The sharpest view on the high-mass star-forming region S255IR

Near infrared adaptive optics imaging of the outbursting source NIRS3^★

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
e-mail: fedriani@iaa.es
² Dept. of Space, Earth & Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 93 Gothenburg, Sweden
³ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, salita Moiariello 16, 80131, Napoli, Italy
⁴ INAF, Osservatorio Astrofísico di Arcetri, Largo Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁵ Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
⁶ Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg, Sternwarte 5, 07778 Tautenburg, Germany
⁷ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK

Received: 25 April 2023
Accepted: 23 June 2023

Abstract

Context. Massive stars have an impact on their surroundings from early in their formation until the end of their lives. However, very little is known about their formation. Episodic accretion may play a crucial role in the process, but only a handful of observations have reported such events occurring in massive protostars.

Aims. We aim to investigate the outburst event from the high-mass star-forming region S255IR where the protostar NIRS3 recently underwent an accretion outburst. We follow the evolution of this source both in photometry and morphology of its surroundings.

Methods. We performed near infrared adaptive optics observations on the S255IR central region using the Large Binocular Telescope in the K_s broadband as well as the H₂ and Brγ narrow-band filters with an angular resolution of ~07″.06, close to the diffraction limit.

Results. We discovered a new near infrared knot north-east of NIRS3 that we interpret as a jet knot that was ejected during the last accretion outburst and observed in the radio regime as part of a follow-up after the outburst. We measured a mean tangential velocity for this knot of 450 ± 50 km s⁻¹. We analysed the continuum-subtracted images from H₂, which traces jet-shocked emission, and Brγ, which traces scattered light from a combination of accretion activity and UV radiation from the central massive protostar. We observed a significant decrease in flux at the location of NIRS3, with K = 13.48 mag being the absolute minimum in the historic series.

Conclusions. Our observations strongly suggest a scenario where the episodic accretion is followed by an episodic ejection response in the near infrared, as was seen in the earlier radio follow-up. The ~2 µm photometry from the past 30 yr suggests that NIRS3 might have undergone another outburst in the late 1980s, making it the first massive protostar with such evidence observed in the near infrared.