31st ergs/s. Late type main-sequence stars show little dependence of X-ray emission levels upon stellar effective temperature; similarly, the observations suggest weak, if any, dependence of X-ray luminosity upon effective gravity. Instead, the data show a broad range of emission levels (about three orders of magnitude) throughout the main sequence later than F0.
Astronomical observations of stars analogous to the sun are used to construct a tentative account of the evolution of solar UV luminosity. Evidence exists that the young sun was a much more powerful source of energetic particles and radiation than it is today, and while on the main sequence, solar activity has declined as an inverse power law of age as a consequence of angular momentum loss to the solar wind. Observations of pre-main sequence stars indicate that before the sun reached the main sequence, it may have emitted as much as ten thousand times the amount of ultraviolet radiation that it does today. The impact of the results on knowledge of photochemistry and escape of constituents of primordial planetary atmospheres is discussed.
IUE satellite and Lick 3 m reflector image tube scanner measurements of the Mg II and Ca II resonance lines in a sample of T Tauri stars are the basis of a discussion of the Mg II h and k line emission and the Ca II H and K line emission, within the context of stellar chromospheres. Corroborative evidence is presented for the chromospheric origin of these resonance lines, and chromospheric radiative loss rates in the Mg II and Ca II resonance lines are derived. It is found that the degree of nonradiative heating present in the outer atmospheres of T Tauri stars generally exceeds that of the RS CVn systems, as well as the dMe stars and other active chromospheric dwarfs, and it is inferred that the surfaces of such pre-main sequence stars are covered by regions similar to solar plages. The mean chromospheric electron density of T Tauri stars is determined as 10 to the 11th/cu cm.
Young cluster NGC 2264 pre-main sequence A and F stars four color and H beta observation, suggesting evidence of circumstellar gas shells
Data are presented from stepwise heating experiments and total extractions on five meteorites: Kapoeta, Fayetteville, Holman Island, Cee Vee, and Pultusk. These data reveal the presence of four isotopically distinct trapped neon components. A comparison of trapped neon with trapped helium and argon in bulk analyses indicates the existence of correlated helium, neon and argon isotopic structures. Component B is attributed primarily to direct implantation of rare gas ions by the present day solar wind. Component C is identified with directly implanted low energy (1-10 Mev/n) solar flare rare gases. Component D is associated with rare gas ions implanted in meteoritic material by the primitive, pre-main sequence, solar wind. A fourth component, observed only in Kapoeta and the lunar fines and breccia, is tentatively attributed to parent body 'atmospheric' ions implanted in surface material by a solar wind induced electric field.
A new method (Shaw, 1974) for investigating paleointensity (the ancient magnetic field) was applied to three subsamples of a single, 1-m homogeneous clast from a recrystallized boulder of lunar breccia. Several dating methods established 4 billion years as the age of boulder assembly. Results indicate that the strength of the ambient magnetic field at the Taurus-Littrow region of the moon was about 0.4 oersted at 4 billion years ago. Values as high as 1.2 oersted have been reported (Collison et al., 1973). The required fields are approximately 10,000 times greater than present interplanetary or solar flare fields. It is suggested that this large field could have arisen from a pre-main sequence T-Tauri sun.
A new method (Shaw, 1974) for paleointensity determination has been applied to three subsamples of one polymict breccia, 72215 (of age 4.0 billion yr) to yield an average paleointensity of 0.41 Oe at the Taurus-Littrow region of the moon around the time of breccia formation. Of the present models for lunar magnetism, only the Sonett and Runcorn (1974) model of a central iron core dynamo can explain the presence of such a large field in early lunar history. However, because of the similarity in size of this field and that for the early solar system deduced from carbonaceous chondrites, we draw attention to an apparently little-considered possibility: that the large magnetic field in early lunar history was external and solar in origin, and emanated from a pre-main sequence T-Tauri stage sun. Therefore, there should be no record of such a large magnetic field in lunar rocks younger than approximately 4.0 billion yr.
The 5 to 25 micron observations show that an object previously discovered at 2.2 microns (IRS 5) within the densest part of the L1551 dark cloud is a strong source of radiation from grains as cool as 230 K. The energy distribution resembles that of infrared objects embedded within other molecular cloud cores, but implies a total solar luminosity of only 30. The luminosity of the source and its proximity to other T Tauri stars suggests that it is a 1 to 2 solar mass pre-main sequence star still swaddled within the L1551 cloud. The radio and optical evidence for mass motions around IRS 5 may mean that IRS 5 has been flaring in FU Ori-type eruptions within the last 1000 years.
