No Arabic abstract
We present the results of the first high angular resolution observations of SiO maser emission towards the star forming region W51-IRS2 made with the Very Large Array (VLA) and Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). Our images of the water maser emission in W51-IRS2 reveal two maser complexes bracketing the SiO maser source. One of these water maser complexes appears to trace a bow shock whose opening angle is consistent with the opening angle observed in the distribution of SiO maser emission. A comparison of our water maser image with an image constructed from data acquired 19 years earlier clearly shows the persistence and motion of this bow shock. The proper motions correspond to an outflow velocity of 80 km/s, which is consistent with the data of 19 years ago (that spanned 2 years). We have discovered a two-armed linear structure in the SiO maser emission on scales of ~25 AU, and we find a velocity gradient on the order of 0.1 km/s/AU along the arms. We propose that the SiO maser source traces the limbs of an accelerating bipolar outflow close to an obscured protostar. We estimate that the outflow makes an angle of <20 degrees with respect to the plane of the sky. Our measurement of the acceleration is consistent with a reported drift in the line-of-sight velocity of the W51 SiO maser source.
We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) observations in the CO J=3-2, SiO J=5-4 and 8-7, and SO 9_8-8_7 lines, as well as Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) observations in the CO J=6-5 line, of an extremely high-velocity and jet-like outflow in high-mass star-forming region HH 80--81. The outflow is known to contain two prominent molecular bullets, namely B1 and B2, discovered from our previous SMA CO J=2-1 observations. While B1 is detected in all the CO, SiO, and SO lines, B2 is only detected in CO lines. The CO 3-2/2-1 line ratio in B1 is clearly greater than that in B2. We perform a large velocity gradient analysis of the CO lines and derive a temperature of 70--210 K for B1 and 20--50 K for B2. Taking into account the differences in the velocity, distance from the central source, excitation conditions, and chemistry between the two bullets, we suggest that the bullets are better explained by direct ejections from the innermost vicinity of the central high-mass protostar, and that we are more likely observing the molecular component of a primary wind rather than entrained or swept-up material from the ambient cloud. These findings further support our previous suggestions that the molecular bullets indicate an episodic, disk-mediated accretion in the high-mass star formation process.
To shed light on the early phase of a low-mass protostar formation process, we conducted interferometric observations towards a protostar GF9-2 using the CARMA and SMA. The observations have been carried out in the CO J=3-2 line and in the continuum emission at the wavelengths of 3 mm, 1 mm and 850 micron. All the continuum images detected a single point-like source with a radius of 250+/-80 AU at the center of the previously known ~3 Msun molecular cloud core. A compact emission is detected towards the object at the Spitzer MIPS and IRAC bands as well as the four bands at the WISE. Our spectroscopic imaging of the CO line revealed that the continuum source is driving a 1000 AU scale molecular outflow, including a pair of lobes where a collimated higher velocity red lobe exists inside a poorly collimated lower velocity red lobe. These lobes are rather young and the least powerful ones so far detected. A protostellar mass of M~<0.06 Msun was estimated using an upper limit of the protostellar age of (4+/-1)x10^3 yrs and an inferred non-spherical steady mass accretion rate of ~10^{-5} Msun/yr. Together with results from an SED analysis, we discuss that the outflow system is driven by a protostar whose surface temperature of~3,000K, and that the natal cloud core is being dispersed by the outflow.
We report on subarcsecond observations of complex organic molecules (COMs) in the high-mass protostar IRAS20126+4104 with the Plateau de Bure Interferometer in its most extended configurations. In addition to the simple molecules SO, HNCO and H2-13CO, we detect emission from CH3CN, CH3OH, HCOOH, HCOOCH3, CH3OCH3, CH3CH2CN, CH3COCH3, NH2CN, and (CH2OH)2. SO and HNCO present a X-shaped morphology consistent with tracing the outflow cavity walls. Most of the COMs have their peak emission at the putative position of the protostar, but also show an extension towards the south(east), coinciding with an H2 knot from the jet at about 800-1000 au from the protostar. This is especially clear in the case of H2-13CO and CH3OCH3. We fitted the spectra at representative positions for the disc and the outflow, and found that the abundances of most COMs are comparable at both positions, suggesting that COMs are enhanced in shocks as a result of the passage of the outflow. By coupling a parametric shock model to a large gas-grain chemical network including COMs, we find that the observed COMs should survive in the gas phase for about 2000 yr, comparable to the shock lifetime estimated from the water masers at the outflow position. Overall, our data indicate that COMs in IRAS20126+4104 may arise not only from the disc, but also from dense and hot regions associated with the outflow.
Up to now only a few intermediate-mass molecular outflows have been studied with enough high-angular resolution. The aim of this work is to study in detail the intermediate-mass YSO IRAS 22272+6358A, which is embedded in L1206, and its molecular outflow, in order to investigate the interaction of the outflow with the dense protostellar material, and to compare their properties with those of lower mas counterparts. We carried out OVRO observations of the 2.7 mm continuum emission, CO(1-0), C18O(1-0), and HC3N(12-11) in order to map with high-angular resolution the core of L1206, and to derive the properties of the dust emission, the molecular outflow and the dense protostellar envelope. The 2.7 mm continuum emission has been resolved into four sources, labeled OVRO~1, 2, 3, and 4. The intermediate-mass Class~0/I object OVRO 2, with a mass traced by the dust emission of 14.2 Msun, is the source associated with IRAS 22272+6358A. The CO(1-0) observations have revealed a very collimated outflow driven by OVRO 2, at a PA ~140 degr, that has a very weak southeastern red lobe and a much stronger northwestern blue lobe. Photodissociation toward the red lobe produced by the ionization front coming from the bright-rimmed diffuse HII region could be responsible of the morphology of the outflow. The spatial correlation between the outflow and the elongated dense protostellar material traced by HC3N(12-11) suggests an interaction between the molecular outflow and the protostellar envelope. Shocks produced by the molecular outflow, and possibly by the shock front preceding the ionization front could account for the southern enhancement of HC3N. The properties of the intermediate-mass protostar OVRO 2 and the molecular outflow are consistent with those of lower mass counterparts.
We present high angular resolution continuum observations of the high-mass protostar NGC 7538S with BIMA and CARMA at 3 and 1.4 mm, VLA observations at 1.3, 2, 3.5 and 6 cm, and archive IRAC observations from the Spitzer Space Observatory, which detect the star at 4.5, 5.8, and 8 $mu$m. The star looks rather unremarkable in the mid-IR. The excellent positional agreement of the IRAC source with the VLA free-free emission, the OH, CH$_3$OH, H$_2$O masers, and the dust continuum confirms that this is the most luminous object in the NGC 7538S core. The continuum emission at millimeter wavelengths is dominated by dust emission from the dense cold cloud core surrounding the protostar. Including all array configurations, the emission is dominated by an elliptical source with a size of ~ 8 x 3. If we filter out the extended emission we find three compact mm-sources inside the elliptical core. The strongest one, $S_A$, coincides with the VLA/IRAC source and resolves into a double source at 1.4 mm, where we have sub-arcsecond resolution. The measured spectral index, $alpha$, between 3 and 1.4 mm is ~ 2.3, and steeper at longer wavelengths, suggesting a low dust emissivity or that the dust is optically thick. We argue that the dust in these accretion disks is optically thick and estimate a mass of an accretion disk or infalling envelope surrounding S$_A$ to be ~ 60 solar masses.