The Earliest Stages of Hign Mass Star Formation-Methanol Maser Insights (original) (raw)
We report on recent multi-scale observational stud-ies of the earliest stages of high mass (>8 M) star formation using methanol MASERs as astronomical probes. Methanol masers can provide unique informa-tion about densely populated, embedded protoclusters in which precursors of O and B stars form. Tracers of high mass star-forming complexes in the Galactic plane: The brightest methanol masers are detected in radio frequencies at 6.7 and 12.2 GHz and are not affected by extinction in high mass star-forming regions. They were originally detected in the environment of very active star-forming complexes of HII regions a decade ago [1]. Since their discovery, more than 500 methanol maser sites have been located in the Galactic plane through searches toward IRAS colour selected sources [2], OH and H 2 O masers [3] as well as through unbiased full-sampling surveys [4,5]. Interestingly, 6.7-GHz methanol masers have not been detected toward low mass star-forming regions despite very sensit...
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