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A HIPPARCOS Census of the Nearby OB Associations
A comprehensive census of the stellar content of the OB associationswithin 1 kpc from the Sun is presented, based on Hipparcos positions,proper motions, and parallaxes. It is a key part of a long-term projectto study the formation, structure, and evolution of nearby young stellargroups and related star-forming regions. OB associations are unbound``moving groups,'' which can be detected kinematically because of theirsmall internal velocity dispersion. The nearby associations have a largeextent on the sky, which traditionally has limited astrometricmembership determination to bright stars (V<~6 mag), with spectraltypes earlier than ~B5. The Hipparcos measurements allow a majorimprovement in this situation. Moving groups are identified in theHipparcos Catalog by combining de Bruijne's refurbished convergent pointmethod with the ``Spaghetti method'' of Hoogerwerf & Aguilar.Astrometric members are listed for 12 young stellar groups, out to adistance of ~650 pc. These are the three subgroups Upper Scorpius, UpperCentaurus Lupus, and Lower Centaurus Crux of Sco OB2, as well as VelOB2, Tr 10, Col 121, Per OB2, alpha Persei (Per OB3), Cas-Tau, Lac OB1,Cep OB2, and a new group in Cepheus, designated as Cep OB6. Theselection procedure corrects the list of previously known astrometricand photometric B- and A-type members in these groups and identifiesmany new members, including a significant number of F stars, as well asevolved stars, e.g., the Wolf-Rayet stars gamma^2 Vel (WR 11) in Vel OB2and EZ CMa (WR 6) in Col 121, and the classical Cepheid delta Cep in CepOB6. Membership probabilities are given for all selected stars. MonteCarlo simulations are used to estimate the expected number of interloperfield stars. In the nearest associations, notably in Sco OB2, thelater-type members include T Tauri objects and other stars in the finalpre-main-sequence phase. This provides a firm link between the classicalhigh-mass stellar content and ongoing low-mass star formation. Detailedstudies of these 12 groups, and their relation to the surroundinginterstellar medium, will be presented elsewhere. Astrometric evidencefor moving groups in the fields of R CrA, CMa OB1, Mon OB1, Ori OB1, CamOB1, Cep OB3, Cep OB4, Cyg OB4, Cyg OB7, and Sct OB2, is inconclusive.OB associations do exist in many of these regions, but they are eitherat distances beyond ~500 pc where the Hipparcos parallaxes are oflimited use, or they have unfavorable kinematics, so that the groupproper motion does not distinguish it from the field stars in theGalactic disk. The mean distances of the well-established groups aresystematically smaller than the pre-Hipparcos photometric estimates.While part of this may be caused by the improved membership lists, arecalibration of the upper main sequence in the Hertzsprung-Russelldiagram may be called for. The mean motions display a systematicpattern, which is discussed in relation to the Gould Belt. Six of the 12detected moving groups do not appear in the classical list of nearby OBassociations. This is sometimes caused by the absence of O stars, but inother cases a previously known open cluster turns out to be (part of) anextended OB association. The number of unbound young stellar groups inthe solar neighborhood may be significantly larger than thoughtpreviously.
| Origin and Evolution of the Cepheus Bubble
We have imaged a 10 deg x 10 deg region of the Cepheus bubble in the J =1-0 line of CO and the 21 cm line of atomic hydrogen. The CO emissiondefines a giant expanding shell 120 pc in diameter, which is similar tothat seen in the IRAS sky maps. We estimate the total gas mass in theregion to be ~4 x 10^5 M_ȯ. The total kinetic energy from theobserved spread of velocities of the molecular clouds is ~10^51 ergs. Wesuggest that the members of earlier generations of massive stars in NGC7160 are responsible for the origin of the Cepheus bubble. These starscreated an expanding compressed shell of gas that became gravitationallyunstable at an age of ~7 Myr. The members of the Cepheus OB2 associationcomprise the second, intermediate generation of stars in this regionthat formed as a consequence of this instability. The numerous colorselected IRAS point sources represent the third and youngest generationof stars in this region. Our observations suggest the great importanceof sequentially triggered star formation in the region of the Cepheusbubble.
| Helium abundance in atmospheres of stars appearing in OB associations and young clusters
An improved version of Liubimkov's (1974) method is used to determinethe relative helium abundance, N(He)/N(H), in the atmospheres of 80stars of spectral types O6.5 to B2 belonging to OB associations andyoung clusters. Specific results are presented for Mon OB1 and OB2, CepOB2 and OB3, Sco OB2, Lac OB1, Ori OB1, and Cas OB6. It is shown thatthe mean value of N(He)/N(H) increases with increasing stellar age andincreasing cluster or association size. A relative helium abundance of0.09 to 0.10 is found to be appropriate for stars that are severalmillion years old, and a relative abundance of 0.13 is obtained forstars older than 10 million years. It is noted that the latter value isalso characteristic of hot field stars.
| A Spectroscopic and Photometric Investigation of the Association Cepheus OB2
Abstract image available at:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?1968ApJ...154..923S&db_key=AST
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Member of following groups:
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Observation and Astrometry data
| Constellation: | Cepheus |
| Right ascension: | 21h27m13.42s |
| Declination: | +56°12'30.2" |
| Apparent magnitude: | 9.023 |
| Proper motion RA: | -2.1 |
| Proper motion Dec: | -3.3 |
| B-T magnitude: | 9.59 |
| V-T magnitude: | 9.07 |
Catalogs and designations:
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INHABITED SKY
