P67	May 2001

¹ Institut d'Astrophysique et de Géophysique - Université de Liège, Avenue de Cointe 5, 4000 Liège, Belgium
² Astronomy Department, University of Illinois, 1002 W. Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
⁴ Instituto de Astronomía IA - UNAM, Apartado 70-264, 04510 Mexico D.F., Mexico

^* Research Fellow FNRS, Belgium
^** Visting astronomer, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Abstract

     Massive stars are expected to produce wind-blown bubbles in the interstellar medium; however, ring nebulae, suggesting the existence of bubbles, are rarely seen around main-sequence O stars. To search for wind-blown bubbles around main-sequence O stars, we have obtained high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images and high-dispersion echelle spectra of two pristine HII regions, N11B and N180B, in the Large Magellanic Cloud. These HII regions are ionized by OB associations that still contain O3 stars, suggesting that the HII regions are young and have not hosted any supernova explosions. Our observations show that wind-blown bubbles in these HII regions can be detected kinematically but not morphologically because their expansion velocities are comparable to or only slightly higher than the isothermal sound velocity in the HII regions. Bubbles are detected around concentrations of massive stars, individual O stars, and even an evolved red supergiant (a fossil bubble). Comparisons between the observed bubble dynamics and model predictions show a large discrepancy (1-2 orders of magnitude) between the stellar wind luminosity derived from bubble observations and models and that derived from observations of stellar winds. The number and distribution of bubbles in N11B differ from those in N180B, which can be explained by the difference in the richness of stellar content between these two HII regions. Most of the bubbles observed in N11B and N180B show a blister-structure, indicating that the stars were formed on the surfaces of dense clouds. Numerous small dust clouds, similar to Bok globules or elephant trunks, are detected in these HII regions and at least one of them hosts on-going star formation.