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[146.03] The Orion Nebula Cluster in the Near Infrared

K.W. Smith (STScI), Orion Treasury Collaboration

The HST Treasury survey of the Orion nebula region covers an area of approximately 30'x30' centred on the trapezium. 102 NICMOS fields spread over the survey region cover approximately 7% of the total area. Complementary data taken from the ground with the CTIO Blanco 4m telescoe plus ISPI infrared imager cover the entire area but are less deep. The infrared data can be used to examine the population of substellar objects, and variations in this population across the cluster. The population of substellar objects is of particular interest since the IMF may sharply decline at the deuterium burning limit, and the population of stellar objects should truncate at about M=6M_Jup, as such objects cannot become Jeans-unstable under normal conditions. The ground based data are sensitive to objects down to below the deuterium burning limit, whilst the NICMOS data should be complete down to planetary mass objects.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.