SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · 0803.3897

Probing the Early Evolution of Young High-Mass Stars

Abstract

Near-infrared imaging surveys of high-mass star-forming regions reveal an amazingly complex interplay between star formation and the environment (Churchwell et al. 2006; Alvarez et al. 2004). By means of near-IR spectroscopy the embedded massive young stars can be characterized and placed in the context of their birth site. However, so far spectroscopic surveys have been hopelessly incomplete, hampering any systematic study of these very young massive stars. New integral field instrumentation available at ESO has opened the possibility to take a huge step forward by obtaining a full spectral inventory of the youngest massive stellar populations in star-forming regions currently accessible. Simultaneously, the analysis of the extended emission allows the characterization of the environmental conditions. The Formation and Early Evolution of Massive Stars (FEMS) collaboration aims at setting up a large observing campaign to obtain a full census of the stellar content, ionized material, outflows and PDR's over a sample of regions that covers a large parameter space. Complementary radio, mm and infrared observations will be used for the characterization of the deeply embedded population. For the first eight regions we have obtained 40 hours of SINFONI observations. In this contribution, we present the first results on three regions that illustrate the potential of this strategy.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

E. Puga, A. Bik, L. B. M. F. Waters, Th. Henning, L. Kaper, M. van den Ancker, A. Lenorzer, E. Churchwell, S. Kurtz, J. A. Rodon, T. Vasyunina, M. B. N. Kouwenhoven, H. Beuther, H. Linz, M. Horrobin, A. Stolte, A. de Koter, W. F. Thi, N. L. Martin-Hernandez, B. Acke, F. Comeron, G. van der Plas, Ch. Waelkens, C. Dominik, M. Feldt. 2008-03-27. Probing the Early Evolution of Young High-Mass Stars. https://arxiv.org/abs/0803.3897

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Interacting Phantom Energy and Avoidance of the Big Rip Singularity

Models of the universe with arbitrary (non gravitational) interaction between the components of the cosmic fluid: the phantom energy and the background, are investigated. A general form of the interaction that is inspired in scalar-tensor theories of gravity is considered. No specific model for the phantom fluid is assumed. We concentrate our investigation on solutions that are free of the coincidence problem. We found a wide region in the parameter space where the solutions are free of the big rip singularity also. Physical arguments, together with arguments based on the analysis of the observational evidence, suggest that phantom models without big rip singularity might be preferred by Nature.

astro-ph

Exploring the Small Magellanic Cloud to the Faintest X-ray Fluxes: Source Catalog, Timing and Spectral Analysis

We present the results of a pair of 100 ksec Chandra observations in the Small Magellanic Cloud to survey high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), stars and LMXBs/CVs down to Lx = 4.3 x 10^32 erg/s The two SMC Deep Fields are located in the most active star forming region of the bar, with Deep Field-1 positioned at the most pulsar-rich location identified from previous surveys. Two new pulsars were discovered in outburst: CXOU J004929.7-731058 (P=892s), CXOU J005252.2-721715 (P=326s), and 3 new HMXB candidates were identified. Of 15 Be-pulsars now known in the field, 13 were detected, with pulsations seen in 9 of them. Ephemerides demonstrate that 6 of the 10 pulsars known to exhibit regular outbursts were seen outside their periastron phase, and quiescent X-ray emission at Lx=10^33 - 10^34 is shown to be common. Comparison with ROSAT, ASCA, XMM-Newton catalogs resulted in positive identification of several previously ambiguous sources. Bright optical counterparts exist for 40 of the X-ray sources, of which 33 are consistent with early-type stars Mv<-2, B-V<0.2), and are the subject of a companion paper. The results point to an underlying HMXB population-density up to double that of active systems. The full catalog of 394 point-sources is presented along with detailed analyses of timing and spectral properties.

astro-ph

A Computer Program to Visualize Gravitational Lenses

Gravitational lenses are presently playing an important role in astrophysics. By means of these lenses the parameters of the deflector such as its mass, ellipticity, etc. and Hubble's constant can be determined. Using C, Xforms, Mesa and Imlib a computer program to visualize this lens effect has been developed. This program has been applied to generate sequences of images of a source object and its corresponding images. It has also been used to visually test different models of gravitational lenses.

astro-ph