AAS 195th Meeting, January 2000
Session 2. Young Objects and Disks
Display, Wednesday, January 12, 2000, 9:20am-6:30pm, Grand Hall

[Previous] | [Session 2] | [Next]


[2.12] Adaptive Optics Imaging and Spectroscopy of MWC 1080

W. Brandner (UH/IfA), L. Close (ESO), B. Graves, M. Northcott, D. Potter, C. Roddier, F. Roddier, A. Tokunaga (UH/IfA), R. Dekany, M. Troy (JPL/Caltech), B. Brandl, T. Hayward (Cornell Univ.), E.E. Bloemhof, E. Gaidos, B.R. Oppenheimer (Caltech)

We present adaptive optics near-infrared observations of the Herbig AeBe binary MWC 1080 and its associated cluster of low-mass stars. The adaptive optics data have been obtained with the 13 element curvature sensing AO system, an optical CCD camera and the NIR camera QUIRC at the CFHT 3.6m telescope, and with the 349/241 element Shack-Hartmann AO system PALAO and the NIR camera PHARO at the Palomar 200'' (5m) telescope.

The primary and its about 3mag fainter companion are clearly detected and resolved at all wavebands from I to K. Spatially resolved K-band spectra of both components of the 0.7'' binary allow us for the first time to derive individual spectral types for both components. In addition to the central binary, the NIR data reveal about 30 faint sources within 30'' of MWC 1080. The sources exhibit various degrees of IR excess and appear to be young low-mass stars associated with MWC 1080. By comparison with theoretical pre-main sequence evolutionary tracks we are able to assign masses and ages.

Narrow-band emission line images in Br\gamma and H2 are used to identify outflow features and shocks. The high-spatial resolution data reveal that the bipolar, hourglass shaped outflow cavity around MWC 1080 is illuminated by scattered light. The pinched in, narrow waist of the hourglass can be explained by a density gradient in the circumstellar medium, possibly due to a circumstellar disk around MWC 1080.

This research is supported by NSF and NASA.


If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~brandner/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: brandner@ifa.hawaii.edu

[Previous] | [Session 2] | [Next]