We use Two-Micron All-Sky Survey and Midcourse Space Experiment infrared observations, along with new molecular line (CO) observations, to examine the distribution of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the molecular cloud surrounding the halo H II region KR 140 in order to determine if the ongoing star formation activity in this region is dominated by sequential star formation within the photodissociation region (PDR) surrounding the H II region. We find that KR 140 has an extensive population of YSOs that have 'spontaneously' formed due to processes not related to the expansion of the H II region. Much of the YSO population in the molecular cloud is concentrated along a dense filamentary molecular structure, traced by C 18 O, that has not been erased by the formation of the exciting O star. Some of the previously observed submillimetre clumps surrounding the H II region are shown to be sites of recent intermediateand low-mass star formation while other massive starless clumps clearly associated with the PDR may be the next sites of sequential star formation.Key words: stars: formation -stars: pre-main-sequence -H II regions -infrared: stars.
I N T RO D U C T I O NThis study is the fourth in a series of papers exploring the structure of the H II region KR 140 and its associated star-forming activity. In Kerton, Ballantyne & Martin (1999) VES 735, the O star powering the H II region was examined. A second paper, Ballantyne, Kerton & Martin (2000), was a multiwavelength study of the structure, energetics, and kinematics of the H II region. Finally, Kerton et al. (2001) presented an analysis of submillimetre (submm) observations of the region at 450 and 850 μm. The main result of Kerton et al. (2001) was the discovery of numerous submm dust cores located within the molecular gas surrounding the H II region, including a large number of cores that were clearly located at the interface between ionized and molecular gas, a likely location for star formation induced or 'triggered' by the expansion of the H II region (Elmegreen 1998). Two of the more isolated cores were clearly associated with IRAS sources, but the low resolution of IRAS combined with the extensive diffuse emission of dust associated with the H II region made it impossible to determine if any of the other cores were associated with star formation activity.The goal of this study is to determine the distribution of young stellar objects (YSOs) throughout the KR 140 molecular cloud. We focus especially on the embedded stellar content of the submm cores as these are potentially the youngest star-forming regions.
E-mail: kerton@iastate.eduWe use the spatial distribution of the YSOs relative to the photodissociation region (PDR) surrounding the H II region as a means of gauging the relative importance of spontaneous and sequential, or triggered, star formation in this region. To achieve this we have analysed a combination of submm data from Kerton et al. (2001) and Moore et al. (2007), Two-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) and Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX)...