198 research outputs found
A 1000 AU Scale Molecular Outflow Driven by a Protostar with an age of <4000 Years
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.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in Astrophysical
Journa
The Initial Conditions for Gravitational Collapse of a Core: An Extremely Young Low-Mass Class 0 Protostar GF9-2
We present a study of the natal core harboring the class 0 protostar GF9-2 in
the filamentary dark cloud GF 9 (d = 200 pc). GF9-2 stands unique in the sense
that it shows H2O maser emission, a clear signpost of protostar formation,
whereas it does not have a high-velocity large-scale molecular outflow
evidenced by our deep search for CO wing emission. These facts indicate that
GF9-2 core is early enough after star formation so that it still retains some
information of initial conditions for collapse. Our 350 um dust continuum
emission image revealed the presence of a protostellar envelope in the center
of a molecular core. The mass of the envelope is ~0.6 Msun from the 350 um flux
density, while LTE mass of the core is ~3 Msun from moleuclar line
observations. Combining visibility data from the OVRO mm-array and the 45m
telescope, we found that the core has a radial density profile of
for 0.003 < r/pc < 0.08 region. Molecular line data
analysis revealed that the velocity width of the core gas increases
inward,while the outermost region maintains a velocity dispersion of a few
times of the ambient sound speed. The broadened velocity width can be
interpreted as infall. Thus, the collapse in GF9-2 is likely to be described by
an extension of the Larson-Penston solution for the period after formation of a
central star. We derived the current mass accretion rate of ~3E-05 Msun/year
from infall velocity of ~ 0.3 km/s at r~ 7000 AU. All results suggest that
GF9-2 core has been undergoing gravitational collapse for ~ 5000 years since
the formation of central protostar(s), and that the unstable state initiated
the collapse ~2E+05 years (the free-fall time) ago.Comment: ApJ Accepted. The preprint including figures with the original
quality is available at http://subarutelescope.org/staff/rsf/publication.htm
Warm Extended Dense Gas Lurking At The Heart Of A Cold Collapsing Dense Core
In order to investigate when and how the birth of a protostellar core occurs,
we made survey observations of four well-studied dense cores in the Taurus
molecular cloud using CO transitions in submillimeter bands. We report here the
detection of unexpectedly warm (~ 30 - 70 K), extended (radius of ~ 2400 AU),
dense (a few times 10^{5} cm^{-3}) gas at the heart of one of the dense cores,
L1521F (MC27), within the cold dynamically collapsing components. We argue that
the detected warm, extended, dense gas may originate from shock regions caused
by collisions between the dynamically collapsing components and
outflowing/rotating components within the dense core. We propose a new stage of
star formation, "warm-in-cold core stage (WICCS)", i.e., the cold collapsing
envelope encases the warm extended dense gas at the center due to the formation
of a protostellar core. WICCS would constitutes a missing link in evolution
between a cold quiescent starless core and a young protostar in class 0 stage
that has a large-scale bipolar outflow.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter
Imaging of the CCS 22.3 GHz emission in the Taurus Molecular Cloud complex
Thioxoethenylidene (CCS) is an abundant interstellar molecule, and a good
tracer of high density and evolutionary stage of dense molecular clouds. It is
also a suitable candidate for Zeeman splitting observations for its high
splitting factor and narrow thermal linewidths. We report here EVLA 22.3 GHz
observations of three dense molecular cores TMC-1, TMC-1C and L1521B in the
Taurus Molecular Cloud complex to image the CCS 2_1-1_0 transition. For all
three sources, the clumpy CCS emission is most likely tracing the starless
cores. However, these compact structures account for only ~ 1-13% of the
integrated emission detected in single-dish observations, indicating the
presence of significant large scale diffuse emission in favorable conditions
for producing CCS.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters EVLA
special issue. The definitive version will be available at
http://iopscience.iop.org
Low-Mass Star Forming Cores in the GF9 Filament
We carried out an unbiased mapping survey of dense molecular cloud cores
traced by the NH3 (1,1) and (2,2) inversion lines in the GF9 filament which
contains an extremely young low-mass protostar GF9-2 (Furuya et al. 2006, ApJ,
653, 1369). The survey was conducted using the Nobeyama 45m telescope over a
region of ~1.5 deg with an angular resolution of 73". The large-scale map
revealed that the filament contains at least 7 dense cores, as well as 3
possible ones, located at regular intervals of ~0.9 pc. Our analysis shows that
these cores have kinetic temperatures of 10 K and LTE-masses of 1.8
