Abstract

The giant HII region NGC 604 constitutes a complex and rich population to study in detail many aspects of massive star formation, such as their environments and physical conditions, the evolutionary processes involved, the initial mass function for massive stars and starformation rates, among many others. Here, we present our first results of a near-infrared study of NGC 604 performed with NIRI images obtained with Gemini North. Based on deep JHK photometry, 164 sources showing infrared excess were detected, pointing to the places where we should look for star-formation processes currently taking place. In addition, the color-color diagram reveals a great number of objects that could be giant/supergiant stars or unresolved, small, tight clusters. An extinction map obtained based on narrow-band images is also shown. © International Astronomical Union 2010.