Christian Andreas
Thuringian State Observatory
Investigation of periodic maser outbursts in young stars with SOFIA
In recent years, accretion bursts of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) were identified, that point towards the presence of circumstellar disks. At infrared wavelengths, the associated radiation may trigger flares of Class II methanol masers, which opens a new window to decipher the complex variability pattern in protostellar accretion. Here we present the first results of far IR measurements with the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) in two MYSOs, which exhibit periodic maser emissions. Among others, possible explanations for these periodic masers comprise cyclic accretion events due to a stellar or substellar companion as well as intrinsic pulsations of the MYSOs.
