RNO91 is class II source currently in a transition phase between a protostar and a main-sequence star. It is known as a source of complex molecular outflows. Previous studies suggested that RNO91 was associated with a reflection nebula, a CO outflow, shock-excited H2 emission, and disk type structure. But the geometry of RNO91, especially its inner region, is not well confirmed yet. High resolution imaging is needed to understand the nature of RNO91 and its interaction with outflow. Thus, we conducted near-infrared imaging observations of RNO91 with the infrared camera CIAO mounted on the Subaru 8.2-m Telescope. We presented JHK band and optical images which resolved a complex asymmetrical circumstellar structure. We examined the color of RNO91 nebula and compared the geometry of the system suggested by our data with that already proposed on the basis of other studies. Our main results are as follows; 1. The K-band images show significant halo emission detected within ~2″ around the peak position while less halo emission is seen in shorter wavelength images such as J and optical. The nebula appears to become more circular and more diffuse with increasing wavelengths. The cut-off at 300AU derived from our radial surface brightness is consistent with the size of the polarization disk suggested by Draper & Tadhunter (1993). These consistencies indicate that this optically thick region is attributed to a disk-like structure.

2. At J and optical, several bluer knot-like structures are detected around and beyond the halo emission. These bluer knots seen in our images are comparable to the size of the envelope detected in HCO+ emission surrounding RNO91 (Lee & Ho 2005). It is thus natural to suggest that these bluer knots are the near-infrared light scattered by an envelope structure which is disrupted by molecular outflows.

3. The pseudo-true color composite image has an appearance of arc-shaped emission extending to the north and to the east through RNO91. On the counter part of this arc-shaped structure, the nebula appears to become more extended to the southwest from the central peak position in J band and optical images. We interpret these whole structures as a bottom of bipolar cavity seen relatively edge-on opening to the north and south directions.

The hot molecular core, W3(H2O), contains a massive protobinary system that is cocooned by dense gas (n(H2) ~ 107 cm−3), with about 1 arcsec (~ 2000 AU) separation of the binary system. We investigate chemical properties of the gas components around this binary system using the mm-wave transitions of complex molecules, CH3CN, SiO, HNCO, and CH3CH2CN, observed with the BIMA array. The two protostellar objects, A and C in W3(H2O), can be distinguished using chemical properties, suggesting that the source A may be younger than the source C within the time scale of less than 104 years. The hot core around the source C, traced by CH3CH2CN and the K=6 component of CH3CN, seems to have more time for chemical evolution than the source A. The SiO emission in this region suggests that there was an influence from the outside of the W3(H2O) and W3(OH) hot cores. The nitrogen chemistry may be more active in the later stage than the oxygen chemistry, but the chemical evolution of the protostellar envelopes may not be monotonic as previously suggested.

A sample of optically Bright-Rimmed Clouds (BRC) at the edge of HII regions has been observed at multiple wavelengths in order to investigate the possibility that star-formation is present. Such activity may be related to photoionisation induced shocks caused by the massive stars powering the HII regions.

The sample has been observed at radio, infrared and submillimetre wavelengths. Both molecular line studies and continuum observations have been made of the larger cloud structures and embedded sources within.

Radio and infrared continuum observations show the presence of ionised boundary layers coincident with the optically bright rims. These are responsible for the propagation of shocks into the clouds interiors, possibly triggering the collapse of cores into protostars.

Molecular line studies and submillimetre continuum observations show the presence of centrally condensed cores within the clouds, these cores have high densities and have submillimetre luminosities indicative of class 0 protostars. The total luminosities of the embedded sources reveal a set of forming intermediate to high-mass stars.

The identification of these regions as star-forming has important consequences for studies of triggered star-formation, not only does the high incidence of star formation in BRC suggest a high efficiency for Galactic triggered star-formation but the masses of the sources suggest a preferred process for the formation itself.

