Assessing the stellar population and the environment of an HII region on the far side of the Galaxy
View/ Open
Author
Chené, A. -N.
Benjamin, R. A.
Alegría, S. Ramírez
Borissova, J.
Kurtev, R.
Bidin, C. Moni
Mauro, F.
Lucas, P.
Guo, Z.
Smith, L. C.
Gonzalez-Fernandez, C.
Ivanov, V. D.
Minniti, D.
Anderson, L. D.
Armentrout, W. P.
Gonzalez, D.
Herrero, A.
Ramírez, K. Peña
Attention
2299/24591
Abstract
We have investigated the stellar and interstellar content of the distant star formation region IRAS 17591-2228 (WISE HII region GAL 007.47+0.06). It is associated to a water maser, whose parallax distance is d=20.4^{+2.8} {-2.2} kpc, supported by independent measurements of proper motion and radial velocity. It is projected in the same direction as an extremely red (J-Ks ~ 6 mag) group of stars, and a shell of mid-infrared emission. We qualify the group of stars as a cluster candidate, VVV CL177. Its radius spans between 0.45' and 1' and contains at least two young stellar objects with an extreme extinction near Av ~ 40 mag. Yet more analysis will be required to determine is it is a real single cluster associated with the water maser. The 13CO emissions at the radial velocity of the maser corresponds to the mid-infrared emission.