High mass star formation in the IRAS 17233-3606 region: a new nearby and bright hot core in the southern sky

TL;DR

This study investigates the IRAS 17233-3606 region, revealing a hot core with rich molecular spectra, a bipolar outflow, and characteristics typical of high-mass star formation, using observations from the APEX telescope.

Contribution

First detailed molecular line study of IRAS 17233-3606 revealing a hot core and outflow, advancing understanding of high-mass star formation in this nearby region.

Findings

Identified a hot core of ~3'' size at 150 K

Detected bipolar outflow in CO and HCO+ lines

Compared molecular features with other hot cores

Abstract

We present molecular line observations of the massive star forming region IRAS 17233-3606 aimed at studying the molecular core associated with the source. The observations were made using the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope in the CO (3-2) and HCO^+ (4-3) transitions, and in the CH_3OH (6_K-5_K), (7_K-6_K) and CH_3CN (16_K-15_K) bands. For the CO(3-2) and HCO^+ (4-3) transitions, we obtained maps with a size of 70''\times 70''. The typical angular resolution of the data is ~18''. Our observations reveal an exceptionally rich molecular spectrum, a signpost of hot core activity. Comparisons with two other prominent southern hot cores were made through observations in the same frequency setups. We also detected a bipolar outflow in CO (3-2) and HCO^+ (4-3) lines. Modelling reveals a hot core of size ~3'' and a temperature of 150 K in the IRAS17233-3606 region. The parameters of the molecular outflow are derived through the analysis of the CO (3-2) emission, and are typical of outflows driven by high-mass young stellar objects.