1. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academic of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
2. National Astronomical Observatories of Japan, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
3. Department of Physics, Astronomy & Mathematics, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK

Correspondence to: Zhibo Jiang¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Z.J. (Email: zbjiang@pmo.ac.cn).

Abstract

The formation process for stars with masses several times that of the Sun is still unclear. The two main theories are mergers of several low-mass young stellar objects¹, which requires a high stellar density, or mass accretion from circumstellar disks in the same way as low-mass stars are formed², accompanied by outflows during the process of gravitational infall. Although a number of disks have been discovered around low- and intermediate-mass young stellar objects^{3, 4}, the presence of disks around massive young stellar objects is still uncertain and the mass of the disk system detected around one such object⁵, M17, is disputed⁶. Here we report near-infrared imaging polarimetry that reveals an outflow/disk system around the Becklin–Neugebauer protostellar object, which has a mass of at least seven solar masses (M). This strongly supports the theory that stars with masses of at least 7M form in the same way as lower mass stars.

1. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academic of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
2. National Astronomical Observatories of Japan, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588, Japan
3. Department of Physics, Astronomy & Mathematics, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK

Correspondence to: Zhibo Jiang¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Z.J. (Email: zbjiang@pmo.ac.cn).

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