EPoS Contribution

The birth of a star of SpT O - How to unravel its mystery

Dieter Nürnberger
ESO Paranal, Chile

It happens extremely fast! Yet one has to be patient.
It happens in the dark! Yet one has to capture the light.
It happens at large distance! Yet one has to be on the spot.
Considering the odd circumstances they are forming under, one might assume that the earliest phases during the birth of the most massive stars are impossible to be accessed by observations directly. However, in the case protostellar candidates are revealed by ionizing photons and strong stellar winds in violent cluster environments, and by making smart use of today's (and future) state-of-the-art instruments and observing techniques, one has a reasonable chance to gather unique and/or complementary information on these young sources and their birth places. With a particular focus on recently obtained infrared data, I would like to demonstrate how studies of protostellar candidates, which are located in Giant HII Region - Giant Molecular Cloud interfaces, can help us to tackle key questions (e.g., accretion versus coalescence) related to the formation of the most massive stars.