2014/01/24 by Roberto Galván-Madrid, Hauyu Baobab Liu, Galván-Madrid, Roberto +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1401.6378
openalex publication_date 2014/01/24 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We summarize our comprehensive gas surveys of some of the most luminous, deeply embedded (optically obscured) star formation regions in the Milky Way, which are the local cases of massive star clusters and/or associations in the making. Our approach emphasizes multi-scale, multi-resolution imaging in dust and free-free continuum, as well as in molecular- and hydrogen recombination lines, to trace the multiple gas components from 0.1 pc (core scale) all the way up to the scales of the entire giant molecular cloud (GMC), or ∼ 100 pc. We highlight our results in W49A, the most luminous Galactic star formation region (L∼ 107~L_\odot), which appears to be forming a young massive cluster (or a binary star cluster) with M_⋆ > 5×104~M_\odot that may remain bound after gas dispersal. The surveyed sources share elements in common, in particular, the 10-100 pc scale GMCs are filamentary but have one or two central condensations (clumps) far denser than the surrounding filaments and that host the (forming) massive stars.