DR 21: A Major Star Formation Site Revealed by Spitzer

We have obtained images of the obscured massive star-forming region DR 21 using both the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS) instruments aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. Our images cover an area of more than half a square degree. The unprecedented high sensitivity and resolution of both IRAC and MIPS allow us to reveal the complexity of this region for the first time. Our images show extended outflows from a dense disk of material. Previously observed molecular outflows from the center of DR 21 are clearly visible in our images and are embedded in a much larger region of diffuse filaments apparently flowing out from DR 21. Many of the point sources in the region seen by Spitzer at 8 and 24 μm are both very obscured and intrinsically red. We discuss the properties of some of these extremely red objects and indicate that they are likely to be Class I or earlier protostars. Other features observed include mid-infrared dark clouds that occasionally appear as swept up features from extremely red objects, including a 15 pc long north-south filament to the south of DR 21 itself.