Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2008-08-23
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
appearing in the Handbook of Star Forming Regions, Vol. II, Bo Reipurth, ed
Scientific paper
The W40 complex is a nearby site of recent massive star formation composed of a dense molecular cloud adjacent to an HII region that contains an embedded OB star cluster. The HII region is beginning to blister out and break free from its envelope of molecular gas, but our line of sight to the central stars is largely obscured by intervening dust. Several bright OB stars in W40 - visible at optical, infrared, or cm wavelengths - are providing the ionizing flux that heats the HII region. The known stellar component of W40 is dominated by a small number of partly or fully embedded OB stars which have been studied at various wavelengths, but the lower mass stellar population remains largely unexamined. Despite its modest optical appearance, at 600pc W40 is one of the nearest massive star forming regions, and with a UV flux of about 1/10th of the Orion Nebula Cluster, this neglected region deserves detailed investigation.
Reipurth Bo
Rodney Steven A.
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