Near Infrared Polarimetric Imaging of Giant HII Region RCW57

• Main Authors: Yi-Hsin Shih, 施逸昕
• Other Authors: Wen-Ping Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/kpytf6

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 天文研究所 === 96 === RCW57 is one of the brightest H II regions in the infrared harboring a group of massive stars with infrared excess indicative of their youth. We present the near-infrared JHKs polarization images taken by SIRPOL, an infrared polarimeter camera mounted on the IRSF (Infra-Red Survey Facility) telescope in Sutherland, South Africa. An overall scattering pattern is seen centrally symmetric around the luminous stellar group, indicating their dominant role in illuminating the nebulosity. Organized scattering patterns also reveal special dust distribution around embedded infrared sources, e.g., a dust ridge which may be associated with IRS−1 #60. We find no systematic polarization of background stars, which may indicate an entangled magnetic field structure in a turbulent environment of massive star formation.