A group of astronomers from China, Japan and the United Kingdom obtained very sharp near-infrared polarization images of a famous massive protostellar object Becklin-Neugebauer (BN), by using the coronagraphic imager for adaptive optics (CIAO) mounted on the SUBARU telescope.

The images will lead to the discovery of a circumstellar disk associated with this massive young stellar object. Scientists released their research achievement in an article in Thursday's issue of "Nature".

The research group involves people from the Purple Mountain Observatory of China, the National Astronomical Observatories of Japan and University of Hertfordshire, of the United Kingdom.

They analyzed how the infrared light at a wavelength of 1.6 micron (H-band) are polarized to explore the structure nearby this young star.

Astronomers have long debated the formation of massive stars, and found little observational support, because massive stars are so rare and so far away from the Sun that it is very difficult to look at them clearly. With the use of large telescopes and adaptive optics, which greatly improve the image sharpness, astronomers are able to observe massive stars with unprecedented views.

Though the discovery of the disk is an important step towards the understanding of the massive star formation, there is still much work to do. The mass of the BN object is about 7 solar masses-only critically to be a massive star. For still higher-mass stars astronomers still need evidence.

Fortunately, with the technique of high-resolution near-infrared imaging polarimetry, it becomes possible to reveal the circumstellar disks associated with massive stars even if they are hiding behind the luminous star lights.

Source: Xinhua