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Star formation in the "Gulf of Mexico"

T. Armond, B. Reipurth, J. Bally, C. Aspin

Abstract
We present an optical/infrared study of the dense molecular cloud, L935, dubbed "The Gulf of Mexico", which separates the North America and the Pelican nebulae, and we demonstrate that this area is a very active star forming region. A wide-field imaging study with interference filters has revealed 35 new Herbig-Haro objects in the Gulf of Mexico. A grism survey has identified 41 Hα emissionline stars, 30 of them new. A small cluster of partly embedded pre-main sequence stars is located around the known LkHα 185-189 group of stars, which includes the recently erupting FUor HBC 722.

Keywords
Herbig-Haro objects - stars: formation

Notes
Part of this work was performed at Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal.
Visiting Astronomer at the Infrared Telescope Facility which is operated by the University of Hawaii under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Astronomy & Astrophysics
Volume 528, Number of pages A125_1
2011 April

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Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia COMPETE 2020 PORTUGAL 2020 União Europeia