Abstract

We estimate the accretion rates of 235 Classical T Tauri star (CTTS) candidates in the Lagoon Nebula using ugri H alpha photometry from the VST Photometric H alpha survey+. Our sample consists of stars displaying H alpha excess, the intensity of which is used to derive accretion rates. For a subset of 87 stars, the intensity of the u-band excess is also used to estimate accretion rates. We find the mean variation in accretion rates measured using H alpha and u-band intensities to be similar to 0.17 dex, agreeing with previous estimates (0.04-0.4 dex) but for a much larger sample. The spatial distribution of CTTS align with the location of protostars and molecular gas suggesting that they retain an imprint of the natal gas fragmentation process. Strong accretors are concentrated spatially, while weak accretors are more distributed. Our results do not support the sequential star-forming processes suggested in the literature.