Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
May 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008aas...212.0711r&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #212, #7.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.199
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Although most young massive stars appear to be part of multiple systems, it is poorly understood how this multiplicity influences the formation of massive stars. The high-mass star-forming region W3 IRS 5 is a prime example of a young massive cluster where the cluster center is resolved into multiple sub-sources at cm and infrared wavelengths, a potential proto-Trapezium system. We observe W3 IRS 5 with the PdBI and investigate its protostellar content in the millimetric dust continuum down to sub-arcsecond scales and study the compact outflow components, also tracing the outflows back to their driving sources via the shock-excited SiO and SO_2 emission. We detect five millimetric sources, one of them for the first time, while for the remaining four sources counterparts were detected in the NIR, MIR or Radio wavelengths. A lower limit for the circumstellar masses of the detected sources is calculated, strongly affected by the spatial filtering of the interferometer. However the relative masses of the main sources indicate a multiple, Trapezium-like system, with separations ranging between 750 and 2000 AU. We disentangle the compact outflow component of W3 IRS 5, detecting five molecular outflows in SiO, two of them in a near line of sight direction, which allow us to see the collapsing protostars through the cavities carved by the outflows. The SO_2 velocity structure indicates a rotating bound system, and we found tentative signatures of converging flows as predicted by the gravoturbulent star formation and converging flow theories.
Beuther Henrick
Megeath Thomas S.
Rodón Javier Adrian
van der Tak F. S. F.
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