Distribution of the H2O Masers in the Sagittarius B2 Core

Abstract

The distribution of H2O masers in the Sgr B2 core was observed with a 2.5′×2.5′ wide field and with 540 km s−1 total velocity coverage by the Nobeyama Millimeter Array. Thirty-nine resolved maser spots were detected with a relative positional accuracy of 0.3″, which are clustered into four separate regions. In Sgr B2 north, the cluster lies at the edge of the continuum ridge. One of the maser spots shows strong and wide velocity-spread emission, suggesting it may correspond to a center of star forming activity. In Sgr B2 main, the strong maser spots are projected just on the face of a compact HII region, and are red-shifted relative to the central velocity of the HII region. There are two possibilities to interpret our results in Sgr B2 (M). One is that the H2O maser spots are distributed around the HII region and are infailing to the HII region. The other is that the H2O maser sources are associated with the cloud in the foreground of the HII region.