Star Formation in M17

Physics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

3

Scientific paper

M17 is a region of active high-mass star formation at a distance of 2.1 kpc. It consists of a luminous H II region, a huge adjacent molecular cloud and an embedded young cluster with an age of about 5 × 10^5 years. Spectroscopic investigations suggest that stars later than about B8 have not yet reached the main sequence. In its center two O4 and several later O-type stars seem to have triggered the formation of further young objects at the interface between the H II region and the surrounding molecular cloud. Altogether, there are several thousand infrared stars within a projected area of 3.6 × 3.7 pc. The local extinction law is characterized by a ratio of total-to-selective extinction of R = 3.9. About 74% of the investigated cluster members show infrared excess suggesting the presence of dense circumstellar material; the excess frequency is higher for fainter stars. CO band-head features indicate that accretion is still going on in a large number of objects. Nearly a thousand sources in the field are known to exhibit X-ray emission. The spatial distribution of infrared excess sources is suggestive of triggered star formation with the youngest objects populating the outer cluster regions. Spatially resolved images of circumstellar disks and shells have been obtained for a number of high-mass sources, suggesting the accretion scenario to work also in the high-mass regime.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Star Formation in M17 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Star Formation in M17, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Star Formation in M17 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-967674

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.