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[53.06] NGC 7538S - a High-mass Protostar with a Massive Rotating Disk

G. Sandell (USRA-SOFIA, NASA ARC), M. Wright, J.R. Forster (RAL, UC Berkeley)

We report the detection of a massive rotating disk around the high-mass Class 0 candidate NGC 7538\,S. The disk is well-resolved with BIMA in 3.4~mm continuum and in H¹³CN J = 1 - 0. It is seen nearly edge on and has a size of ~30,000 au. It drives a young, powerful outflow perpendicular to the rotating disk mapped in SiO J = 2 - 1 and HCO⁺ J = 1 - 0. The dynamical age of the outflow is \le 10,000 yr. Assuming that the gas is gravitationally bound, the velocity gradient seen in H¹³CN implies a mass of the central object of ~ 40 M_\odot. The mass of the continuum ``disk'' is \geq 128 M_\odot and has a luminosity of ~10⁴ L_\odot. H¹³CN gives a mass of ~ 370 M_\odot for the rotating accretion disk, and the mass of the surrounding extended 20" envelope is ~1300 M_\odot.

Our observations confirm that this is an extremely massive protostar in its earliest stages - a true Class 0 high mass protostar.

The BIMA array is operated by the Universities of California (Berkeley), Illinois, and Maryland with support from the National Science Foundation.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: gsandell@mail.arc.nasa.gov

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.