Pre-main-sequence stars in the Lagoon Nebula (M8)

ARIAS, J; BARBA, R; MORRELL, NIDIA IRENE

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

Año: 2007 vol. 374 p. 1253 - 1263

0035-8711

We report the discovery of new pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars in the Lagoon Nebula (M8) at a distance of 1.25 kpc, based on intermediate-resolution spectra obtained with the Boller & Chivens spectrograph at the 6.5-m Magellan I Telescope (Las Campanas Observatory, Chile). According to the spectral types, the presence of emission lines and the lithium λ6708 absorption line, we are able to identify 27 classical T Tauri stars, seven weak-lined T Tauri stars and three PMS emission objects with spectral type G, which we include in a separate stellar class denominated `PMS Fe/Ge class'. Using near-infrared photometry either from the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey or from our own previous work, we derive effective temperatures and luminosities for these stars and locate them in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, in order to estimate their masses and ages. We find that almost all of our sample stars are younger than 3 × 106 yr and span over a range of masses between 0.8 and 2.5 Msolar. A cross-correlation between our spectroscopic data and the X-ray sources detected with the Chandra ACIS instrument is also presented.