Infrared Imaging of the Large Magellanic Cloud Star-forming Region Henize 206

Henize 206 is a region of star formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud of the approximate scale of the Orion belt and sword. Our Spitzer Space Telescope infrared images and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) optical images show that the region is experiencing very energetic star formation. The radiation from young stars has excited strong polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission throughout Henize 206, except on the side of the nebula with the prominent young supernova remnant. As is also seen in early Spitzer observations of M81, star formation rates calculated from Hα for Henize 206 may miss the deeply embedded young stars, compared with star formation rates calculated from far infrared emission. For one of the highest surface brightness regions of Henize 206, we obtained snapshot exposures with the Thermal-Region Camera Spectrograph on Gemini South to explore the complex structure. A few percent of the total flux from this brightest region in Henize 206 emanates from infrared peaks of subparsec scale.