Letter to the Editor

First 450 m dust continuum mapping of the massive star-forming region NGC 3576 with the P-ArTéMiS bolometer camera

¹ Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM–CNRS–Université Paris Diderot, IRFU/Service d'Astrophysique, C.E. Saclay, Orme des Merisiers, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France e-mail: pandre@cea.fr
² European Southern Observatory, Casilla 19001, Santiago 19, Chile
³ European Southern Observatory, Karl Schwarzschild Str. 2, 85748 Garching bei Munchen, Germany
⁴ Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Université Pierre & Marie Curie, 98b Bd Arago, 75014 Paris, France
⁵ I. Physik. Institut, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Str. 77, 50937 Köln, Germany
⁶ University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Observatory, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
⁷ School of Physics, University of Exeter, Stocker Rd, EX4 4QL, Exeter, UK

Received: 12 September 2008
Accepted: 22 September 2008

Abstract

Aims. In an effort to make progress in the current debate on the earliest phases of massive star formation, we took a census of Class 0-like protostellar dense cores in the NGC 3576 region, one of the nearest and most luminous embedded sites of high-mass star formation in the Galaxy.

Methods. We used the P-ArTéMiS bolometer camera on the APEX telescope to produce the first 450 μm dust continuum map of the filamentary dense clump associated with NGC 3576.

Results. Combining our 450 μm observations with existing data at other wavelengths, we identified seven massive protostellar sources along the NGC 3576 filament and placed them in the M_env–L_bol evolutionary diagram for protostars.

Conclusions. Comparison with theoretical evolutionary tracks suggests that these seven protostellar sources will evolve into massive stars with masses –50 . Four sources are classified as candidate high-mass Class 0 objects, two sources as massive Class I objects, and one source appears to be at an intermediate stage.