Abstract

Revealing accretion and evolution of heavily embedded high-mass protostars

Michihiro Takami (ASIAA, Taiwan)

Jennifer L. Karr (ASIAA), Takashi Hosokawa (Univ. of Tokyo), Hideko Nomura (Tokyo Institute of Technology), Paul T.P. Ho (EAO/ASIAA) et al.

The theoretical and observational understanding of the formation of high mass stars has remained a tricky puzzle. After a certain evolutionary phase accretion should be inhibited by radiation pressure. Disk accretion is regarded as the most promising formation scenario to resolve this issue. However, prior observations have not provided convincing evidence that accretion from the innermost disk region to the protostar is ongoing. Furthermore, the high extinction in these objects makes observing emission arising directly from the protostar and inner disk very challenging, leading to ambiguous estimates of their mass and evolutionary status.
Studies made by our group suggest that the extended infrared emission associated with many high mass protostars is due to scattered continuum. This makes emission from the inner disk region or protostar accessible through observations of the scattered light. We will explain how spectroscopy of such emission with JWST-NIRSpec and future instrumentation could produce a breakthrough for this research field. In addition, we will briefly comment on how observations with JWST-MIRI, as well as SPICA, could impact this research topic.

Talk