The environs of the ultracompact HII region G45.45+0.06

Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio (IAFE), CC 67, Suc. 28, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina e-mail: sparon@iafe.uba.ar

Received: 5 June 2009
Accepted: 27 July 2009

Abstract

Aims. G45.45+0.06 is an ultra-compact HII (UCHII) region that has been extensively studied. It is known that G45.45+0.06 is embedded in a complex of UCHII regions, but to date, the surrounding ISM on a larger spatial scale has not been analyzed.

Methods. Using data from large-scale surveys, the Two Micron All Sky Survey, GLIMPSE, MIPSGAL, MAGPIS and GRS, we performed a multiwavelength study of a region of about 7′7′ in the vicinity of G45.45+0.06.

Results. We found that the UCHII complex lies on the border of a larger (diameter of ~3′) and fainter HII region, which is located at the same distance as G45.45+0.06, ~8 kpc. In this work, this larger HII region is called G45L. A good morphological correlation is observed between the PDRs and the molecular gas mapped in the ¹³CO J = 1-0 and CS J = 2-1 lines, suggesting that G45L may be collecting molecular material. From a near- and mid-IR photometric study, we found three sources, likely O-type stars, that are possibly responsible for the creation of G45L. Additionally, we found several YSO candidates lying preferentially in the molecular shell that surrounds G45L. Our results confirm that the region southeast of the UCHII complex where G45.45+0.06 is embedded and east of G45L is undergoing active star formation. We suggest that G45L has been expanding for about 2  10⁶ yr and could have triggered the formation of the zero-age main sequence stars that ionize the UCHII region G45.45+0.06. However we cannot discard that both HII regions are coeval.