The first Galaxy scale hunt for the youngest high-mass protostars

TL;DR

This study uses ALMA to investigate the earliest stages of massive star formation at galaxy scales, revealing more massive dense cores than previously known, which advances understanding of how the most massive stars originate.

Contribution

First large-scale ALMA survey targeting the youngest high-mass protostars, identifying significantly more massive dense cores than prior studies.

Findings

Massive dense cores are on average twice as massive as previous samples.

ALMA ACA array reveals compact objects at 0.05-0.1 pc scales.

Survey will provide comprehensive insights into massive star formation.

Abstract

The origin of massive stars is a fundamental open issue in modern astrophysics. Pre-ALMA interferometric studies reveal precursors to early B to late O type stars with collapsing envelopes of 15-20 M$_\odot$ on 1000-3000 AU size-scales. To search for more massive envelopes we selected the most massive nearby young clumps from the ATLASGAL survey to study their protostellar content with ALMA. Our first results using the intermediate scales revealed by the ALMA ACA array providing 3-5" angular resolution, corresponding to $\sim$0.05-0.1 pc size-scales, reveals a sample of compact objects. These massive dense cores are on average two-times more massive than previous studies of similar types of objects. We expect that once the full survey is completed, it will provide a comprehensive view on the origin of the most massive stars.