Direct Observational Evidence of Multi-epoch Massive Star Formation in G24.47+0.49

Abstract

Using new continuum and molecular line data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming Regions (ATOMS) survey and archival Very Large Array, 4.86 GHz data, we present direct observational evidence of hierarchical triggering relating three epochs of massive star formation in a ringlike H ii region, G24.47+0.49. We find from radio flux analysis that it is excited by a massive star(s) of spectral type O8.5V–O8V from the first epoch of star formation. The swept-up ionized ring structure shows evidence of secondary collapse, and within this ring, a burst of massive star formation is observed in different evolutionary phases, which constitutes the second epoch. ATOMS spectral line (e.g., HCO+(1–0)) observations reveal an outer concentric molecular gas ring expanding at a velocity of ∼9 km s−1, constituting the direct and unambiguous detection of an expanding molecular ring. It harbors twelve dense molecular cores with surface mass density greater than 0.05 g cm−2, a threshold typical of massive star formation. Half of them are found to be subvirial and thus in gravitational collapse making them the third epoch of potential massive star-forming sites.