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Undetected Binary Stars Cause an Observed Mass-dependent Age Gradient in Upper Scorpius

  • Authors: Kendall Sullivan and Adam L. Kraus

2021 The Astrophysical Journal 912 137.

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 11.

Input (dark blue) and output (all stars: light blue; M stars: black) age distributions for exact-distance (left) and inexact-distance (right) analyses. The mean and median for the F (M) stars are shown as solid and dotted red (black) vertical lines, respectively. In the exact-distance case, the average F star age is 10.4 Myr with an rms of 2.2 Myr, and the average M age is 7.0 Myr with an rms of 4.3 Myr. In the inexact case, the F age is 10.5 Myr with an rms of 3.5 Myr, and the M age is 7.5 Myr with an rms of 5.8 Myr. Binary M stars produce a young peak in both scenarios, biasing the apparent mean age to younger values than those for F stars. The bimodality of the M star distribution in the exact-distance analysis is somewhat smoothed in the inexact-distance analysis, where incorrect distances create more heterogeneity in the measured population ages.

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