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A probable Keplerian disk feeding an optically revealed massive young star.

McLeod, Anna F; Klaassen, Pamela D; Reiter, Megan; Henshaw, Jonathan; Kuiper, Rolf; Ginsburg, Adam

A probable Keplerian disk feeding an optically revealed massive young star. Thumbnail


Authors

Pamela D Klaassen

Megan Reiter

Jonathan Henshaw

Rolf Kuiper

Adam Ginsburg



Abstract

The canonical picture of star formation involves disk-mediated accretion, with Keplerian accretion disks and associated bipolar jets primarily observed in nearby, low-mass young stellar objects (YSOs). Recently, rotating gaseous structures and Keplerian disks have been detected around several massive (M > 8 M ) YSOs (MYSOs) , including several disk-jet systems . All the known MYSO systems are in the Milky Way, and all are embedded in their natal material. Here we report the detection of a rotating gaseous structure around an extragalactic MYSO in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The gas motion indicates that there is a radial flow of material falling from larger scales onto a central disk-like structure. The latter exhibits signs of Keplerian rotation, so that there is a rotating toroid feeding an accretion disk and thus the growth of the central star. The system is in almost all aspects comparable to Milky Way high-mass YSOs accreting gas from a Keplerian disk. The key difference between this source and its Galactic counterparts is that it is optically revealed rather than being deeply embedded in its natal material as is expected of such a massive young star. We suggest that this is the consequence of the star having formed in a low-metallicity and low-dust content environment. Thus, these results provide important constraints for models of the formation and evolution of massive stars and their circumstellar disks.

Citation

McLeod, A. F., Klaassen, P. D., Reiter, M., Henshaw, J., Kuiper, R., & Ginsburg, A. (2024). A probable Keplerian disk feeding an optically revealed massive young star. Nature, 625, 55-59. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06790-2

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 26, 2023
Online Publication Date Nov 29, 2023
Publication Date Jan 4, 2024
Deposit Date Jan 12, 2024
Publicly Available Date Jan 12, 2024
Journal Nature
Print ISSN 0028-0836
Electronic ISSN 1476-4687
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 625
Pages 55-59
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06790-2
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2027645

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Copyright Statement
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.





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