Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2006-09-28
Nature 443 (2006) 427-429
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
11 pages, 2 figures
Scientific paper
10.1038/nature05074
Theory predicts and observations confirm that low-mass stars (like the Sun) in their early life grow by accreting gas from the surrounding material. But for stars ~ 10 times more massive than the Sun (~10 M_sun), the powerful stellar radiation is expected to inhibit accretion and thus limit the growth of their mass. Clearly, stars with masses >10 M_sun exist, so there must be a way for them to form. The problem may be solved by non-spherical accretion, which allows some of the stellar photons to escape along the symmetry axis where the density is lower. The recent detection of rotating disks and toroids around very young massive stars has lent support to the idea that high-mass (> 8 M_sun) stars could form in this way. Here we report observations of an ammonia line towards a high-mass star forming region. We conclude from the data that the gas is falling inwards towards a very young star of ~20 M_sun, in line with theoretical predictions of non-spherical accretion.
Beltran Maria-Teresa
Cesaroni Riccardo
Codella Claudio
Furuya Ray S.
Olmi Luca
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