Water in massive star-forming regions with the Herschel Space Observatory

¹ Université de Bordeaux , Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, CNRS/INSU, UMR5804, Floirac, France
² SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, PO Box 800, 9700 AV, Groningen, The Netherlands
³ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
⁴ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands

Abstract

The understanding of the star formation is still on progress. Especially, the formation of high-mass stars is much less understood than the low-mass case. Water, one of the most important molecules in the Universe, might elucidate key episodes in the process of stellar birth, and especially could be a major role in the formation of high-mass stars. We present here the first results of the WISH program, dedicated to the water study in star-forming regions with Herschel, concerning the massive star-forming regions.