We imaged the excited OH maser line at 6.035 GHz associated with the 6.7 GHz methanol masers in a selected sample of high-mass young stellar objects using the European VLBI Network. The excited OH emission was found in a survey of methanol maser sources carried out since 2018 with the Torun 32-m telescope. The overlap of radial velocities of spectral features of methanol and excited OH suggested that both lines arose in the same volume of gas, therefore, we verified this hypothesis with the interferometric data. Here, we present the first images at the milliarcsecond scale of both maser transitions and identify the Zeeman pairs at the ex-OH line estimating the strength of the magnetic field in G43.149+00.013 (W49N).

The Maser Monitoring Organisation is a collection of researchers exploring the use of time-variable maser emission in the investigation of astrophysical phenomena. The forward directed aspects of research primarily involve using maser emission as a tool to investigate star formation. Simultaneously, these activities have deepened knowledge of maser emission itself in addition to uncovering previously unknown maser transitions. Thus a feedback loop is created where both the knowledge of astrophysical phenomena and the utilised tools of investigation themselves are iteratively sharpened. The project goals are open-ended and constantly evolving, however, the reliance on radio observatory maser monitoring campaigns persists as the fundamental enabler of research activities within the group.

Recently, remarkable progress has been made in understanding the formation of high mass stars. Observations provided direct evidence that massive young stellar objects (MYSOs), analogously to low-mass ones, form via disk-mediated accretion accompanied by episodic accretion bursts, possibly caused by disk fragmentation. In the case of MYSOs, the mechanism theoretically provides a means to overcome radiation pressure, but in practice it is poorly studied - only three accretion bursts in MYSOs have been caught in action to date. A significant contribution to the development of the theory has been made with the study of masers, which have proven to be a powerful tool for locating “bursting” MYSOs. This overview focuses on the exceptional role that masers play in the search and study of accretion bursts in massive protostars.

Ring−like sources of 6.7 GHz methanol maser emission were discovered a decade ago with the European VLBI Network. In the past years we have been incessantly working to understand the nature of these rings. In general, the methanol rings do not coincide with H II regions nor they show 22 GHz water maser emission. Here, we present a proper motion study over a time baseline up to 10.5 years for the first sub-sample of methanol maser rings. Our findings suggest that in three targets G23.207−00.377, G23.389+00.185, and G23.657−00.127, such rings form in outflows or even in winds close to the central sources, and the masers trace slow proper motions of a few km s−1 typically.

The recent discovery of methanol maser emission coming from ring-like distributions has led to the plausible hypothesis that they may be tracing circumstellar disks around forming high mass stars. In this article we discuss the distribution of circumstellar material around such young and massive accreting (proto)stars, and what infrared emission geometries would be expected for different disk/outflow orientations. For four targets we then compare the expected infrared geometries (as inferred from the properties of the maser rings) with actual high spatial resolution near-infrared and mid-infrared images. We find that the observed infrared emission geometries are not consistent with the masers residing in circumstellar disks.

In the course of following up compact methanol masers at 6.7 GHz which were found in the Torun blind survey (Szymczak et al. 2002), we discovered a ring structure in the source G23.657−00.127. This source provides interesting insights into whether methanol masers arise in rotating disks around massive stars, in their outflows, or behind shocks. By monitoring the 12.2 GHz masers, which fortunately follow the same structure, we hope to resolve the kinematics of the ring. Moreover, the symmetry of the source points to the existence of a central source. Early results on the nature of this source indicate the existence of a hyper–compact H II region.

It has been established that massive stars form in dense clusters, when large molecular clouds collapse. However, the high obscuration and small spatial scales make it difficult to investigate the earliest stage of high–mass protostellar objects (HMPOs). Therefore methanol masers are of special interests as they are closely associated with HMPOs and offer high spatial resolution; they probe the massive star formation environment at the unique scale of a few AU (1 mas corresponds to 5 AU at 5 kpc).

We present VLBI observations of methanol masers discovered in an unbiased survey along the Galactic plane. We compare their positions with infrared surveys. In general, the masers do not coincide with infrared objects. That implies they are already present at a very early evolution stage of HMPOs when the dense surroundings still absorb other radiation. In addition we present maps of five methanol masers towards HMPOs with milliarcsecond resolution taken with the recently extended European VLBI Network. These sources show a wide variety of morphologies, indicating they arise in different events going on in close surroundings of HMPOs, i.e. outflows, discs or shocks. One source G23.657−00.127 displays a regularly shaped ring which appears as a great laboratory for further research of a single HMPO. Proper motion studies should reveal an expansion or rotation of the maser components in 2–3 years.

A blind survey for 6.7GHz methanol maser emission has been made with the 32 m Toruń radio telescope. The survey consists of 4,800 spectra on an equilateral triangular grid pattern with each grid point separated by 4.4 covering a field of ∼21 deg2 at galactic longitudes 20° to 40° and galactic latitudes ±0°52. The average sensitivity was 1.6 Jy and the spectral resolution was 0.04kms−1. A total of 99 sources were detected, 28 of which were not found during previous searches of IRAS-selected ultracompact HII regions. The peak flux density of new detections is usually lower than 30 Jy. About half of the methanol masers have no IRAS counterparts within a radius of 2. The nature of these sources is unclear.

Drifts in radial velocities of OH maser features of the three semiregular variable stars R Crt, RT Vir and W Hya have been analyzed. The radial velocities of the extreme blue- and red-shifted features drifted by about 0.2 kms−1 to 1 km s−1 on time-scales of few months to several years. In the case of W Hya a blending effect of spectral features can account for those drifts. In the two other sources the velocity drifts are likely to be intrinsic to the clumps for which the velocities of peak emission vary due to appearance or disappearance of maser emission in the regions where circumstellar matter is still accelerated.

A sample of 174 methanol sources has been observed with the 32 m Toruń radio telescope at four or five epochs separated by 3-7 months. Observations of the 6.7 GHz maser line revealed that about 80% of sources are variable. 20% of sources showed strong variations of the integrated flux density usually on time-scales of 5-12 months. These variations were associated with strong changes in the relative intensities of maser features. Methanol emission from five sources disappeared. The time-scales of variability were longer than 12 months for only 23% of variable sources. It is suggested that the variability of methanol emission is related to the dynamics of the maser regions.