The age of Taurus - environmental effects on disc lifetimes

TL;DR

This paper determines the age of the Taurus star-forming region as 3-4 million years, compares disc lifetimes in different environments, and introduces a photometric de-reddening method for young stars.

Contribution

It provides a new age estimate for Taurus, compares disc survival in different environments, and presents a novel photometric de-reddening technique.

Findings

Discs in Taurus survive longer than in dense clusters.

Taurus is approximately 3-4 million years old.

Introduces a new method for photometric de-reddening using $iZJH$ data.

Abstract

Using semi-empirical isochrones, we find the age of the Taurus star-forming region to be 3-4 Myr. Comparing the disc fraction in Taurus to young massive clusters suggests discs survive longer in this low density environment. We also present a method of photometrically de-reddening young stars using $iZJH$ data.