Star Formation, Stellar Feedback, and the Ecology of Galaxies

Star Formation, Stellar Feedback, and the Ecology of Galaxies

Feedback Loops in Star Formation: The Interplay between Waterloo 01 and Sh 2-208

Young open clusters (age ≤10 Myr) are idiosyncratic to study star formation in our galaxy. It is important to study the properties of young open clusters to understand how star formation takes place in both local and Galactic plane scales. Moreover, one of the important questions in the field of star formation is the role of stellar feedback on the subsequent star formation processes. In the present study to understand star formation we performed the multiwavelength analysis of open star cluster Waterloo 01 and an HII region Sh 2-208. We found that both regions have massive OB-type stars as member stars and the Sh 2-208 region encompasses an infra-red cluster [BDS2003]64. Both regions have elongated morphology and are placed at a distance of 3.53 kpc with reddening of 0.83 mag and 0.65 mag respectively. Radio continuum emission, distribution of warm and cold dust emission, molecular morphology, and various feedback pressures profoundly signify that massive stars present at the center of Waterloo 01 cluster affect its surrounding environment and generate an HII region Sh 2-208. Massive stars present in this region also affect its environment and further star formation is going on at the place of Sh 2-208. Hence, we identified feedback loops of star formation in these regions.

See also: Color-composite image of the 24′ × 24′ FOV of the star forming region Sh2-208 and Waterloo 01 cluster. This color image is overlaid with isodensity contours generated from the NIR catalog (2MASS+UKIDSS). The lowest level for the isodensity contours is 2σ above the mean stellar density (i.e., 18 stars arcmin−2) with a step size of 1σ (3.5 stars arcmin−2). White boxes delineate the optically observed 10 × 10 arcmin2 FOV from 2m HCT Hanle, and magenta curves are the convex hell for the lowest density contour for both regions. Yellow asterisk symbols depict the location of massive stars in both regions. (986.9 KB)