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A Multiwavelength Study of Young Massive Star-Forming Regions. III. Mid-Infrared Emission

We present mid-infrared (MIR) observations, made with the TIMMI2 camera on the ESO 3.6 m telescope, toward 14 young massive star-forming regions. All regions were imaged in the N band, and nine in the Q band, with an angular resolution of ~ 1 arcsec. Typically, the regions exhibit a single or two compact sources (with sizes in the range 0.008-0.18 pc) plus extended diffuse emission. The Spitzer-Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire images of these regions show much more extended emission than that seen by TIMMI2, and this is attributed to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) bands. For the MIR sources associated with radio continuum radiation (Paper I) there is a close morphological correspondence between the two emissions, suggesting that the ionized gas (radio source) and hot dust (MIR source) coexist inside the H II region. We found five MIR compact sources which are not associated with radio continuum emission, and are thus prime candidates for hosting young massive protostars. In particular, objects IRAS 14593-5852 II (only detected at 17.7 microns) and 17008-4040 I are likely to be genuine O-type protostellar objects. We also present TIMMI2 N-band spectra of eight sources, all of which are dominated by a prominent silicate absorption feature (~ 9.7 microns). From these data we estimate column densities in the range (7-17)x10^22 cm^-2, in good agreement with those derived from the 1.2 mm data (Paper II). Seven sources show bright [Ne II] line emission, as expected from ionized gas regions. Only IRAS 123830-6128 shows detectable PAH emission at 8.6 and 11.3 microns.