The Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP) provides the most comprehensive data set ever acquired on the X-ray emission of pre-main-sequence stars. In this paper, we study the nearly 600 X-ray sources that can be reliably identified with optically well-characterized T Tauri stars (TTSs) in the Orion Nebula Cluster. With a detection limit of L X; min $ 10 27:3 ergs s À1 for lightly absorbed sources, we detect X-ray emission from more than 97% of the optically visible late-type (spectral types F-M) cluster stars. This proves that there is no ''X-ray-quiet'' population of late-type stars with suppressed magnetic activity. We use this exceptional optical, infrared, and X-ray data set to study the dependencies of the X-ray properties on other stellar parameters. All TTSs with known rotation periods lie in the saturated or supersaturated regime of the relation between activity and Rossby numbers seen for mainsequence ( MS) stars, but the TTSs show a much larger scatter in X-ray activity than that seen for the MS stars. Strong near-linear relations between X-ray luminosities, bolometric luminosities, and mass are present. We also find that the fractional X-ray luminosity L X /L bol rises slowly with mass over the 0:1 2 M range. The plasma temperatures determined from the X-ray spectra of the TTSs are much hotter than in MS stars but seem to follow a general solar-stellar correlation between plasma temperature and activity level. The scatter about the relations between X-ray activity and stellar parameters is larger than the expected effects of X-ray variability, uncertainties in the variables, and unresolved binaries. This large scatter seems to be related to the influence of accretion on the X-ray emission. While the X-ray activity of the nonaccreting TTSs is consistent with that of rapidly rotating MS stars, the accreting stars are less X-ray active (by a factor of $2-3 on average) and produce much less well-defined correlations than the nonaccretors. We discuss possible reasons for the suppression of X-ray emission by accretion and the implications of our findings on long-standing questions related to the origin of the X-ray emission from young stars, considering in particular the location of the X-ray-emitting structures and inferences for pre-main-sequence magnetic dynamos.

We present the Coordinated Synoptic Investigation of NGC 2264, a continuous 30-day multiwavelength photometric monitoring campaign on more than 1000 young cluster members using 16 telescopes. The unprecedented combination of multi-wavelength, high-precision, high-cadence, and long-duration data opens a new window into the time domain behavior of young stellar objects. Here we provide an overview of the observations, focusing on results from Spitzer and CoRoT. The highlight of this work is detailed analysis of 162 classical T Tauri stars for which we can probe optical and mid-infrared flux variations to 1% amplitudes and sub-hour timescales. We present a morphological variability census and then use metrics of periodicity, stochasticity, and symmetry to statistically separate the light curves into seven distinct classes, which we suggest represent different physical processes and geometric effects. We provide distributions of the characteristic timescales and amplitudes, and assess the fractional representation within each class. The largest category (>20%) are optical "dippers" having discrete fading events lasting ∼1-5 days. The degree of correlation between the optical and infrared light curves is positive but weak; notably, the independently assigned optical and infrared morphology classes tend to be different for the same object. Assessment of flux variation behavior with respect to (circum)stellar properties reveals correlations of variability parameters with Hα emission and with effective temperature. Overall, our results point to multiple origins of young star variability, including circumstellar obscuration events, hot spots on the star and/or disk, accretion bursts, and rapid structural changes in the inner disk. Subject headings:Electronic address: amc@ipac.caltech.edu * Based on data from the Spitzer and CoRoT missions. The CoRoT space mission was developed and is operated by the French space agency CNES, with particpiation of ESA's RSSD

We have analyzed a number of intense X-ray flares observed in the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP), a 13 day observation of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), concentrating on the events with the highest statistics (in terms of photon flux and event duration). Analysis of the flare decay allows to determine the physical parameters of the flaring structure, particularly its size and (using the peak temperature and emission measure of the event) the peak density, pressure, and minimum confining magnetic field. A total of 32 events, representing the most powerful '1% of COUP flares, have sufficient statistics and are sufficiently well resolved to grant a detailed analysis. A broad range of decay times are present in the sample of flares, with lc (the 1/e decay time) ranging from 10 to 400 ks. Peak flare temperatures are often very high, with half of the flares in the sample showing temperatures in excess of 100 MK. Significant sustained heating is present in the majority of the flares. The magnetic structures that are found, from the analysis of the flare's decay, to confine the plasma are in a number of cases very long, with semilengths up to '10 12 cm, implying the presence of magnetic fields of hundreds of G (necessary to confine the hot flaring plasma) extending to comparable distance from the stellar photosphere. These very large sizes for the flaring structures (length L 3 R Ã ) are not found in more evolved stars, where, almost invariably, the same type of analysis results in structures with L R Ã . As the majority of young stars in the ONC are surrounded by disks, we speculate that the large magnetic structures that confine the flaring plasma are actually the same type of structures that channel the plasma in the magnetospheric accretion paradigm, connecting the star's photosphere with the accretion disk.

