Formation of the young compact cluster GM 24 triggered by a cloud-cloud collision
Abstract
High-mass star formation is an important step which controls galactic evolution. GM 24 is a heavily obscured star cluster including a single O9 star with more than 100 lower mass stars within a 0.3 pc radius toward (l,b) (350.5, 0.96), close to the Galactic min-starburst NGC 6334. We found two velocity components associated with the cluster by new observations of 12CO J= 2-1 emission, whereas the cloud was previously considered to be single. We found the distribution of the two components of 5 km s-1 separation shows complementary distribution which fits well with each other, if a relative displacement of 3 pc is applied along the Galactic plane. A position-velocity diagram of the GM 24 cloud is explained by a model based on the numerical simulations of two colliding clouds, where an intermediate velocity component created by collision is taken into account. We estimate the collision time scale to be in projection of a relative motion titled to the line of sight by 45 degrees. The results lend further support for cloud-cloud collision as a major mechanism of high-mass star formation in the Carina-Sagittarius Arm.
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