A Millimeter Continuum Survey for Massive Protoclusters in the Outer Galaxy

Autor(en)

R. Klein, B. Posselt, K. Schreyer, J. Forbrich, Th. Henning

Abstrakt

Our search for the earliest stages of massive star formation turned up

12 massive pre-protocluster candidates plus a few protoclusters. For

this search, we selected 47 FIR-bright IRAS sources in the outer Galaxy.

We mapped regions of several square arcminutes around the IRAS source in

the millimeter continuum in order to find massive cold cloud cores

possibly being in a very early stage of massive star formation. Masses

and densities are derived for the 128 molecular cloud cores found in the

obtained maps. We present these maps together with near-infrared,

mid-infrared, and radio data collected from the 2MASS, MSX, and NVSS

catalogs. Further data from the literature on detections of high-density

tracers, outflows, and masers are added. The multiwavelength data sets

are used to characterize each observed region. The massive cloud cores

(M>100 M_solar) are placed in a tentative evolutionary

sequence depending on their emission at the investigated wavelengths.

Candidates for the youngest stages of massive star formation are

identified by the lack of detections in the above-mentioned

near-infrared, mid-infrared, and radio surveys. Twelve massive cores

prominent in the millimeter continuum fulfill this requirement. Since

neither FIR nor radio emission have been detected from these cloud

cores, massive protostars must be very deeply embedded in these cores.

Some of these objects may actually be pre-protocluster cores: an up to

now rare object class, where the initial conditions of massive star

formation can be studied.

 

Organisation(en)

Institut für Astrophysik

Externe Organisation(en)

Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, University of California, Berkeley, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series

Band

161

Seiten

361-393

ISSN

0067-0049

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1086/496962

Publikationsdatum

12-2005

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103004 Astrophysik

Schlagwörter

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/afe0e0fc-2fa7-4dcf-b34d-62b412ee79f3