SUBMILLIMETER ARRAY OBSERVATIONS OF THE MOLECULAR OUTFLOW IN HIGH-MASS STAR-FORMING REGION G240.31+0.07

Journal Article · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/696/1/66; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21300753

Keping, Qiu ^[1]; Qizhou, Zhang; Jingwen, Wu ^[2]; Chen, H -R ^[3]

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1. Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, Nanjing (China)
2. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
3. Institute of Astronomy and Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan (China)

We present Submillimeter Array observations toward the 10{sup 4.7} L {sub sun} star-forming region G240.31+0.07, in the J = 2-1 transition of {sup 12}CO and {sup 13}CO and at 1.3 mm continuum, as well as the {sup 12}CO and {sup 13}CO observations from the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory to recover the extended emission filtered out by the interferometer. Maps of the {sup 12}CO and {sup 13}CO emission show a bipolar, wide-angle, quasi-parabolic molecular outflow, roughly coincident with an infrared nebula revealed by the Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 {mu}m emission. The outflow has {approx}98 M {sub sun} molecular gas, making it one of the most massive molecular outflows known, and resulting in a very high mass-loss rate of 4.1 x 10{sup -3} M {sub sun} yr{sup -1} over a dynamical timescale of 2.4 x 10{sup 4} yr. The 1.3 mm continuum observations with a 4'' x 3'' beam reveal a flattened dusty envelope of {approx}150 M {sub sun}, which is further resolved with a 1.''2 x 1'' beam into three dense cores with a total mass of {approx}40 M {sub sun}. The central mm core, showing evidence of active star formation, approximately coincides with the geometric center of the bipolar outflow thus most likely harbors the powering source of the outflow. Overall, our observations provide the best case to date of a well defined wide-angle molecular outflow in a higher than 10{sup 4} L {sub sun} star-forming region. The outflow is morphologically and kinematically similar to low-mass protostellar outflows but has two to three orders of magnitude greater mass, momentum, and energy, and is apparently driven by an underlying wide-angle wind, hence further supports that high-mass stars up to late-O types, even in a crowded clustering environment, can form as a scaled-up version of low-mass star formation.

• OSTI ID: 21300753
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 696; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
INTERFEROMETERS
MAPS
MASS
NEBULAE
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS