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Published February 10, 2007 | Published
Journal Article Open

A GLIMPSE of the Southern Jellyfish Nebula and Its Massive YSO

Abstract

In Spitzer/IRAC images obtained under the GLIMPSE Legacy Survey, we have identified a unique and provocative nebular object we call the "Southern Jellyfish Nebula." The Southern Jellyfish Nebula is characterized by a fan of narrow tendrils with extreme length-to-width ratios that emanate from the vicinity of a bright infrared point source embedded in a smaller resolved nebula. From CO observations of the Nebula's morphologically associated molecular cloud, we have derived a kinematic distance of 5.7 ± 0.8 kpc and a cloud mass of 3.2 ± 0.9 × 10^3 M_⊙. The tendril-like ropes of the Nebula have widths of ~0.1 pc and lengths of up to ~2 pc. We have integrated the infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) of the point source to establish it as a massive young stellar object (MYSO), most likely forming alone, but possibly masking fainter cluster members. The shape of the SED is consistent with the shape of a late Class 0 SED model. Based on its far-IR luminosity of 3.3 ± 0.9 × 10^4 L_⊙, the Southern Jellyfish's MYSO has a zero-age main sequence (ZAMS) spectral type of B0. Given the curious nature of this nebula, we suspect its peculiar IR-bright structure is directly related to its current state of star formation.

Additional Information

© 2007 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2006 July 14; accepted 2006 October 18. We thank the anonymous referee for carefully reading the paper and thoughtful suggestions that improved its quality. Support for this work, part of the Spitzer Space Telescope Legacy Science Program, was provided by NASA through contracts 1225025 (BU), 1224653 (UWI), 1224988 (SSI), 1224681 (UMD), 1256801 (UWI-W), 1242593 (UCB), 1253153 (UMN), and 11253604 (UWY) issued by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under NASA contract 1407.

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