We performed numerical simulation including UV radiation transfer, and investigated effects of radiation driven implosion on star formation processes. We also observed two bright-rimmed clouds with C12O(J=1-0) and C13O(J=1-0) in order to compare density distributions between numerical results and observational results. Density profiles of bright-rimmed clouds are consistent with those of numerical simulations. These facts insist that star formations in bright-rimmed clouds are triggered by radiation driven implosion.

We have performed CO(J=3−2) emission observations with the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment (ASTE) toward the 5′ × 5′ (or 6.6 × 6.6 kpc at the distance D = 4.5 Mpc) region of the nearby barred spiral galaxy M 83. We successfully resolved the major structures, i.e., the nuclear starburst region, bar, and inner spiral arms in CO(J=3−2) emission at a resolution of 22'' (or 480 pc), showing a good spatial coincidence between CO(J=3−2) and 6 cm continuum emissions.

From a comparison of CO(J=3−2) data with CO(J=1−0) intensities measured with Nobeyama 45-m telescope, we found that the radial profile of CO(J=3−2)/CO(J=1−0) integrated intensity ratio R3−2/1−0 is almost unity in the central region (r<0.25 kpc), whereas it drops to a constant value, 0.6–0.7, in the disk region. The radial profile of star formation efficiencies (SFEs), determined from 6 cm radio continuum and CO(J=1−0) emission, shows the same trend as that of R3−2/1−0. At the bar-end (r ~ 2.4 kpc), the amounts of molecular gas and the massive stars are enhanced when compared with other disk regions, whereas there is no excess of R3−2/1−0 and SFE in that region. This means that a simple summation of the star forming regions at the bar-end and the disk cannot reproduce the nuclear starburst of M 83, implying that the spatial variation of the dense gas fraction traced by R3−2/1−0 governs the spatial variation of SFE in M 83.

OH masers are sensitive probes of the kinematics and physical conditions, and give unique information on the magnetic field through their polarization. Zeeman splitting of the OH lines can give the magnetic field strength and direction. Observing OH masers with MERLIN we studied the bipolar outflow in the star-forming region ON1, which hosts one of the earliest known ultra-compact (UC) HII regions. The strongest masers lie near the southern edge of the UCHII region in an elongated distribution. The maser distribution is orthogonal to the bipolar outflow seen in HCO+, suggesting that the OH masers may be embedded in a molecular disk or torus around a young B0.3 star, most likely tracing a shock front. An isolated group of 1720-MHz masers is also seen to the East. The magnetic field deduced from Zeeman splitting of the OH maser lines shows a large-scale order, with field values ranging from -0.4 to -4.6 mG. These results add to the growing body of evidence for OH masers associated with molecular disks or tori at the centre of bipolar outflow from massive young stars, and for a significant role played by the magnetic field in generating or channeling the bipolar outflow. Further details are presented by Nammahachak et al. 2006.

We present slit-scan observations of the Hα and [NII] 6584 Å emission lines toward the HL Tau jet with the 8.2m Subaru Telescope. HL Tau is an active young star in transitional phase from an embedded class I protostar to a class II pre-main-sequence star, and it is located in the northeastern part of the L1551 dark cloud. The slit-scan technique at high spectral resolution (R=3.6×104) allowed for studying kinematics of individual features in unprecedented details. The Hα emission shows the main jet component (VLSR ~ −180 km s−1) and distinct lower velocity components (∣VLSR∣<120 km s−1). The [NII] emission is primarily associated with the jet within 10 arcsecond from the source, and also knot B and C ~30 arcsecond away from the source. These are associated with the main jet component, and absent in the lower velocity components. The velocity of Hα and [NII] emissions in the main jet component well matches each other.

Our high-resolution spectra do not show the evidence for the presence of turbulent mixing layers between the jet and surrounding gas. The lower velocity components are associated with individual knots, and explained as the lateral of bow shocks. Their line profiles suggest that shock velocity of the knots A-C is 120~130 km s−1 (Hartigan et al. 1987). The observed [NII]/Hα flux ratio markedly differ between regions: 0.1-0.7 in base of the jet; less than 0.1 in knot A; ~0.2 in knot B; ~0.4 in knot C; and ~0.7 in knot D. Shock models predict that the [NII]/Hα flux ratio reflects the ionization of the preshock gas. This results from enhancement of N+ via the charge exchange reaction (Osterbrock 1989; Bacciotti & Eislöffel 1999). We perform more detailed comparisons between models and observations (Hartigan et al. 1987; Morse et al. 1994). The base of the jet and knot D show high [NII]/Hα flux ratios, indicating that the ambient gas surrounding the jet is considerably ionized, or the preshock density of the ambient gas is significantly low. In contrast, the knots A-C exhibit low [NII]/Hα flux ratios, indicating that the ambient gas surrounding the jet is almost neutral, or the preshock density of the ambient gas is significantly high. The [NII]/Hα flux ratio increases from knot A (0.1) to knot D (~0.7). This suggests that the ionization fraction of the ambient gas increases away from the source, or the preshock density of the ambient gas decreases away from the source.

It is known that most of stars are formed as clusters (Lada & Lada 2003, ARAA 41, L57) and clusters are formed by triggering. However, the relationships of molecular clouds' conditions and properties of formed stars by triggering is not well studied. To clarify differences between triggered and spontaneous star formation through physical properties of molecular clouds (e.g. mass, density, morphology), we observed the W5-East HII region. The W5-East HII region is located at 2 kpc and has a 10 pc extent of HII region. This region has 3 Bright Rimmed Clouds (BRCs; Sugitani et al. 1991, ApJS 77, S59), which are interface between HII regions and molecular clouds, and known as sites of triggered star formation. The molecular clouds surround the W5-East (Karr et al. 2003, ApJ, 595, 900), thus we expect molecular clouds morphology is affected by the HII region and the cloud evolution is supposed to be dominated by the expanding HII region.

We construct a model of the physical structure of photoevaporating protoplanetary disks, and numerically calculate the coagulation and settling/evaporating process of dust particles in the disks. Our result show that (sub)micron-sized-dust-particles could evaporate with the gas, which leads to dispersal of infrared excess radiation from the disks.

We have made a detailed model of the physical structure of protoplanetary disks, taking into account X-ray and ultraviolet (UV) irradiation from a central star, as well as dust size growth and settling towards the disk midplane. Also, we calculate the level populations and line emission of molecular hydrogen from the disks, which shows that the dust evolution changes the physical properties of the disk, and then the line ratios of the molecular hydrogen emission.

Young brown dwarfs have been identified in a significant population in various star forming regions. Some deep surveys have yielded less massive objects with planetary-mass (e.g., Oasa et al. 1999; Lucas & Roche 2000). Nevertheless, it is not yet clear how abundant these very low-mass objects are formed. S106 is one of the nearest massive star-forming regions associated with prominent bipolar nebulae and an HII region. We have conducted near-infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations of very low-mass young stellar objects (YSOs) in the S106 region.

We have conducted deep near-infrared surveys of the Sh-2 255, W3 Main and NGC 7538 massive star forming regions using simultaneous observations of the JHKs-band with the near-infrared camera SIRIUS on the UH 88-inch telescope and with SUBARU. The near-infrared surveys cover a total area of ~ 72 arcmin2 of three regions with 10-σ limiting magnitudes of ~ 19.5, 18.4 and 17.3 in J, H and Ks-band, respectively. Based on the color-color and color-magnitude diagrams and their clustering properties, the candidate young stellar objects are identified and their luminosity functions are constructed in Sh-2 255, W3 Main and NGC 7538 star forming regions. A large number of previously unreported red sources (H-K > 2) have also been detected around these regions. We argue that these red stars are most probably pre-main-sequence stars with intrinsic color excesses. The detected young stellar objects show a clear clustering pattern in each region: the Class I-like sources are mostly clustered in molecular cloud region, while the Class II-like sources are in or around more evolved optical HII regions. We find that the slopes of the Ks-band luminosity functions of Sh-2 255, W3 Main and NGC 7538 are lower than the typical values reported for the young embedded clusters, and their stellar populations are primarily composed of low mass pre-main-sequence stars. From the slopes of the Ks-band luminosity functions, we infer that Sh-2 255, W3 Main and NGC 7538 star forming regions are rather young (age ≤ 1 Myr).

We present our recent work on the conditions under which star formation occurs in a metal-poor environment, the Large Magellanic Cloud ([Fe/H] ~ −0.4). Water masers are used as beacons of the current star formation in H II regions. Comparing their location with the dust morphology imaged with the Spitzer Space Telescope, and additional Hα imaging and groundbased near-infrared observations, we conclude that the LMC environment seems favourable to sequential star formation triggered by massive star feedback (Oliveira et al. 2006). Good examples of this are 30 Doradus and N 113. There are also H II regions, such as N 105A, where feedback may not be responsible for the current star formation although the nature of one young stellar object (YSO) suggests that feedback may soon start making an impact. The chemistry in one YSO hints at a stronger influence from irradiation effects in a metal-poor environment where shielding by dust is suppressed (van Loon 2005).

We present IZJHKL′ photometry of the core of the cluster NGC 6611 in the Eagle Nebula. This photometry is used to constrain the Initial Mass Function (IMF) and the circumstellar disk frequency of the young stellar objects. Optical spectroscopy of 258 objects is used to confirm membership and constrain contamination as well as individual reddening estimates. Our overall aim is to assess the influence of the ionizing radiation from the massive stars on the formation and evolution of young low-mass stars and their disks. The disk frequency determined from the JHKL′ colour-colour diagram suggests that the ionizing radiation from the massive stars has little effect on disk evolution (Oliveira et al. 2005). The cluster IMF seems indistinguishable from those of quieter environments; however towards lower masses the tell-tale signs of an environmental influence are expected to become more noticeable, a question we are currently addressing with our recently acquired ultra-deep (ACS and NICMOS) HST images.

We present the result of the analysis of the point-by-point correlation between the radio continuum (RC) and CO intensities from kpc to sub-kpc scales in 22 BIMA SONG galaxies and the point-by-point correlation at sub-kpc scales between the RC, CO and 24 μm-IR emissions in 6 galaxies for which Spitzer images have been recently released. We found that there is no significant variation of the slope and the scatter of the correlations at this spatial resolution. All three correlations are comparably tight with scatter of less than a factor of two.

Methanol masers and UCHII regions trace massive star formation sites. We have undertaken a mid-IR survey of 17 regions containing methanol masers and UCHIIs in order to locate the young stellar sources associated with them. The images were obtained from 8.7 to 18.8 μm with the mid-IR camera CID (Salas et al. 2003) on the 2.1m telescope of the Observatorio Astronomico Nacional at San Pedro Martir (Baja California, Mexico). The images were taken with a scale 0.55″/pix and the mean PSF was 1.5-2.0″(FWHM) close to the diffraction limit. We report as an example in Fig. 1 (left panel) our 18.8μm contours of IRAS 06061+2151 superimposed to the 2MASS Ks image. A young cluster of at least 4 sources has been found centered on the IRAS source (Anandarao et al. 2004). We have found two mid-IR sources coinciding with the source #2 and #4 of Anandarao et al. (2004). The source #4 is at the center of two H2 knots and a high velocity molecular outflow. The mid-IR emission from #2 is extended and coincides with the UCHII and MSX source. The methanol maser is approximately 10″ south of the source #2. The SEDs of both sources are illustrated in Fig. 1 (right panel). The IR spectral indices of source #2 and #4 are α(IR)=1.9 and 2.2 respectively.

