X-ray and Radio Observations of the Massive Star Forming Region IRAS 20126+4104

TL;DR

This study combines X-ray and radio observations to identify and analyze a cluster of young stellar objects in the IRAS 20126+4104 massive star forming region, revealing new sources and the spatial distribution of YSOs.

Contribution

First combined X-ray and radio observations of IRAS 20126+4104, identifying new sources and the spatial distribution of young stellar objects in this region.

Findings

Detected 150 X-ray sources and 13 radio sources in the region.

Identified a cluster of at least 46 YSOs within 1.2 pc of the protostar.

Discovered new radio sources and variability among them.

Abstract

We present results of Chandra ACIS-I and Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) 6 cm continuum observations of the IRAS 20126+4104 massive star forming region. We detect 150 X-ray sources within the 17 arcmin x 17 arcmin ACIS-I field, and a total of 13 radio sources within the 9'.2 primary beam at 4.9 GHz. Among these are the first 6 cm detections of the central sources reported by Hofner et al. (2007), namely I20N1, I20S, and I20var. A new variable radio sources is also reported. Searching the 2MASS archive we identified 88 NIR counterparts to the X-ray sources. Only 4 of the X-ray sources had 6 cm counterparts. Based on an NIR color-color analysis, and on the Besancon simulation of Galactic stellar populations (Robin et al. 2003), we estimate that about 90 X-ray sources are associated with this massive star forming region. We detect an increasing surface density of X-ray sources toward the massive protostar and infer the presence of a cluster of at least 46 YSOs within a distance of 1.2 pc from the massive protostar.