We have selected red MSX sources (RMS) that have the colours of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs). Our aim is to generate a large, systematically selected sample to address questions such as their luminosity function, lifetimes, clustering and triggering. Other objects such as UCHIIs, PN, PPN and AGB stars have similar IR colours and a large programme of ground-based follow-up observations is underway to identify and eliminate these from the sample of the red MSX sources. These include radio continuum observations, kinematic distances, ground-based mid-IR imaging, near-IR imaging and spectroscopy to distinguish. We report the progress of these campaigns on the 3000 candidates, with initial indications showing that a substantial fraction are indeed massive YSOs.
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0404093,
title = {A systematic search for massive young stars in the Galaxy - the RMS survey},
author = {MG Hoare and SL Lumsden and RD Oudmaijer and AL Busfield and TL King and TLJ Moore},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0404093},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
3 pages, 4 figures Talk in conference: Milky Way surveys, the structure and evolution of our Galaxy, Boston 2003