SUMMARY OF PROPOSAL 52004

DR. JOEL H. KASTNER
JHK@JUGGLER.MIT.EDU

MASS. INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
77 MASS. AVE.
CAMBRIDGE
MA USA 02139
Tel: (617) 253-3875 Fax: (617) 253-0861
Medium: 4GBDAT
Subject: STARS

ASCA STUDIES OF THE NEAREST REGION OF STAR FORMATION


ABSTRACT

Recent studies of the classical T Tauri star (TTS) TW Hya and of five other nearby "isolated TTS" demonstrate that these 6 stars comprise a cloudless TTS association that lies only 30 pc from the Sun. All 6 systems are bright X-ray sources, with X-ray fluxes that are an order of magnitude larger, on average, than the (absorption-corrected) X-ray fluxes of T Tauri stars in well-studied dark clouds like Taurus (D=140 pc). We propose to observe these 6 stars with ASCA, to study high-temperature emission and circumstellar absorption in nearby TTS that are not obscured by cloud material. These observations will provide a new foundation for the intrepretation of X-ray spectra of cloud TTS, as well as new constraints on the rates of X-ray ionization and heating of circumstellar gas.

CO-INVESTIGATORS
CO-I NAME INSTITUTE COUNTRY
DAVID HUENEMOERDERMITUSA
ERIC GAIDOSMITUSA
DAVID WEINTRAUBVANDERBILT U.USA
BEN ZUCKERMANUCLAUSA
NORBERT SHULTZMITUSA

TARGETS

TARGET NAMEPRIRADECTIMETCOFFGISSIS CNTOBS
1)TW HYA
1
165.4667-34.7044 40 ksN
Y
P
0.12000
1

TARGET 1

THIS IS THE HIGHEST PRIORITY TARGET FOR THIS PROPOSAL.