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K. Cooksey (CTIO/ Valparaiso U.), D. Hoard, S. Wachter (CTIO/ U. Washington)
In the standard model of star formation, UV radiation from OB stars or supernovae shockwaves compresses the cold material in giant molecular clouds. Dense cores collapse due to self-gravity and accrete material until there is enough pressure to ignite nucleosynthesis, marking the beginning of the proto-star phase. This model successfully describes large conglomerations of stars. However, the spatial distribution of stars in the universe cannot be fully explained if stars only form in large clusters. Thus, effective star formation in isolated molecular clouds, far from the massive complexes but most likely still induced by them, offers an explanation for the observed distribution of stars. The region around NGC 1788, approximately 50 Mpc west of the Orion OB association, is such an isolated cloud. We conducted a multi-wavelength survey of the NGC 1788 field to characterize how star formation proceeds in isolated molecular clouds. We present color-magnitude diagrams for stars in this region, including correlations between the optical, near-IR, and X-ray sources. In addition we have obtained optical spectra of the X-ray source counterparts. The majority show Li \lambda6708 absorption, confirming their status as young objects associated with NGC 1788. This research was supported in part by the NSF through the CTIO REU program.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: Kathy.Cooksey@valpo.edu