A Circumstellar Disc in a High-Mass Star Forming Region

Abstract

We present an edge-on Keplerian disc model to explain the main component of the 12.2 and 6.7 GHz methanol maser emission detected toward NGC7538-IRS1 N. The brightness distribution and spectrum of the line of bright masers are successfully modeled with high amplification of background radio continuum emission along velocity coherent paths through a maser disc. The bend seen in the position-velocity diagram is a characteristic signature of differentially rotating discs. For a central mass of 30 solar masses, suggested by other observations, our model fixes the masing disc to have inner and outer radii of about 350 AU and 1000 AU.Comment: 11 pages, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter