Probing the Early Evolution of Young High-Mass Stars

Near-infrared imaging surveys of high-mass star-forming regions reveal an amazingly complex interplay between star formation and the environment (Churchwell et al. 2006; Alvarez et al. 2004). By means of nearIR spectroscopy the embedded massive young stars can be characterized and placed in the context of their birth site. However, so far spectroscopic surveys have been hopelessly incomplete, hampering any systematic study of these very young massive stars. New integral field instrumentation available at ESO has opened the possibility to take a huge step forward by obtaining a full spectral inventory of the youngest massive stellar populations in star-forming regions currently accessible. Simultaneously, the analysis of the extended emission allows the characterization of the environmental conditions. The Formation and Early Evolution of Massive Stars (FEMS) collaboration aims at setting up a large observing campaign to obtain a full census of the stellar content, ionized material, outflows and PDR’s over a sample of regions that cover a large parameter space. Complementary radio, mm and infrared observations will be used for the characterization of the deeply embedded population. For the first eight regions we have obtained 40 hours of SINFONI observations. In this contribution, we present the first results on three regions that illustrate the potential of this strategy. Instituut voor Sterrenkunde, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200D, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild Strasse 2, Garching-bei-München, D85748, Germany Astronomical Institute ”Anton Pannekoek”, University of Amsterdam, Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany Instituto Astrof́ısico de Canarias, Via Láctea s/n, E-38200 La Laguna, Spain University of Wisconsin, 475 North Charter Street, WI 53706 Madison, USA Instituto de Astronomı́a UNAM-Morelia, Aptdo. 3-72, 58090 Morelia, Michoacán Mexico University of Sheffield, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield S3 7RH, United Kingdom Department of Astronomy, UCLA, 475 Portola Plaze, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA Royal Observatory of Edinburgh, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK