The first stars of the Rho Ophiuchi Dark Cloud. XMM-Newton view of Rho
  Oph and its neighbors
  Star formation in molecular clouds can be triggered by the dynamical action
of winds from massive stars. Furthermore, X-ray and UV fluxes from massive
stars can influence the life time of surrounding circumstellar disks. We
present the results of a 53 ks XMM-Newton observation centered on the Rho
Ophiuchi A+B binary system. Rho Ophiiuchi lies in the center of a ring of dust,
likely formed by the action of its winds. This region is different from the
dense core of the cloud (L1688 Core F) where star formation is at work. X-rays
are detected from Rho Ophiuchi as well as a group of surrounding X-ray sources.
We detected 89 X-ray sources, 47 of them have at least one counterpart in 2MASS
+ All-WISE catalogs. Based on IR and X-ray properties, we can distinguish
between young stellar objects (YSOs) belonging to the cloud and background
objects. Among the cloud members, we detect 3 debris disk objects and 22
disk-less / Class III young stars. We show that these stars have ages in $5-10$
Myr, and are significantly older than the YSOs in L1688. We speculate that they
are the result of an early burst of star formation in the cloud. An X-ray
energy of $\ge5\times10^{44}$ ergs has been injected into the surrounding
medium during the past $5$ Myr, we discuss the effects of such energy budget in
relation to the cloud properties and dynamics.
