Massive pre-main-sequence stars in M17

We obtained VLT/X-shooter spectra of twelve candidate young massive stars previously selected by Hanson et al. (1997) in the giant Hii region M17. An analysis of their spectra using FASTWIND models (Puls et al. 2005) shows that they span a mass range of 6 - 20 M⊙. We identify the presence of gaseous and dusty disks around six sources based on emission lines in the spectrum and infrared continuum excess.