Characterizing Star Formation in the Giant H II Region RCW 106 using GLIMPSE data

 

 

Star Formation in RCW 106

Trying to answer the big question of star formation: "How do massive stars form?" involves using SEDs which are comprised of data points from many wavelength bands. My project has required me to identify diffuse objects which may be protostar candidates (particuarly those with excess [4.5] emission) and then to measure the fluxes of those objects in the IRAC bands. I will use this information along with data from previous surveys of the region to produce complete SEDs of sources in RCW 106. Below are a few images/plots.

Evidence for Young Stars

Color-Color Plot of RCW 106 The black box in the top right portion of this plot shows where the majority of main sequence stars would fall on this color-color plot. The fact that there are many sources that fall outslde this box indicates the presence of very young stars.	Color Magnitude Plot of RCW 106 This color-magnitude diagram shows that there are sources in the region that are a few magnitudes redder than other colors. Since young stars are very red, this is an indication of ongoing star formation
Spectral Index Histogram A sources spectral index is the slope of the SED over a certain range of wavelengths. Most main sequence stars fall have spectral indices between -5 and -2. Young stars have spectral indices greater than -2. The broad peak indicates that although the majority of the sources in the region are MS stars, there are also young stars present.

Diffuse protostar candidates

I have identified (primarily based on [4.5] emission) a few dozen sources which are likely developing stars. The image below shows the location of these sources in the region.

The majority of these sources are also associated with maser emission, x-ray emission and/or radio emission. If we can determine these sources'ages and identify patterns of phenomena such as maser types, we may be able to confirm or deny the accuracy of star formation tracers by age and type.

Future Plans

There is still a lot of work to be completed for this region. We will continue to measure diffuse objects and produce complete SEDs. We will also run an update version of the model grid and fitter and combine those results with the diffuse photometry results. Our interpretations and results will hopefully be published in the coming months.





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