First 450 μm dust continuum mapping of the massive star-forming region NGC 3576 with the P-ArTéMiS bolometer camera
Abstract
Aims: In an effort to make progress in the current debate on the earliest phases of massive star formation, we took a census of Class 0-like protostellar dense cores in the NGC 3576 region, one of the nearest and most luminous embedded sites of high-mass star formation in the Galaxy.
Methods: We used the P-ArTéMiS bolometer camera on the APEX telescope to produce the first 450 μm dust continuum map of the filamentary dense clump associated with NGC 3576.
Results: Combining our 450 μm observations with existing data at other wavelengths, we identified seven massive protostellar sources along the NGC 3576 filament and placed them in the M_env-L_bol evolutionary diagram for protostars.
Conclusions: Comparison with theoretical evolutionary tracks suggests that these seven protostellar sources will evolve into massive stars with masses M_star ∼ 15-50 M_⊙. Four sources are classified as candidate high-mass Class 0 objects, two sources as massive Class I objects, and one source appears to be at an intermediate stage.
- Publication:
-
Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- November 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1051/0004-6361:200810957
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0809.3968
- Bibcode:
- 2008A&A...490L..27A
- Keywords:
-
- stars: formation;
- stars: circumstellar matter;
- ISM: clouds;
- ISM: structure;
- ISM: individual objects: NGC 3576;
- submillimeter;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 9 pages, 2 figures + 2 online figures, 2 online tables. Accepted for publication in A&