Observations of H2O maser and continuum emission in AFGL 2591

Abstract

We report results of radio continuum (1.3 and 3.6 cm) and H2O maser line observations, made with the Very Large Array (A configuration), toward the star-forming region AFGL 2591. We detected 85 maser spots toward this region, which are distributed in three main groups. Two of these groups spatially coincide with the radio continuum sources VLA 2 and VLA 3. The maser spots associated with VLA 3 are distributed along a shell-like structure of 0.01 and nearly perpendicular to the CO bipolar outflow. We propose that VLA 3 is the center of the observed molecular flow in this region. Finally, we confirm that AFGL 2591 region is a cluster of B type stars, each one with its own optically thin H II region.