We present the first results from a project to map Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs) in the 12CO J=2-1, 13CO J=2-1, and 12CO J=3-2 lines using the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope (HHT) at the University of Arizona. We mapped nearly 2.5 sq. deg of W3 and 1.0 sq. deg of W51 in the J=2-1 lines. We have begun mapping in the J=3-2 line. We achieve angular resolutions of 33″ and 24″ in the J=2-1 and J=3-2 lines with 1.3 and 0.9 km s−1 resolution.

Bok globules, optically opaque small dark clouds, are classical examples of isolated star formation. However, the collapse mechanism for these cold, dense clouds of gas and dust is not well understood. Observations of Bok globules include some which appear to be starless while others harbor single stars, binaries and even small groups of forming stars. One example of a Bok globule forming a group of stars is CB 34, observed with both the IRAC and MIPS instruments as part of the Spitzer Young Cluster Survey. Based on initial analysis of 1-8 μm photometry from IRAC and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), we identified 9 Class 0/I and 14 Class II young stellar objects within the small, 4.5′ × 4.5′ region encompassing CB 34. This unusually high number of protostars compared with Class II sources is intriguing because it implies a high rate of star formation. Therefore we have begun a larger study of this region in order to determine why and how CB 34 started forming stars at such a high rate. Is CB 34 embedded within a larger HII region which may have triggered its collapse or does it appear to have collapsed in isolation from outside influences?

S284 is a diffuse HII region located in the anti-centre of the galactic disk (l=212, b=−1.3), at a distance of 5.5 kpc and it is relatively isolated. S284 harbours a cluster of stars in its centre known as Dolidze 25 (also known as C 0642+0.03). A spectroscopic study of the cluster sources (Lennon et al. 1990, A&A, 240, 349) revealed: a) the spectral types of these central sources and b) the low metallicity of the cluster (a factor six lower than the solar metallicity). The age of the cluster (6 Myr) has been determined through isochrone fitting of precision photometry (Turbide & Moffat, 1993, AJ, 105, 1831).

We have conducted Spitzer-IRAC observations of 0.9x1.2 degrees around S284 in the four IRAC bands (3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 μm). These data provide us with an unprecedented perspective of the dust component toward S284. We also present complementary observations with the WFC-INT (Roque de los Muchachos) in the Hα filter. The inspection of the images reveals the existence of: i) Rings of dust that constraint the ionised gas, ii) Elephant trunks stretching toward the centre of the main HII region, namely the cluster Dolidze 25 and iii) various spatial scales (4 main shells and 22 knots).

We have calculated the dynamical age of the central HII region (S284) in a very simple pressure-driven scenario, using the strong-shock approximation. The resultant age of the main shell is 8 Myr, in good agreement with the estimated age of the central cluster (Dolidze 25). The presence of another two smaller ionised bubbles (with diameters of 3′ and 5′, respectively) located at the rim of this HII region suggests a later generation of high-mass star-forming regions. The color-color diagram of the IRAC photometry betrays the existence of several Class I objects, most of which are located at the rim of the most prominent shell.

Multi-wavelength photometry has been gathered to construct the Spectral Energy Distribution of the 22 blobs detected toward S284. The SEDs reveal luminosities corresponding to low- and intermediate-mass stars.

We conclude that the remarkable symmetry of the main HII bubble, the spectra of masses harboured by the different blobs around it, and most importantly, the uniform presence of elephant trunks that stretch toward the centre can be best explained by the growth of dynamical instabilities in a collected layer (Garcia-Segura & Franco, 1996, ApJ, 469, 171). In the context of this hypothesis, the low metallicity of the environment would significantly determine the length and stability over time of the elephant trunks.

We present a subsample of ‘local’ very metal-poor gas-rich galaxies that show more or less clear evidences of interactions and mergers and discuss their relevance to the study of high-redshift star-forming young galaxies.