Massive envelopes and filaments in the NGC 3603 star forming region

TL;DR

This study investigates the physical conditions and structure of dense gas and dust in the NGC 3603 star-forming region, revealing massive cores and potential early-stage massive star formation near IRS 9A.

Contribution

It provides high-resolution observations of dense cores in NGC 3603, identifying their masses, temperatures, and evolutionary states, and clarifies the nature of IRS 9A and its surrounding environment.

Findings

Resolved MM2 into several compact cores with masses up to several hundred solar masses.

Found cores are mostly opaque and lack hot-core emission lines, indicating early evolutionary stages.

IRS 9A is likely younger than the nearby cluster stars and in a different evolutionary phase.

Abstract

The formation of massive stars and their arrival on the zero-age main-sequence occurs hidden behind dense clouds of gas and dust. In the giant Hii region NGC 3603, the radiation of a young cluster of OB stars has dispersed dust and gas in its vicinity. At a projected distance of 2:5 pc from the cluster, a bright mid-infrared (mid-IR) source (IRS 9A) had been identified as a massive young stellar object (MYSO), located on the side of a molecular clump (MM2) of gas facing the cluster. We investigated the physical conditions in MM2, based on APEX sub-mm observations using the SABOCA and SHFI instruments, and archival ATCA 3 mm continuum and CS spectral line data. We resolved MM2 into several compact cores, one of them closely associated with IRS 9A. These are likely infrared dark clouds as they do not show the typical hot-core emission lines and are mostly opaque against the mid-IR background. The compact cores have masses of up to several hundred times the solar mass and gas temperatures of about 50 K, without evidence of internal ionizing sources. We speculate that IRS 9A is younger than the cluster stars, but is in an evolutionary state after that of the compact cores.