Chemically Fresh Gas Inflows Detected in a Nearby High-mass Star-forming Region

• Published in: Astrophysical journal. Letters Vol. 923; no. 1; p. L20
• Main Authors: Chen, Xi, Ren, Zhi-Yuan, Li, Da-Lei, Liu, Tie, Wang, Ke, Shen, Zhi-Qiang, Ellingsen, Simon P., Sobolev, Andrej M., Mei, Ying, Li, Jing-Jing, Wu, Yue-Fang, Kim, Kee-Tae
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Austin The American Astronomical Society 01.12.2021; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Accretion; Arrays; Deposition; Image quality; Inflow; Interstellar clouds; Interstellar medium; Kinematics; Massive stars; Protostars; Radio telescopes; Space telescopes; Star formation; Stellar accretion disks; Toruses; Young stellar objects
• ISSN: 2041-8205; 2041-8213
• DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac3ec8

Abstract We report the detection of a chemically fresh inflow that is feeding high-mass young-stellar-object (HMYSO) growth in the nearby high-mass star-forming region G352.63 made with both the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the Submillimeter Array (SMA). High-quality images of the dust and molecular lines from both ALMA and SMA have consistently revealed a gravitationally controlled cold (∼10 K) gas inflow of chemically fresh molecules (e.g., CCH and HC 3 N) toward the central HMYSO and its surrounding dense gas structure, which has a possible torus- or disk-like morphology. The HMYSO is also observed to have an outflow, which is nearly perpendicular to the torus and its parental filament, and thus can be clearly separated from the inflows. These kinematic features provide observational evidence to support the conjecture that the infalling streamers in high-mass star-forming regions could proceed in a similar process to that observed in low-mass counterparts. The chemically fresh infalling streamers could also be involved in the disk or torus configuration, fragmentation, and accretion bursts that occur in both simulations and observations.