Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 268
This version created on 05 October 2006

A Distibuted Population of Low Mass Pre-Main Sequence Stars Near the
Taurus Molecular Clouds


C.L. Slesnick
J.M. Carpenter
L.A. Hillenbrand
E.E. Mamajek

We are conducting a wide-field (~250  square degrees) B,R,I
photometric monitoring campaign to identify new young and
intermediate-age objects towards the ~1 Myr-old Taurus star-forming
region.  Follow-up optical spectroscopy led to identification of 42
new low mass pre-main sequence stars, of which approximately half
exhibit surface gravity signatures similar to members of Taurus while
the other half exhibit surface gravity signatures similar to members
of the somewhat older ~5 Myr-old Upper Sco association.  The pre-main
sequence stars are spread over ~35 deg, and many are located well
outside of previously explored regions.  From assessment of the
spatial and proper motion distributions, we argue that the new
pre-main sequence stars identified far from the clouds cannot have
originated from the vicinity of the 1-2 Myr-old subclusters which
contain the bulk of the identified Taurus members, but instead
represent a newly-identified area of recent star-formation near the
clouds.

----------------------------------