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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
Small clusters of recently-formed massive stars with their associated compact H II regions are often found embedded in the dense cores of molecular clouds. The H2CO opacity is correlated with the compactness of the H II region and is especially high for those with associated maser activity although additional factors are involved for the ultra-compact H II regions (UCH II). VLA observations of H2CO at 2 cm have been made towards the UCH II regions of W49-north. The highest H2CO opacity of 1.0 is found towards region A which does not have maser activity; yet one of the most compact region C, has an H2CO opacity of only 0.3, For these sources the integrated H2CO opacity (over the entire profile) may be more indicative of compactness. This may be due to the broader H2CO lines which can occur towards the maser regions. For example, large line widths of 10 to 12 km s−1 ate found towards W49-north G where the most intense water masers are located and towards W49-north B which has OH masers. The H2CO line with the highest 2 cm opacity of 2.5 and a narrow width of 2 km s−1 is found towards the UCH II region ON 3 which has only weak H2O maser emission.