The Evolving ISM in the Milky Way & Nearby Galaxies Distributed Star Formation in the M17 Giant Molecular Cloud

We have found 269 candidate young stellar objects (YSOs) within a 0.5-degree (14 pc at 1.6 kpc) radius of the M17 H II region by fitting model spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to point-source fluxes from the GLIMPSE Archive, combined with MIPSGAL 24 and 70 µm photometry and MSX point-source fluxes where available. Bright diffuse mid-IR background emission dramatically reduces the IRAC point source sensitivity in the M17 H II region, so all but a few of the detected YSOs lie outside the H II region. Of our sample, ∼160 YSOs in the earliest stages of formation are distributed throughout the extended outer regions of M17 giant molecular cloud. YSOs appear to be located beyond the previously measured extent of the molecular gas. Our YSO sample has a power-law IMF that is complete above ∼3M. We estimate that at least 1250 stars are currently forming in the M17 molecular cloud. High-resolution imaging of M17 in X-rays with Chandra (Broos et al. 2007) has uncovered a population of 8,000–10,000 young stars within or near NGC 6618, the central ionizing cluster; our sample represents a complementary population. The M17 giant molecular cloud continues to form stars at> 25 % of the star formation rate that produced the massive NGC 6618 cluster