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Disk-mediated accretion burst in a high-mass young stellar object

Nature Physics volume 13, pages 276–279 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Solar-mass stars form via disk-mediated accretion. Recent findings indicate that this process is probably episodic in the form of accretion bursts1, possibly caused by disk fragmentation2,3,4. Although it cannot be ruled out that high-mass young stellar objects arise from the coalescence of their low-mass brethren5, the latest results suggest that they more likely form via disks6,7,8,9. It follows that disk-mediated accretion bursts should occur10,11. Here we report on the discovery of the first disk-mediated accretion burst from a roughly twenty-solar-mass high-mass young stellar object12. Our near-infrared images show the brightening of the central source and its outflow cavities. Near-infrared spectroscopy reveals emission lines typical for accretion bursts in low-mass protostars, but orders of magnitude more luminous. Moreover, the released energy and the inferred mass-accretion rate are also orders of magnitude larger. Our results identify disk-accretion as the common mechanism of star formation across the entire stellar mass spectrum.

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Figure 1: Pre-outburst, outburst and brightness-ratio images of S255IR NIRS 3.
Figure 2: Pre- and outburst K-band spectra of S255IR NIRS 3 (left) and its redshifted outflow cavity (right).
Figure 3: Pre- (cyan and blue) and outburst (orange and red) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of S255IR NIRS 3.

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Acknowledgements

A.C.o.G., R.G.L. and T.P.R. were supported by Science Foundation Ireland, grant 13/ERC/I2907. A.S. was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Priority Program 1573. We thank the ESO Paranal and Gemini Observatory staff for their support. B.S. thanks Sylvio Klose for helpful discussions concerning the light echo. This research is partly based on observations collected at the VLT (ESO Paranal, Chile) with programme 296.C-5037(A) and at the Gemini Observatory (Program ID GN-2016A-DD-5). Gemini Observatory is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), Ministerio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (Argentina), and Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brazil).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Astronomy & Astrophysics Section, 31 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2, Ireland

    A. Caratti o Garatti, R. Garcia Lopez, T. P. Ray & C. M. Walmsley

  2. Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, D-07778 Tautenburg, Germany

    B. Stecklum & J. Eislöffel

  3. Max Planck Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany

    A. Sanna

  4. INAF—Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy

    R. Cesaroni, C. M. Walmsley & L. Moscadelli

  5. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

    R. D. Oudmaijer

  6. ESO-European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago de Chile, Chile

    W. J. de Wit

  7. Max-Planck Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, D-85741 Garching, Germany

    J. Greiner

  8. Deutsches SOFIA Institut, Pfaffenwaldring 29, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany

    A. Krabbe & C. Fischer

  9. NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA

    R. Klein

  10. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía 3, E-18008 Granada, Spain

    J. M. Ibañez

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  1. A. Caratti o Garatti
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Contributions

A.C.o.G., B.S. and R.G.L. wrote the initial manuscript and worked on the data reduction and analysis. R.G.L. supported SINFONI observations. A.C.o.G., B.S. and J.E. are the principal investigators of the ESO, Calar Alto, the Gemini, and the SOFIA proposals, respectively. A.S., R.C. and L.M. worked on the maser and radio data. T.P.R., A.S., R.C., L.M., C.M.W., R.D.O. and W.J.d.W. are coauthors of the proposals. J.G. provided GROND data. A.K., C.F. and R.K. supported SOFIA observations. J.M.I. supported PANIC observations. All coauthors commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to A. Caratti o Garatti.

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Caratti o Garatti, A., Stecklum, B., Garcia Lopez, R. et al. Disk-mediated accretion burst in a high-mass young stellar object. Nature Phys 13, 276–279 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3942

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