The detection of emission from the v = 1 approaches 0 S(1) quadrupole transition of H2 toward the cluster of intense infrared and H2O maser sources in W51 (north) is reported. The apparent luminosity of this line in W51 (north) is only about 4% of the luminosity of the same line toward the Kleinmann-Low infrared cluster in Orion; however, additional line-of-sight extinction and spatial extent of the source may account for the lower apparent power in W51. Similarity in the infrared and H2O properties of these clusters is addressed. The implications of the H2 emission for mass loss in the W51 region is discussed and some proposed models of radiation-driven mass outflow from pre-main sequence stars are briefly considered.
Models of rotating, 1 solar mass stars through the pre-main sequence and main sequence stages have been calculated. The calculations begin on the Hayashi track with rapid, rigid-body rotation, with angular momentum removed from the convective envelope to simulate the effect of the solar wind as the models evolve. Interior angular momentum redistribution by circulation flows and rotational instabilities is computed by a diffusion technique. It is found that at the present age of solar evolution, the models employed have internal rotation rates significantly larger than those allowed by measured solar oblateness, suggesting that the effects of circulation currents near the outer boundary of the radiative interior have been underestimated. An important result of this study is the implication that circulation currents produce deep mixing of such minor constituents as He-3 and C-13, perhaps also explaining the observed steady depletion of lithium during the main-sequence stage.
Papers are presented concerning theories of solar variability and their consequences for luminosity, particle emission and magnetic field changes within the past 4.5 billion years, and on the records of such solar behavior in lunar, meteoritic and terrestrial materials. Specific topics include the neutrino luminosity of the sun, the relation of sunspots to the terrestrial climate of the past 100 years, solar modulation of galactic cosmic rays, the historical record of solar activity, C-14 variations in terrestrial and marine reservoirs, and solar particle fluxes as indicated by track, thermoluminescence and solar wind measurements in lunar rocks. Attention is also given to the spin-down of the solar interior through circulation currents and fluid instabilities, grain surface exposure models in planetary regoliths, rare gases in the solar wind, nitrogen isotopic variations in the lunar regolith, the influence of solar UV radiation on climate, and the pre-main sequence evolution of the sun and evidence of the primordial solar wind in the electromagnetic induction heating of the asteroids and moon.
On the basis of data from the literature and observations of both a variety of molecules in the high-velocity source of the Orion molecular cloud and high-velocity emissions in other molecular clouds, it is proposed that the high-velocity source consists of clumps of dense molecular gas which are accelerated by the high-velocity stellar wind of a pre-main sequence star. Some of the H2O maser emissions, and the H2 and Herbig-Haro-type emissions, are attributed to shocks associated with the breakup of the protostellar cocoon.
Positions, identification charts, UBVRIKLMN photometry and spectral types are given for stars, illuminating reflection nebulae that are visible on the POSS prints, which have been identified in five associations. With a ratio of total to selective extinction of 4.2, the reddening law applicable to the dust clouds in which the stars are embedded is steeper than normal. The five associations exhibit 18 early-type stars with circumstellar shells, of which those with spectral types earlier than B5 characteristically have weak IR excesses, in contrast to the strong excesses indicative of circumstellar dust, of later-type stars. Color-magnitude charts show a distribution lying above the ZAMS by up to about 2 mag for both the circumstellar shell stars and those classified as rapid rotators. It is suggested that (1) rapid rotation accounts for the scatter in the color-magnitude diagram, and (2) many of the nebulous early-type emission-line stars are rapid rotators rather than pre-main sequence objects.
Six of 24 pre-main sequence stars surveyed with the VLA have been found to emit at 4.885 GHz. Radio maps of the six stars, V410 Tau, T Tau, DG Tau, LkH-alpha 101, L1551 IRS5, and Z CMa, show unresolved cores of less than 0.5 arcsec in most cases, along with 1-2 arcsec, faint, extended structures. Mass loss rates, derived under the assumption of uniform spherical winds, range from approximately 3 x 10 to the -7th to about 4 x 10 to the -5th solar masses/year. Because the flows are highly anisotropic, however, these estimates are to be taken only as likely upper limits.
The role of infrared studies in numerous aspects of astronomy is examined. Topics include the composition of planetary atmospheres; spectrophotometric remote sensing of planets and satellites; thermal studies of planetary surfaces; infrared sources in dense molecular clouds; globules, dark clouds, and low mass pre-main sequence stars; protostellar objects; molecular hydrogen emission; and the Orion molecular cloud. Also considered are dust spectrophotometry; polarimetry of infrared sources; emission line observations of H II regions; observation and interpretation of emissions from the galactic plane; the galactic center; stellar content of extragalactic systems; star formation in galactic nuclei; and active extragalactic nuclei.