Mid-infrared imaging and spectroscopy of the southern H II region RCW 38

We present mid-infrared images and an 8-13 mu m spectrum of the southern HIT region RCW 38. We determine the dust colour temperature from both our spectrum and images at 10 and 20 mu m, and deduce the gas excitation from an image in the [S IV] fine-structure line, as well as spectra of the [Ar III], [S IV] and [Ne II] fine-structure lines. Our observations are consistent with a complex of sources associated with the RCW 38 IRS1 region, which represent knots of material in a shell, or ridge, surrounding a cavity of about 0.1 pc in radius, which is itself created by the stellar wind of the hot young source IRS2, The dust temperature does not peak closest to IRS2, but rather along the centre of the ridge, and is remarkably uniform over the extent of our image. From photoionization models for the observed line ratios at IRS I we deduce a stellar effective temperature and gas density of about 43 000-48 000 K and 10(4) cm(-3) respectively. Whilst the star, or star cluster, IRS2 is ultimately responsible for the observed thermal and ionic emission, the relatively uniform dust temperature implies that the bulk of the dust heating in the region is provided by resonantly trapped Lyman alpha photons, rather than direct stellar photons. This then also implies that the dust is depleted with respect to the gas by a factor of at least 100 from its normal interstellar value. The small-scale spatial variations in the continuum emission and temperature can be explained by changes in the density and/or gas-to-dust mass ratio.