In January 2003, the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP) detected about 1400 young stars during a 13.2 day observation of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). This paper is a study of the X-ray properties of a well-defined sample of 28 solar-mass ONC stars based on COUP data. Our goals are to characterize

The X-ray properties of twenty $1 Myr old O, B, and A stars of the Orion Trapezium are examined with data from the Chandra Orion Ultradeep Project (COUP). On the basis of simple theories for X-ray emission, we define two classes separated at spectral type B4: hotter stars have strong winds that may give rise to X-ray emission in small-or large-scale wind shocks, and cooler stars that should be X-ray dark due to their weaker winds and absence of outer convection zones where dynamos can generate magnetic fields. Emission by late-type magnetically active companions may be present in either class. Sixteen of the 20 stars are detected with a wide range of X-ray luminosities, log L X ergs s À1 ð Þ$29 33, and X-ray efficiencies, log (L X /L bol ) $ À4 to À8. Only two stars, 1 Ori D (B0.5) and NU Ori (B1), show exclusively the constant soft-spectrum emission at log (L X /L bol ) $ À7 expected from the standard model involving many small shocks in an unmagnetized radiatively accelerated wind. Most of the other massive O7-B3 stars exhibit some combination of soft-spectrum wind emission, hard-spectrum flaring, and /or rotational modulation indicating large-scale inhomogeneity. Magnetic confinement of winds with largescale shocks can be invoked to explain these phenomena. This is supported in some cases by nonthermal radio emission and /or chemical peculiarities, or direct detection of the magnetic field ( 1 Ori C). Most of the stars in the weak-wind class exhibit X-ray flares and log L X < 31 ergs s À1 , consistent with magnetic activity from known or unseen low-mass companions. In most cases, the X-ray spectra can be interpreted in terms of a two-temperature plasma model with a soft component of 3-10 MK and a hard component up to 40 MK. All nondetections belong to the weak-wind class. A group of stars exhibit hybrid properties-flarelike behavior superimposed on a constant component with log L X $ 32 ergs s À1 -which suggest both magnetic activity and wind emission.

We present initial results from time-series imaging at infrared wavelengths of 0.9 deg 2 in the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC). During Fall 2009 we obtained 81 epochs of Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 μm data over 40 consecutive days. We extracted light curves with ∼3% photometric accuracy for ∼2000 ONC members ranging from several solar masses down to well below the hydrogen-burning mass limit. For many of the stars, we also have time-series photometry obtained at optical (I c ) and/or near-infrared (JK s ) wavelengths. Our data set can be mined to determine stellar rotation periods, identify new pre-main-sequence eclipsing binaries, search for new substellar Orion members, and help better determine the frequency of circumstellar disks as a function of stellar mass in the ONC. Our primary focus is the unique ability of 3.6 and 4.5 μm variability information to improve our understanding of inner disk processes and structure in the Class I and II young stellar objects (YSOs). In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the YSOVAR Orion data obtained in Fall 2009 and highlight our light curves for AA-Tau analogs-YSOs with narrow dips in flux, most probably due to disk density structures passing through our line of sight. Detailed follow-up observations are needed in order to better quantify the nature of the obscuring bodies and what this implies for the structure of the inner disks of YSOs.

Based on more than four weeks of continuous high cadence photometric monitoring of several hundred members of the young cluster NGC 2264 with two space telescopes, NASA's Spitzer and the CNES CoRoT (Convection, Rotation, and planetary Transits), we provide high quality, multi-wavelength light curves for young stellar objects (YSOs) whose optical variability is dominated by short duration flux bursts, which we infer are due to enhanced mass accretion rates. These light curves show many brief -several hour to one day -brightenings at optical and near-infrared (IR) wavelengths with amplitudes generally in the range 5-50% of the quiescent value. Typically, a dozen or more of these bursts occur in a thirty day period. We demonstrate that stars exhibiting this type of variability have large ultraviolet (UV) excesses and dominate the portion of the u − g vs. g − r color-color diagram with the largest UV excesses. These stars also have large Hα equivalent widths, and either centrally peaked, lumpy Hα emission profiles or profiles with blue-shifted absorption dips associated with disk or stellar winds. Light curves of this type have been predicted for stars whose accretion is dominated by Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities at the boundary between their magnetosphere and inner circumstellar disk, or where magneto-rotational instabilities modulate the accretion rate from the inner disk. Amongst the stars with the largest UV excesses or largest Hα equivalent widths, light curves with this type of variability greatly outnumber light curves with relatively smooth sinusoidal variations associated with long-lived hot spots. We provide quantitative statistics for the average duration and strength of the accretion bursts and for the fraction of the accretion luminosity associated with these bursts.

[1] Solar X-ray and UV radiation (0.1-320 nm) received at Earth's surface is an important aspect of the circumstances under which life formed on Earth. The quantity that is received depends on two main variables: the emission of radiation by the young Sun and its extinction through absorption and scattering by the Earth's early atmosphere. The spectrum emitted by the Sun when life formed, between 4 and 3.5 Ga, was modeled here, including the effects of flares and activity cycles, using a solar-like star that has the same age now as the Sun had 4-3.5 Ga. Atmospheric extinction was calculated using the Beer-Lambert law, assuming several density profiles for the atmosphere of the Archean Earth. We found that almost all radiation with a wavelength shorter than 200 nm is attenuated effectively, even by very tenuous atmospheres. Longer-wavelength radiation is progressively less well attenuated, and its extinction is more sensitive to atmospheric composition. Minor atmospheric components, such as methane, ozone, water vapor, etc., have only negligible effects, but changes in CO 2 concentration can cause large differences in surface flux. Differences due to variability in solar emission are small compared to this. In all cases surface radiation levels on the Archean Earth were several orders of magnitude higher in the 200-300 nm wavelength range than current levels in this range. That means that any form of life that might have been present at Earth's surface 4-3.5 Ga must have been exposed to much higher quantities of damaging radiation than at present.