EPoS Contribution
EPoS Contribution
W3 IRS 5: A Trapezium in its making

Javier Rodon
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany
Although most young massive stars appear to be part of multiple systems, it is poorly understood how this multiplicity influences the formation of massive stars. The high-mass star-forming region W3 IRS5 is a prime example of a young massive cluster where the cluster center is resolved into multiple sub-sources at cm and infrared wavelengths, a potential proto-Trapezium system. We observed W3 IRS5 with the PdBI and investigated its protostellar content as well as its dense gas and outflow emission at millimeter wavelengths down to sub-arcsecond scales. We detect five continuum sources, one of them for the first time, while for the remaining four sources counterparts were detected in the NIR, MIR or Radio wavelengths. The dense central region is consistent with a multiple, Trapezium-like system with protostellar densities exceeding 10^6 protostars/pc^3. In SiO, we disentangle the compact outflow component into five molecular outflows, two of them in a near line of sight direction, which allow us to see the collapsing protostars through the cavities carved by the outflows. The SO_2 velocity structure indicates a rotating bound system, and we found tentative signatures of converging flows as predicted by the gravoturbulent star formation and converging flow theories. Future observations and modeling will investigate the latter scenario in more detail.