Far infrared observations of the southern Galactic star forming complex around IRAS 09002-4732

The Galactic star forming region in the southern sky, associated with IRAS 09002-4732 has been mapped simultaneously in two far infrared bands (lambda (eff) = 148 & 209 mum), with similar to 1' angular resolution. Fifteen sou rces, including IRAS 08583-4719, 08589-4714, 09002-4732 and 09014-4736 have been detected, some of which are well resolved. Taking advantage of simila r beams in the two bands, a reliable dust temperature [T(148/209)] map has been obtained, which detects colder dust (< 30 K) in this region. The HIRES processed IRAS maps at 12, 25, 60 and 100 <mu>m, have also been used for c omparison. The optical depth maps, tau (200) and tau (100), generated from these far-IR data quantify the spatial distribution of the dust. The diffus e emission from this entire region has been found to be 35% of the total FI R luminosity. The slope of the IMF in the mass range 4-16 M. has been estim ated to be -1.25(-0.65)(+0.75) for this star forming complex. Radiative transfer models in spherical geometry have been explored to fit a vailable observations of the 4 IRAS sources and extract various physical pa rameters for corresponding dust-gas clouds. Whereas a constant (r(0)) radia l density distribution is favoured in IRAS 08583-4719, 08589-4714 and 09002 -4732, the r(-1) law is inferred for IRAS 09014-4736. The dust composition is found to be similar (Silicate dominated) in all four IRAS sources modell ed. The luminosity per unit mass is found to be in the narrow range of 44 - 81 L./M. for these star forming regions.