No high-mass protostars in the silhouette young stellar object M17-SO1

Shigeyuki Sako (), Takuya Yamashita, Hirokazu Kataza, Takashi Miyata, Yoshiko K. Okamoto, Mitsuhiko Honda, Takuya Fujiyoshi, Hiroshi Terada, Takeshi Kamazaki, Zhibo Jiang, Tomoyuki Hanawa and Takashi Onaka
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Shigeyuki Sako: The University of Tokyo
Takuya Yamashita: The University of Tokyo
Hirokazu Kataza: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Takashi Miyata: The University of Tokyo
Yoshiko K. Okamoto: Ibaraki University
Mitsuhiko Honda: The University of Tokyo
Takuya Fujiyoshi: National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Hiroshi Terada: National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Takeshi Kamazaki: The University of Tokyo
Zhibo Jiang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Tomoyuki Hanawa: Chiba University
Takashi Onaka: The University of Tokyo

Nature, 2005, vol. 434, issue 7036, 995-998

Abstract: Abstract The birth of very massive stars is not well understood1,2,3, in contrast to the formation process of low-mass stars like our Sun4,5. It is not even clear that massive stars can form as single entities; rather, they might form through the mergers of smaller ones born in tight groups6,7. The recent claim of the discovery of a massive protostar in M17 (a nearby giant ionized region) forming through the same mechanism as low-mass stars8 has therefore generated considerable interest. Here we show that this protostar has an intermediate mass of only 2.5 to 8 solar masses (M⊙), contrary to the earlier claim of 20M⊙ (ref. 8). The surrounding circumstellar envelope contains only 0.09M⊙ and a much more extended local molecular cloud has 4–9M⊙.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature03471

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