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We aim at characterizing the low-mass (sub)stellar population of the central portion (2.4 pc$^2$) of the $\sim$2 Myr old cluster NGC 2244 using near infrared spectroscopy. By studying this cluster, characterized by a low stellar density and numerous OB stars, we aim at exploring the effect that OB stars may have on the production of BDs. We obtain near infrared HK spectroscopy of 85 faint candidate members of NGC 2244. We derive the spectral type and extinction by comparison with spectral templates. We evaluate cluster membership using three gravity-sensitive spectral indices based on the shape of the $H$-band. Furthermore, we evaluate the infrared excess from Spitzer of all the candidate members of the cluster. Finally, we estimate the mass of all the candidate members of the cluster and derive the initial mass function, star-to-BD number ratio and disk fraction. The initial mass function is well represented by a power law ($dN/dM \propto M^{-\alpha}$) below 0.4 $M_\odot$, with a slope $\alpha$ = 0.7-1.1 depending on the fitted mass range. We calculate a star-to-BD number ratio of 2.2-2.8. We find the low-mass population of NGC 2244 to be consistent with nearby star-forming regions, although it is at the high-end of BD production. We find BDs in NGC 2244 to be on average closer to OB stars than to low-mass stars, which could potentially be the first evidence of OB stars affecting the formation of BDs. We find a disk fraction of all the members with spectral type later than K0 of 39$\pm$9% which is lower than typical values found in nearby star-forming regions of similar ages., Comment: Accepted by A&A, KMOS spectroscopic data will be made public on Vizier upon publication

This paper continues our study of the foreground population to the Orion molecular clouds. The goal is to characterize the foreground population north of NGC 1981 and to investigate the star formation history in the large Orion star-forming region. We focus on a region covering about 25 square degrees, centered on the $\epsilon$ Orionis supergiant (HD 37128, B0\,Ia) and covering the Orion Belt asterism. We used a combination of optical (SDSS) and near-infrared (2MASS) data, informed by X-ray (\textit{XMM-Newton}) and mid-infrared (WISE) data, to construct a suite of color-color and color-magnitude diagrams for all available sources. We then applied a new statistical multiband technique to isolate a previously unknown stellar population in this region. We identify a rich and well-defined stellar population in the surveyed region that has about 2\,000 objects that are mostly M stars. We infer the age for this new population to be at least 5\, Myr and likely $\sim10$\,Myr and estimate a total of about 2\,500 members, assuming a normal IMF. This new population, which we call the Orion Belt population, is essentially extinction-free, disk-free, and its spatial distribution is roughly centered near $\epsilon$ Ori, although substructure is clearly present. The Orion Belt population is likely the low-mass counterpart to the Ori OB Ib subgroup. Although our results do not rule out Blaauw's sequential star formation scenario for Orion, we argue that the recently proposed blue streams scenario provides a better framework on which one can explain the Orion star formation region as a whole. We speculate that the Orion Belt population could represent the evolved counterpart of an Orion nebula-like cluster., Comment: 13 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication to A&A

Context. The properties of dust grains, in particular their size distribution, are expected to differ from the interstellar medium to the high-density regions within molecular clouds. Aims. We measure the mid-infrared extinction law produced by dense material in molecular cloud cores. Since the extinction at these wavelengths is caused by dust, the extinction law in cores should depart from that found in low-density environments if the dust grains have different properties. Methods. We use the unbiased LINES method to measure the slope of the reddening vectors in color-color diagrams. We derive the mid-infrared extinction law toward the dense cores B59 and FeSt 1-457 in the Pipe Nebula over a range of visual extinction between 10 and 50 magnitudes, using a combination of Spitzer/IRAC, and ESO NTT/VLT data. Results. The mid-infrared extinction law in both cores departs significantly from a power-law between 3.6 and 8 micron, suggesting that these cores contain dust with a considerable fraction of large dust grains. We find no evidence for a dependence of the extinction law with column density up to 50 magnitudes of visual extinction in these cores, and no evidence for a variation between our result and those for other clouds at lower column densities reported elsewhere in the literature. This suggests that either large grains are present even in low column density regions, or that the existing dust models need to be revised at mid-infrared wavelengths. We find a small but significant difference in the extinction law of the two cores, that we tentatively associate with the onset of star formation in B59., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted to A&A

