Young massive stars and their environment in the mid-infrared at high angular resolution

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution mid-infrared interferometry and imaging to analyze the inner dusty envelopes of massive young stellar objects, revealing a spherical envelope structure with turbulence-supported density profiles.

Contribution

It provides the first combined interferometric and spectral modeling of MYSO envelopes at these scales, supporting turbulence as a key factor in their density distribution.

Findings

Spherical envelope models fit the data well.

Density profiles follow a powerlaw with index -1.0.

Turbulence likely supports the envelope structure.

Abstract

We present interferometric and single-dish mid-infrared observations of a sample of massive young stellar objects (BN-type objects), using VLTI-MIDI (10 micron) and Subaru-COMICS (24.5 micron). We discuss the regions S140, Mon R2, M8E-IR, and W33A. The observations probe the inner regions of the dusty envelope at scales of 50 milli arcsecond and 0.6 arcsec (100-1000 AU), respectively. Simultaneous model fits to spectral energy distributions and spatial data are achieved using self-consistent spherical envelope modelling. We conclude that those MYSO envelopes that are best described by a spherical geometry, the commensurate density distribution is a powerlaw with index -1.0. Such a powerlaw is predicted if the envelope is supported by turbulence on the 100-1000AU scales probed with MIDI and COMICS, but the role of rotation at these spatial scales need testing.