J. Cernicharo,
*
B. Lefloch,
P. Cox,
D. Cesarsky,
C. Esteban,
F. Yusef-Zadeh,
D. I. Méndez,
J. Acosta-Pulido,
R. J. García
López,
A. Heras
The Trifid nebula is a young (105 years) galactic
HII region where several protostellar sources have been detected with
the infrared space observatory. The sources are massive (17 to 60 solar
masses) and are associated with molecular gas condensations at the
edges or inside the nebula. They appear to be in an early evolutionary
stage and may represent the most recent generation of stars in the
Trifid. These sources range from dense, apparently still inactive cores
to more evolved sources, undergoing violent mass ejection episodes,
including a source that powers an optical jet. These observations
suggest that the protostellar sources may have evolved by induced star
formation in the Trifid nebula.
J. Cernicharo, Instituto de Estructura de la Materia,
Dpto. Física Molecular, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones
Científicas, (CSIC), Serrano 123, 28006 Madrid, Spain. B. Lefloch, Instituto de Estructura de la Materia, Dpto. Física
Molecular, CSIC, Serrano 123, 28006 Madrid, Spain, and Observatoire de
Grenoble, 414 rue de la Piscine, Domaine Universitaire de Grenoble,
38406 St. Martin d'Hères, France. P. Cox and D. Cesarsky,
Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Bat. 121, Université de Paris
XI, 94500 Orsay Cedex, France. C. Esteban, D. I. Méndez,
R. J. García López, Instituto de Astrofísica
de Canarias, C/Vía Láctea S/N, E-38200 La Laguna,
Tenerife, Spain. F. Yusef-Zadeh, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
60208, USA. J. Acosta-Pulido, Instituto de Astrofísica de
Canarias, C/Vía Láctea S/N, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife,
Spain; Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) Science Operations Centre,
Astrophysics Division of European Space Agency (ESA), Post Office Box
50727, E-28080 Villafranca, Spain, and Max Planck Institut fur
Astronomie, Konigstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg, Germany. A. Heras, ISO
Science Operations Centre, Astrophysics Division of ESA, Post Office
Box 50727, E-28080 Villafranca, Spain.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
cerni{at}astro.iem.csic.es
