A morphological study of infrared line emission in compact star-forming regions

Near-infrared broadband and narrowband images are presented for 11 Galactic star-forming regions. Data were taken using the infrared camera on the Mou nt Palomar 60 inch (1.5 m) telescope with the broadband filters J, H, and K and with narrowband filters centered on H-2 and Br gamma, The morphologies of these regions are compared with ultraviolet fluorescence and shock fron t models of line emission. We find that the majority of these star-forming regions can be described by ultraviolet fluorescence.