How do massive stars form?

ORAL

Abstract

Massive stars play a key role in the evolution of their host galaxies, but their formation remains not well understood. Two main competitive theories try to explain it: the turbulent core model, which is an extension of the low-mass star formation model, and models involving competitive accretion or stellar collisions. The study of the massive star-forming region IRAS 20126$+$4104 with combined data can help us to characterize the population of that cluster (age and mass of the stars) and be used to discriminate between theories. This region was observed with the X-ray space telescope CHANDRA. We detected 150 sources, and a spectroscopic analysis of each source was performed. To determine the cluster characteristics, X-ray data were combined with radio observations done with the JVLA, infrared counterparts from the survey 2MASS and the space telescope SPITZER, and optical counterparts from the TYCHO catalog. A stellar population simulation was done to determine the expected foreground and background population in the cluster (contamination). This study shows that most of the stars are in the WTTS stage and all stars except the main source are low-mass protostars. I will discuss implications of those results and the future work planned for the cluster.

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Authors

  • Virginie Montes

    New Mexico Tech

  • Benjamin Bloom

    Department of Physics, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Langmuir Laboratory, New Mexico Tech, The University of Arizona, Brigham Young University, Department of Physics Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, University of Colorado Boulder, Principal Investigator, Graduate Student, Colorado State University, SSRL, SLAC, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, Colorado State Univ, JILA, University of Colorado at Boulder, NIST, JILA, University of Colorado at Boulder, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat, Department of Physics, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO 80217, Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, The University Centre in Svalbard, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, New Mexico State University, The George Washington University Nuclear Physics Research Group, Institute for Nuclear Physics at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, None, Colorado State Engineering Research Center, St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University in Saint Petersburg, Russia, University of California San Diego, Argonne National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Imperial College London, Space Dynamics Lab, Utah State University, Physics and CASS, Utah State University, Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, Department of Physics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, Dept. of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver, CU Boulder, RASEI, NREL, University of Colorado, Rutgers, UTK, Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research \& ORNL, University of Guelph, Insitituto de Estructura de la Materia, University of Toronto, INFN Laboratori Nazionali del Sud, University of York, University of Surrey, TRIUMF, Simon Frasier University, Universdad de Sevilla, Simon Fraser University, Univ of Utah, Univ of Wyoming, New Mexico Tech, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM Systems and Technology Group, IBM Research Division, Irvine Valley College, University of Colorado - Boulder, Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, Department of Physics, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM, Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Flint, MI, High Altitude Observatory, JILA, University of Colorado