* Astronomy

Title: The BLAST View of the Star Forming Region in Aquila (ell=45deg,b=0deg)
Authors: Alana Rivera-Ingraham, Peter A. R. Ade, James J. Bock, Edward L. Chapin, Mark J. Devlin, Simon R. Dicker, Matthew Griffin, Joshua O. Gundersen, Mark Halpern, Peter C. Hargrave, David H. Hughes, Jeff Klein, Gaelen Marsden, Peter G. Martin, Philip Mauskopf, Calvin B. Netterfield, Luca Olmi, Guillaume Patanchon, Marie Rex, Arabindo Roy, Douglas Scott, Christopher Semisch, Matthew D. P. Truch, Carole Tucker, Gregory S. Tucker, Marco P. Viero, Donald V. Wiebe
(Version v2)

We have carried out the first general submillimetre analysis of the field towards GRSMC 45.46+0.05, a massive star forming region in Aquila. The deconvolved 6°² (3° X 2°) maps provided by BLAST in 2005 at 250, 350, and 500 micron were used to perform a preliminary characterisation of the clump population previously investigated in the infrared, radio, and molecular maps. Interferometric CORNISH data at 4.8 GHz have also been used to characterise the Ultracompact HII regions (UCHIIRs) within the main clumps. By means of the BLAST maps we have produced an initial census of the submillimetre structures that will be observed by Herschel, several of which are known Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs). Our spectral energy distributions of the main clumps in the field, located at ~7 kpc, reveal an active population with temperatures of T~35-40 K and masses of ~10³ Msun for a dust emissivity index beta=1.5. The clump evolutionary stages range from evolved sources, with extended HII regions and prominent IR stellar population, to massive young stellar objects, prior to the formation of an UCHIIR.The CORNISH data have revealed the details of the stellar content and structure of the UCHIIRs. In most cases, the ionising stars corresponding to the brightest radio detections are capable of accounting for the clump bolometric luminosity, in most cases powered by embedded OB stellar clusters.

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