Related papers: Massive Star Formation
According to the magnetospheric accretion scenario, young low-mass stars are surrounded by circumstellar disks which they interact with through accretion of mass. The accretion builds up the star to its final mass and is also believed to…
Aims: Our aim is to understand the evolutionary sequence of high-mass star formation from the earliest evolutionary stage of high-mass starless cores, via high-mass cores with embedded low- to intermediate-mass objects, to finally high-mass…
Theory predicts and observations confirm that low-mass stars (like the Sun) in their early life grow by accreting gas from the surrounding material. But for stars ~ 10 times more massive than the Sun (~10 M_sun), the powerful stellar…
We present the results from a survey, designed to investigate the accretion process of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) through near infrared narrow band imaging using the H$_2$ $\nu$=1-0 S(1) transition filter. A sample of 353 Massive…
We present selected results from our ongoing investigation of high-mass star-forming regions which are based on infrared observations with ESO's ISAAC camera at the 8.2-m ANTU VLT telescope. Although these young stellar objects comprise a…
The current state-of-the-art of multi-wavelength diagnostic tools (evolutionary synthesis, photoionisation models) for massive star forming regions (HII regions, starbursts, etc.) and some of their input physics (especially model…
This chapter discusses the use and possibilities of optical and infrared interferometry to study star formation. The chapter starts with a brief overview of the star formation process and highlights the open questions from an observational…
Velocity shifts and differential broadening of radio recombination lines are used to estimate the densities and velocities of the ionized gas in several hypercompact and ultracompact HII regions. These small HII regions are thought to be at…
Our knowledge of the initial conditions and early stages of high mass star formation is very limited. We will review recent surveys of regions in the early stages of massive star formation using molecular tracers of high density and dust…
How high-mass stars form remains unclear currently. Calculation suggests that the radiation pressure of a forming star can halt spherical infall, preventing its further growth when it reaches 10 M$_{\odot}$. Two major theoretical models on…
This white paper is motivated by open questions in star formation, which can be uniquely addressed by high resolution X-ray imaging and require an X-ray observatory with large collecting area along good spectral resolution. A complete…
Massive protostars grow and evolve under the effect of rapid accretion of circumstellar gas and dust, falling at high rates ($\ge 10^{-4}$-$10^{-3}\, \rm M_{\odot}\, \rm yr^{-1}$). This mass infall has been shown, both numerically and…
(Abriged) At present, there are two scenarios for the formation of massive stars: 1) The accretion scenario and 2) The coalescence scenario, which implies the merging of intermediate mass stars. We examine here some properties of the first…
Massive stars form deeply embedded in dense molecular gas, which they stir and heat up and ionize. During an early phase, the ionization is confined to hypercompact HII regions, and the stellar radiation is entirely absorbed by dust, giving…
High-quality K-band spectra of point sources, deeply embedded in massive star-forming regions, have revealed a population of 20 young massive stars showing no photospheric absorption lines, but only emission lines. The K-band spectra…
Studies of evolved massive stars indicate that they form in a clustered mode. During the earliest evolutionary stages, these regions are embedded within their natal cores. Here, we show high-spatial-resolution interferometric dust continuum…
Young massive star-forming regions are known to produce hot molecular gas cores (HMCs) with a rich chemistry. While this chemistry is interesting in itself, it also allows to investigate important physical parameters. I will present recent…
Massive star formation exhibits an extremely rich chemistry. However, not much evolutionary details are known yet, especially at high spatial resolution. Therefore, we synthesize previously published Submillimeter Array…
In young star clusters, the density can be high enough and the velocity dispersion low enough for stars to collide and merge with a significant probability. This has been suggested as a possible way to build up the high-mass portion of the…
Similar to their low-mass counterparts, massive stars likely form via the collapse of pre-stellar molecular cores. Recent observations suggest that most massive cores are subvirial (i.e., not supported by turbulence) and therefore are…