Infrared study of the southern Galactic star forming regions associated with IRAS 10049-5657 and IRAS 10031-5632

TL;DR

This study investigates the physical conditions and stellar populations of two southern Galactic star forming regions using infrared observations, revealing detailed dust, gas, and stellar characteristics through mapping and modeling.

Contribution

It provides new simultaneous far-infrared maps, detailed radiative transfer models, and insights into the structure and stellar content of IRAS 10049-5657 and IRAS 10031-5632.

Findings

Rich OB star cluster in IRAS 10049-5657 with a 2 pc radius

Embedded small cluster in IRAS 10031-5632

Good agreement between models and observations for IRAS 10049-5657

Abstract

The physical conditions of the interstellar medium and stellar components in the regions of the southern Galactic star forming complexes associated with IRAS 10049-5657 and IRAS 10031-5632 have been investigated. These regions have been mapped simultaneously in two far infrared bands lambda_eff ~ 150 & 210 micron, with ~ 1' angular resolution using the TIFR 1-m balloon borne telescope. Spatial distribution of the temperature of cool dust and optical depth at 200 micron have been obtained. Using the 2MASS sources, the stellar populations of the embedded young clusters have been studied. A rich cluster of OB stars in the IRAS 10049-5657 region has been found with a cluster radius ~ 2 pc. The source in the cluster closest to the IRAS peak, lies above the ZAMS curve of spectral type O5 in the colour-magnitude diagram. Unlike IRAS 10049-5657, a small cluster comprising of a few deeply embedded sources is seen at the location of IRAS 10031-5632. Self consistent radiative transfer modelling aimed at extracting important physical and geometrical details of the two IRAS sources show that the best fit models are in good agreement with the observed spectral energy distributions. The geometric details of the associated cloud and optical depths (at 100 micron) have been estimated. A uniform density distribution of dust and gas is implied for both the sources. In addition, the infrared ionic fine-structure line emission from gas has been modelled for both these regions and compared with data from IRAS-Low Resolution Spectrometer. For IRAS 10049-5657, the observed and modelled luminosities for most lines agree to within a factor of four while for IRAS 10031-5632, we find a discrepancy of a factor of 100.