Our Own Starburst

Author(s)

Joao Alves, Nicole Homeier

Abstract

In this article we present the first results from a near-infrared

campaign to characterize our Galaxy's own starburst event, W49A, a

prodigious factory of massive stars at a distance of about 12 kpc and

concealed from observations at visible wavelengths by more than 25

magnitudes of intervening dust extinction. Our results so far reveal the

presence of previously unknown massive stellar clusters containing more

than 100 OB stars, some as massive as 120 M⊙, most still embedded

in their parental molecular cloud and with ages as young as 104-5 yr.

We argue that this ongoing starburst appears to have been multi-seeded

instead of resulting from a coherent trigger.

Organisation(s)

Department of Astrophysics

External organisation(s)

European Southern Observatory (Germany), Johns Hopkins University

Journal

The Messenger

Volume

114

Pages

35-38

ISSN

0722-6691

Publication date

12-2003

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