A model of maser emission spots as icy planets orbiting young massive stars is proposed. It is argued that the interstellar gas phase abundance of methanol, H2O and OH is much too low to produce maser emission from small gas clumps. The interstellar grains, on the other hand, consisting mainly of water ice and several per cent of methanol, can produce a favorable environment for the maser emission when evaporated. Big comets or planets covered by the water/methanol ice orbiting young massive stars can be the sites of the maser emission. The ice evaporates under stellar radiation, and water and methanol molecules emit corresponding maser lines, while OH molecules are produced from dissociation of water by the stellar radiation. VLBI observations of masers in W 3(OH), W 75N and V645 Cyg show that proposed planets are found in disks, and are moving on Keplerian orbits around O, B-stars. In the case of the O-star in W 3(OH) the planets are located beyond the compact HII region of the star. Extended envelopes of the icy planets provide molecular abundance, gas temperature and density adequate for the maser emission.
Abstract. Radio images of maser spots in the infrared source RAFGL 2789, connected with the young stellar object V645 Cyg, have been obtained as a result of radio interferometric observations of the H2O maser at 22 GHz and the methanol maser at 6.7 GHz, with the VLBI arrays VLBA and EVN. It is shown that the position of the masers coincides with the optical object within $'.2. The maser spots are located along the line North-South, and their position and radial velocity can be described by a model of a Keplerian disk with a maximum radius of 40 AU for the H2O maser and 800 AU for the methanol maser. The H2O and methanol maser spots have not been resolved, and lower limits of the brightness temperature are 2 x 10 13 K and 1.4 x 10 9 K, respectively. A model of the maser is suggested in which the maser emission is generated in extended water and methanol envelopes of icy planets orbiting the young star.
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