Dr Kate Brooks (Departamento de Astronomia, Universidad de Chile)

Discovery of a Collimated Jet Towards a High-mass Protostar - Dr Kate Brooks Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

The earliest stages of massive star birth are not well defined. It is
not clear if massive stars (O and B-type) can form though an accretion
process similar to that for low-mass stars. An alternative mechanism
could be collisions between lower-mass stars. Intimately linked with the
accretion process in low-mass stars are circumstellar disks and the
formation of jets and Herbig-Haro objects. While readily observed
towards low-mass stars, the reported detection of these phenomena
towards high-mass stars is scarce. Here I will report the discovery of a
thermal radio jet associated with a young massive star-forming region,
IRAS 16547-4247. The total luminosity of the powering source corresponds
to an O8 ZAMS star, making this the first radio jet detected towards an
O-type star. Such a discovery implies that the accretion star-forming
process can operate across the mass spectrum.