NGC 346 VIHa photometry Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Dik C.
  2. De Marchi G.
  3. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

We studied the properties of star formation and the characteristics of young stars in a quiet region located beyond the outskirts of the prominent star-forming cluster NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Utilising observations from the Hubble Space Telescope across the broad V and I bands, as well as the narrow Halpha band, we identified populations with ages of roughly 10, 60, 400Myr and of 5Gyr through isochrone comparison. We successfully identified 137 bona fide pre-main sequence (PMS) candidates exhibiting Halpha excess with a significance level of 5 sigma, accompanied by a Halpha line emission equivalent width exceeding 20{AA}. Physical parameters for these PMS stars were determined, including mass, age, accretion luminosity, and mass accretion rate. Most PMS stars have an age around 16 Myr and an average mass of 0.80+/-0.16M_{sun{_. The median mass accretion rate for all 137 PMS stars is estimated to be about 8.0x10^-9^M_{sun}_/yr. While this rate is lower than that observed in the NGC 346 cluster itself, it is comparable with those measured for PMS stars in low-density star-forming regions in the SMC, despite the absence of apparent clustering and nebulosity. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that the ratios of accreting and non-accreting PMS stars to non-PMS stars and their mass accretion rate correlate with their distance from a group of hot massive stars in the vicinity. This suggests that the ultraviolet radiation emitted by these massive stars might erode the circumstellar discs of nearby PMS stars. Lastly, the overlap between our studied region and observations from the James Webb Space Telescope reveals that some of the identified PMS stars display near-infrared excess.

Keywords
  1. magellanic-clouds
  2. stellar-associations
  3. visible-astronomy
  4. h-alpha-photometry
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2026A&A...710A.246D
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/710/A246
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/710/A246

Access

Web browser access HTML
https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/710/A246
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/710/A246
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/710/A246
IVOA Table Access TAP
https://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/710/A246/table3?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/710/A246/table3?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/710/A246/table3?

History

2026-06-16T07:43:24Z
Resource record created
2026-06-16T06:43:44Z
Updated
2026-06-16T07:43:24Z
Created

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr