Molecular clumps and star formation associated with the infrared dust bubble N131

TL;DR

This study investigates the molecular environment and star formation activity around the infrared dust bubble N131 using multiwavelength data, revealing molecular clouds, young stellar objects, and exciting stars associated with the bubble.

Contribution

It provides new CO observations and identifies star formation signatures around N131, enhancing understanding of bubble-driven star formation processes.

Findings

A ring of molecular clouds coincides with N131's shell.

63 YSO candidates and 15 exciting stars are identified.

Molecular clouds and young stars are distributed along the bubble's structure.

Abstract

Aims. The aim is to explore the interstellar medium around the dust bubble N131 and search for signatures of star formation. Methods. We perform a multiwavelength study around the N131 with data taken from large-scale surveys of infrared observation with online archive. We present new observations of three CO J = 1 - 0 isotope variants from Purple Mountain Observatory 13.7 m telescope. We analyze the distribution of the molecular gas and dust in the environment of the N131. We use color-color diagrams to search for young stellar objects and identify exciting star candidates. Results. The kinematic distance of about 8.6 kpc has been adopted as the distance of the bubble N131 from the Sun in this work. We have found a ring of clouds in CO emission coincident with the shell of N131 seen in the Spitzer telescope images, and two giant elongated molecular clouds of CO emission appearing on opposite sides of the ringlike shell of N131. There is a cavity within bubble at 1.4 GHz and 24 {\mu}m. Seven IRAS point sources are distributed along the ringlike shell of the bubble N131. 15 exciting stars and 63 YSOs candidates have been found. The clustered class I and II YSOs are distributed along the elongated clouds in the line of sight.