Star formation activity in the Galactic H II region Sh2-297

Abstract: We present a multiwavelength study of the Galactic H II region Sh2-297, located in Canis Major OB1 complex. Optical spectroscopic observations are used to constrain the spectral type of ionizing star HD 53623 as B0V. The classical nature of this H II region is affirmed by the low values of electron density and emission measure, which are calculated to be 756 cm^-3 and 9.15 x 10^5 cm^-6 pc using the radio continuum observations at 610 and 1280 MHz, and VLA archival data at 1420 MHz. To understand local star formation, we identified the young stellar object (YSO) candidates in a region of area ~ 7.5' x 7.5' centered on Sh2-297 using grism slitless spectroscopy (to identify the Halpha emission line stars), and near infrared (NIR) observations. NIR YSO candidates are further classified into various evolutionary stages using color-color (CC) and color-magnitude (CM) diagrams, giving 50 red sources (H-K > 0.6) and 26 Class II-like sources. The mass and age range of the YSOs are estimated to be ~ 0.1 - 2 Msolar and 0.5 - 2 Myr using optical (V/V-I) and NIR (J/J-H) CM diagrams. The mean age of the YSOs is found to be ~ 1 Myr, which is of the order of dynamical age of 1.07 Myr of the H II region. Using the estimated range of visual extinction (1.1 - 25 mag) from literature and NIR data for the region, spectral energy distribution (SED) models have been implemented for selected YSOs which show masses and ages to be consistent with estimated values. The spatial distribution of YSOs shows an evolutionary sequence, suggesting triggered star formation in the region. The star formation seems to have propagated from the ionizing star towards the cold dark cloud LDN1657A located west of Sh2-297.