RCW~38 is a uniquely young (<1 Myr), embedded (AV∼10) stellar cluster surrounding a pair of early O stars (∼O5.5) and is one of the few regions within 2 kpc other than Orion to contain over 1000 members. X-ray and deep near-infrared observations reveal a dense cluster with over 200 X-ray sources and 400 infrared sources embedded in a diffuse hot plasma within a 1 pc diameter. The central O star has evacuated its immediate surroundings of dust, creating a wind bubble ∼0.1 pc in radius that is confined by the surrounding molecular cloud, as traced by millimeter continuum and molecular line emission. The interface between the bubble and cloud is a region of warm dust and ionized gas, which shows evidence for ongoing star formation. Extended warm dust is found throughout a 2--3 pc region and coincides with extended X-ray plasma. This is evidence that the influence of the massive stars reaches beyond the confines of the O star bubble. RCW~38 appears similar in structure to RCW~49 and M~20 but is at an earlier evolutionary phase. RCW~38 appears to be a blister compact H{\small II} region lying just inside the edge of a giant molecular cloud.
@article{arxiv.0808.3385,
title = {The Embedded Massive Star Forming Region RCW 38},
author = {Scott J. Wolk and Tyler L. Bourke and Miquela Vigil},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0808.3385},
year = {2008}
}
Comments
14 Pages, 5 figures (quality reduced). Part of Handbook of Star Forming Regions Vol. II. The Southern Sky B. Reipurth ed