Observations of Stellar Maser Sources with no IRAS Counterpart

Abstract

We investigated stellar maser sources with no IRAS counterpart at the radio, middle-infrared, and near-infrared wavelengths. A 43 GHz SiO maser search for 120 2MASS/MSX objects, and 10 OH 1612 MHz sources with no or a very faint MSX counterpart, resulted in 43 SiO detections: one OH 1612 MHz source, 2 near-infrared stars, and 40 MSX sources. Additional near-infrared J-, H-, and K-band observations of the OH 1612 MHz sources detected 5 near-infrared counterparts. Furthermore, middle-infrared imaging observations at 8.8, 9.7, 12.4, and 24.5 micron with the Subaru 8.2-m telescope found counterparts for 2 near-infrared stars with SiO masers, and counterparts for 6 OH 1612 MHz sources. However, 4 OH 1612 MHz sources were not detected in the sensitive near- and middle-infrared searches; three of these are relatively strong OH maser sources for which the positions were known accurately. We conclude that one of these (OH 028.286-01.801) must be a young object in a star-forming region.