JETS AND WIDE-ANGLE OUTFLOWS IN CEPHEUS E: NEW EVIDENCE FROM SPITZER

Journal Article · Tue Nov 01 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/741/1/60; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21612734

Velusamy, T; Langer, W D ^[1]; Kumar, M S. N.; Grave, J M. C., ^[2]

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1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
2. Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto (Portugal)

Outflows and jets are believed to play a crucial role in determining the mass of the central protostar and its planet-forming disk by virtue of their ability to transport energy, mass, and momentum of the surrounding material, and thus terminate the infall stage in star and disk formation. In some protostellar objects both wide-angle outflows and collimated jets are seen, while in others only one is observed. Spitzer provides unprecedented sensitivity in the infrared to study both the jet and outflow features. Here, we use HiRes deconvolution to improve the visualization of spatial morphology by enhancing resolution (to subarcsecond levels in the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) bands) and removing the contaminating sidelobes from bright sources. We apply this approach to study the jet and outflow features in Cep E, a young, energetic Class 0 protostar. In the reprocessed images we detect (1) wide-angle outflow seen in scattered light, (2) morphological details on at least 29 jet-driven bow shocks and jet heads or knots, (3) three compact features in 24 {mu}m continuum image as atomic/ionic line emission coincident with the jet heads, and (4) a flattened {approx}35'' size protostellar envelope seen against the interstellar background polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission as an absorption band across the protostar at 8 {mu}m. By separating the protostellar photospheric scattered emission in the wide-angle cavity from the jet emission we show that we can study directly the scattered light spectrum. We present the H{sub 2} emission line spectra, as observed in all IRAC bands, for 29 knots in the jets and bow shocks and use them in the IRAC color-color space as a diagnostic of the thermal gas in the shocks driven by the jets. The data presented here will enable detailed modeling of the individual shocks retracing the history of the episodic jet activity and the associated accretion on to the protostar. The Spitzer data analysis presented here shows the richness of its archive as a resource to study the jet/outflow features in H{sub 2} and scattered light in a large homogeneous sample.

• OSTI ID: 21612734
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 741; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
AROMATICS
CAMERAS
COLOR
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
HERBIG-HARO OBJECTS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN
MORPHOLOGY
NONMETALS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES
PHOTON EMISSION
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLANETS
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
PROTOSTARS
RADIATIONS
SHOCK WAVES
SIMULATION
STARS
VISIBLE RADIATION