2005/05/01 by L. K. Townsley, Patrick S. Broos, P. S. Broos +3 · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Cluster (spacecraft) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #High mass #Observatory #Parsec #Physics #Star (game theory) #Star cluster #Star formation #Stars #Supernova #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1743921305004667
published in Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 1(S227), 297-302 (Cambridge University Press) · 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 227,"Massive Star Birth - A Crossroads of Astrophysics," eds. R. Cesaroni, E. Churchwell, M. Felli, and C.M. Walmsley
openalex publication_date 2005/05/01 · arxiv created 2005/06/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The Chandra X-ray Observatory is providing remarkable new views of massive star-forming regions, revealing all stages in the life cycle of high-mass stars and their effects on their surroundings. We present a Chandra tour of several high-mass star-forming regions, highlighting physical processes that characterize the life of a cluster of high-mass stars, from deeply-embedded cores too young to have established an HII region to superbubbles so large that they shape our views of galaxies. Along the way we see that X-ray observations reveal hundreds of stellar sources powering great HII region complexes, suffused by both hard and soft diffuse X-ray structures caused by fast O-star winds thermalized in wind-wind collisions or by termination shocks against the surrounding media. Finally, we examine the effects of the deaths of high-mass stars that remained close to their birthplaces, exploding as supernovae within the superbubbles that these clusters created. We present new X-ray results on W51 IRS2E and 30 Doradus and we introduce new data on Trumpler 14 in Carina and the W3 HII region complexes W3 Main and W3(OH).