Triggered star formation on the borders of the Galactic HII region RCW 82

M. Pomares (1) , Annie Zavagno (1, 2) , L. Deharveng (1, 2) , M. Cunningham (3) , P. Jones (3) , S. Kurtz (4) , D. Russeil (1, 2) , J. Caplan (1, 2) , F. Comeron (5)

1 OAMP - Observatoire Astronomique de Marseille Provence
2 LAM - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
3 Swinburne University of Technology (Hawthorn campus)
4 CRyA - Centro de Radioastronomia y Astrofisica
5 ESO - European Southern Observatory

We are engaged in a multi-wavelength study of several Galactic HII regions that exhibit signposts of triggered star formation on their borders, and where the collect and collapse process could be at work. When addressing the question of triggered star formation it is critically important to ensure the real association between the ionized gas and the neutral material observed nearby. In this paper we stress this point, and present CO observations of the RCW 82 star forming region. The velocity distribution of the molecular gas is combined with the study of young stellar objects (YSOs) detected in the direction of RCW 82. We discuss the YSO's evolutionary status using near- and mid-IR data. The spatial and velocity distributions of the molecular gas are used to discuss the possible scenarios for the star formation around RCW 82.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]

M. Pomares, Annie Zavagno, L. Deharveng, M. Cunningham, P. Jones, et al.. Triggered star formation on the borders of the Galactic HII region RCW 82. 2008. ⟨hal-00370449⟩