STEADY TWIN-JETS ORIENTATION: IMPLICATIONS FOR THEIR FORMATION MECHANISM

Journal Article · Thu Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/772/2/L22· OSTI ID:22140330

Soker, Noam; Mcley, Liron ^[1]

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1. Department of Physics, Technion, Haifa 32000 (Israel)

We compare the structures of the jets of the pre-planetary nebulae (pre-PNe) CRL618 and the young stellar object (YSO) NGC 1333 IRAS 4A2 and propose that in both cases the jets are launched near periastron passages of a highly eccentric binary system. The pre-PN CRL618 has two ''twin-jets'' on each side, where by ''twin-jets'' we refer to a structure where one side is composed of two very close and narrow jets that were launched at the same time. We analyze the position-velocity diagram of NGC 1333 IRAS 4A2, and find that it also has the twin-jet structure. In both systems, the orientation of the two twin-jets does not change with time. By comparing these two seemingly different objects, we speculate that the constant relative direction of the two twin-jets is fixed by the direction of a highly eccentric orbit of a binary star. For example, a double-arm spiral structure in the accretion disk induced by the companion might lead to the launching of the twin-jets. We predict the presence of a low-mass stellar companion in CRL618 that accretes mass and launches the jets, and a substellar (a planet of a brown dwarf) companion to the YSO NGC 1333 IRAS 4A2 that perturbed the accretion disk. In both cases the orbit has a high eccentricity.

• OSTI ID: 22140330
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 772; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ACCRETION DISKS
BINARY STARS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
LAUNCHING
MASS
ORBITS
ORIENTATION
PLANETARY NEBULAE
PLANETS
STELLAR WINDS
VELOCITY