The SOFIA Massive (SOMA) Star Formation Survey
Abstract
Massive stars play leading roles in shaping the interstellar and intergalactic media, thus regulating star formation activity and the evolution of galaxies. The formation mechanism of massive stars remains much debated, with the central question being whether it is simply a scaled-up version of low-mass star formation from gas cores or involves more complex, chaotic accretion flows in the crowded centers of concurrently forming star clusters. Using the unique ~10 to 40 micron imaging capabilities of SOFIA-FORCAST, we are in the process of observing a large (>40) sample of high- and intermediate-mass protostars in a variety of Galactic environments. These observations probe warm dust that is often a signature of irradiated protostellar outflow cavities. Thus analysis of the resulting spectral energy distributions and multi-wavelength images and comparison with radiative transfer models provides powerful constraints on the geometry of dense accretion flows and lower density outflows around these protostars, and thus tests massive star formation theories. We summarize latest results from the SOMA survey and its impact on theoretical modeling.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #227
- Pub Date:
- January 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AAS...22731906T