We present H- and Ks-band imaging of three fields at the centre of 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud, obtained as part of the Science Demonstration programme with the Multi-conjugate Adaptive optics Demonstrator (MAD) at the Very Large Telescope. Strehl ratios of 15-30% were achieved in the Ks-band, yielding near-infrared images of this dense and complex region at unprecedented angular resolution at these wavelengths. The MAD data are used to construct a near-infrared luminosity profile for R136, the cluster at the core of 30 Dor. Using cluster profiles of the form used by Elson et al., we find the surface brightness can be fit by a relatively shallow power-law function (gamma~1.5-1.7) over the full extent of the MAD data, which extends to a radius of ~40" (~10pc). We do not see compelling evidence for a break in the luminosity profile as seen in optical data in the literature, arguing that cluster asymmetries are the dominant source, although extinction effects and stars from nearby triggered star-formation likely also contribute. These results highlight the need to consider cluster asymmetries and multiple spatial components in interpretation of the luminosity profiles of distant unresolved clusters. We also investigate seven candidate young stellar objects reported by Gruendl & Chu from Spitzer observations, six of which have apparent counterparts in the MAD images. The most interesting of these (GC09: 053839.24-690552.3) appears related to a striking bow-shock--like feature, orientated away from both R136 and the Wolf-Rayet star Brey 75, at distances of 19.5" and 8" (4.7 and 1.9pc in projection), respectively., Comment: 16 pages, 21 figures (1 degraded for submission), accepted by MNRAS. Version 2 contains changes from proofs

We reveal the stellar light emerging from the kiloparsec-scale, ring-like structure of the NGC5128 (Centaurus A) galaxy in unprecedented detail. We use arcsecond-scale resolution near infrared images to create a "dust-free" view of the central region of the galaxy, which we then use to quantify the shape of the revealed structure. At the resolution of the data, the structure contains several hundreds of discreet, point-like or slightly elongated sources. Typical extinction corrected surface brightness of the structure is K_S = 16.5 mag/arcsec^2, and we estimate the total near infrared luminosity of the structure to be M = -21 mag. We use diffraction limited (FWHM resolution of ~ 0.1", or 1.6 pc) near infrared data taken with the NACO instrument on VLT to show that the structure decomposes into thousands of separate, mostly point-like sources. According to the tentative photometry, the most luminous sources have M_K = -12 mag, naming them red supergiants or relatively low-mass star clusters. We also discuss the large-scale geometry implied by the reddening signatures of dust in our near infrared images., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A&A Letters. A version with high resolution images can be downloaded from http://www.helsinki.fi/~jtkainul/CenALetter

Aims. We investigate the validity of the mass segregation indicators commonly used in analysing young stellar clusters. Methods. We simulate observations by constructing synthetic seeing-limited images of a 1000 massive clusters (10^4 Msun) with a standard IMF and a King-density distribution function. Results. We find that commonly used indicators are highly sensitive to sample incompleteness in observational data and that radial completeness determinations do not provide satisfactory corrections, rendering the studies of radial properties highly uncertain. On the other hand, we find that, under certain conditions, the global completeness can be estimated accurately, allowing for the correction of the global luminosity and mass functions of the cluster. Conclusions. We argue that there is currently no observational evidence of mass segregation in young compact clusters since there is no robust way to differentiate between true mass segregation and sample incompleteness effects. Caution should then be exercised when interpreting results from observations as evidence of mass segregation., Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, typos corrected. Download a high-resolution version at http://www.astro.up.pt/~jascenso/mseg_v2.pdf (1 MB)

We evaluate the performance of the Multi-conjugate Adaptive optics Demonstrator (MAD) from H and Ks imaging of 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Maps of the full-width half maximum (FWHM) of point sources in the H and Ks images are presented, together with maps of the Strehl ratio achieved in the Ks-band observations. Each of the three natural guide stars was at the edge of the MAD field-of-view, and the observations were obtained at relatively large airmass (1.4-1.6). Even so, the Strehl ratio achieved in the second pointing (best-placed compared to the reference stars) ranged from 15% to an impressive 30%. Preliminary photometric calibration of the first pointing indicates 5 sigma sensitivities of Ks=21.75 and H=22.25 (from 22 and 12 min exposures, respectively)., Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, to appear in "Adaptive Optics Systems", SPIE conference, Marseille, 23-28 June 2008. Full resolution version can be downloaded from http://www.roe.ac.uk/~mac/MAD.html