ACCRETION DISKS IN THE IRAS 23151+5912 REGION

Abstract

We present observations of radio continuum emission at 1.3 and 3.6 cm and H{sub 2}O masers toward the high-mass star-forming region IRAS 23151+5912 carried out with the Very Large Array-Expanded Very Large Array (in transition phase) in configuration A. We detected one continuum source at 1.3 cm in the region, but the counterpart of this radio continuum source at 3.6 cm was not detected at a level of 3σ. We also detected 13 water maser spots toward IRAS 23151+5912, which are distributed in three groups aligned along the northeast-southwest direction. Our results suggest that the 1.3 cm emission is consistent with a hypercompact H II region, probably with an embedded zero-age main-sequence star of type B2. In particular, we find that this young star is spatially associated with a maser group, which is tracing a disk-like structure of about 460 AU. We also find that the masers of the second group are probably describing a circumstellar disk of about 86 AU, whose central protostar, still undetected, should have a mass of ∼11 M {sub ☉}. We also suggest that the third water maser group is possibly associated with the SiO outflow and the undetected driving source of the system. Finally,more » we noted that the 1.3 cm continuum source and the three maser groups are aligned in the northeast-southwest direction, similar to the elongation of the large ionized region, which probably is the result of shock-wave induced star formation on the densest region of the medium.« less