Recent massive star formation in 30 Doradus

Two early O-type stars apparently involved in dense nebular knots have been found in the northeast quadrant of the 30 Doradus nebula. One of them lies within the positional uncertainty radius of a previously detected water maser source, and it has a well-marked interstellar 4430 A diffuse band feature. These objects may be very young massive stars just emerging from their protostellar cocoons, and it is suggested that this part of 30 Doradus may represent an earlier evolutionary stage than the central region surrounding R136. A brief survey of recent literature on possibly related objects in the Magellanic Clouds suggests the emergence there of a class corresponding to optically observable, very early evolutionary stages of massive stars. 21 references