EPoS Contribution
EPoS Contribution
Dissecting massive YSOs with MIR interferometry

Hendrik Linz
Max-Planck-Institut fuer Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany
The very inner structure of massive YSOs is difficult to trace. With conventional observational methods we often identify structures still several hundreds of AU in size. But we also need information about the innermost regions where the actual mass transfer onto the forming high-mass star occurs. An innovative way to probe these scales is to utilise mid-infrared interferometry. Here, we present results of our MIDI GTO programme at the VLTI. We observed 10 well-known massive YSOs down to scales of 20 mas. We clearly resolve these objects which results in low visibilities and sizes in the order of 30 - 50 mas. Thus, with MIDI we can for the first time quantify the extent of the thermal emission from the warm circumstellar dust and thus calibrate existing concepts regarding the compactness of such emission in the pre-UCHII region phase. We will discuss the indications for circumstellar disks and for bloated central objects indicating the accretion history of those massive YSOs. We demonstrate how these interferometric results can help to resolve the ambiguities normally arising from simple SED fitting. Finally, an outlook onto the capabilities of the planned 2nd generation VLTI instruments in the massive YSO context will be given.