A heatwave of accretion energy traced by masers in the G358-MM1 high-mass protostar
Eislöffel, J.; Stecklum, B.; Kim, Kee-Tae; Hunter, T. R.; Linz, H.; Caratti o Garatti, A.; Sobolev, A. M.; Hirota, T.; Yonekura, Y.; Chibueze, J. O.; Ellingsen, S. P.; Phillips, C.; Surcis, G.; Brogan, C.; Burns, R. A.; Olech, M.; Orosz, G.; Sugiyama, K.; MacLeod, G. C.; Hyland, L.; van den Heever, S. P.; Baan, W.; Kramer, B.
Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Russia, Germany, Canada, South Africa, Poland, Australia, China, Ireland, United States, Italy, Nigeria, Netherlands
Abstract
High-mass stars are thought to accumulate much of their mass via short, infrequent bursts of disk-aided accretion1,2. Such accretion events are rare and difficult to observe directly but are known to drive enhanced maser emission3-6. In this Letter we report high-resolution, multi-epoch methanol maser observations toward G358.93-0.03, which reveal an interesting phenomenon: the subluminal propagation of a thermal radiation `heatwave' emanating from an accreting high-mass protostar. The extreme transformation of the maser emission implies a sudden intensification of thermal infrared radiation from within the inner (40-mas, 270-au) region. Subsequently, methanol masers trace the radial passage of thermal radiation through the environment at ≥4% of the speed of light. Such a high translocation rate contrasts with the ≤10 km s-1 physical gas motions of methanol masers typically observed using very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI). The observed scenario can readily be attributed to an accretion event in the high-mass protostar G358.93-0.03-MM1. While being the third case in its class, G358.93-0.03-MM1 exhibits unique attributes hinting at a possible `zoo' of accretion burst types. These results promote the advantages of maser observations in understanding high-mass-star formation, both through single-dish maser monitoring campaigns and via their international cooperation as VLBI arrays.