-- 8.2 Msun, making them typical sites of low-mass star formation. All the
identified cores are likely to be gravitationally unstable because their
LTE-masses are larger than their virial masses. Since the LTE-masses and
separations of the cores are consistent with the Jeans masses and lengths,
respectively, for the low-density ambient gas, we argue that the identified
cores have formed via the gravitational fragmentation of the natal filamentary
cloud.Comment: accepted by pas
High-velocity Molecular Outflow in CO J = 7-6 Emission from the Orion Hot Core
Using the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory 10.4 m telescope, we performed sensitive mapping observations of ^(12)CO J = 7-6 emission at 807 GHz toward Orion IRc2. The image has an angular resolution of 10", which is the highest angular resolution data toward the Orion Hot Core published for this transition. In addition, thanks to the on-the-fly mapping technique, the fidelity of the new image is rather high, particularly in comparison with previous images. We have succeeded in mapping the northwest-southeast high-velocity molecular outflow, whose terminal velocity is shifted by ~70-85 km s^(–1) with respect to the systemic velocity of the cloud. This yields an extremely short dynamical time scale of ~900 years. The estimated outflow mass loss rate shows an extraordinarily high value, on the order of 10^(–3) M_⊙ yr^(–1). Assuming that the outflow is driven by Orion IRc2, our result agrees with the picture so far obtained for a 20 M_⊙ (proto)star in the process of formation
Magnetic Field in The Isolated Massive Dense Clump IRAS 20126+4104
We measured polarized dust emission at 350µm towards the high-mass star forming massive dense clump IRAS 20126+4104 using the SHARC II Polarimeter, SHARP, at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory. Most of the observed magnetic field vectors agree well with magnetic field vectors obtained from a numerical simulation for the case when the global magnetic field lines are inclined with respect to the rotation axis of the dense clump. The results of the numerical simulation show that rotation plays an important role on the evolution of the massive dense clump and its magnetic field. The direction of the cold CO 1-0 bipolar outflow is parallel to the observed magnetic field within the dense clump as well as the global magnetic field, as inferred from optical polarimetry data, indicating that the magnetic field also plays a critical role in an early stage of massive star formation. The large-scale Keplerian disk of the massive (proto)star rotates in almost opposite sense to the clump's envelope. The observed magnetic field morphology and the counter-rotating feature of the massive dense clump system provide hints to constrain the role of magnetic fields in the process of high mass star formation
Analysis of antenna position measurements and weather station network data during the ALMA Long Baseline Campaign of 2015
In a radio interferometer, the determination of geometrical antenna positions
relies on accurate calibration of the dry and wet delay of the atmosphere above
each antenna. For the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA),
which has baseline lengths up to 16 kilometers, the geography of the site
forces the height above mean sea level of the more distant antenna pads to be
significantly lower than the central array. Thus, both the ground level
meteorological values and the total water column can be quite different between
antennas in the extended configurations. During 2015, a network of six
additional weather stations was installed to monitor pressure, temperature,
relative humidity and wind velocity, in order to test whether inclusion of
these parameters could improve the repeatability of antenna position
determinations in these configurations. We present an analysis of the data
obtained during the ALMA Long Baseline Campaign of Oct. through Nov. 2015. The
repeatability of antenna position measurements typically degrades as a function
of antenna distance. Also, the scatter is more than three times worse in the
vertical direction than in the local tangent plane, suggesting that a
systematic effect is limiting the measurements. So far we have explored
correcting the delay model for deviations from hydrostatic equilibrium in the
measured air pressure and separating the partial pressure of water from the
total pressure using water vapor radiometer (WVR) data. Correcting for these
combined effects still does not provide a good match to the residual position
errors in the vertical direction. One hypothesis is that the current model of
water vapor may be too simple to fully remove the day-to-day variations in the
wet delay. We describe possible avenues of improvement, including measuring and
applying more accurate values of the sky coupling efficiency of the WVRs.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, 1 table; presented at SPIE Astronomical
Telescopes + Instrumentation 2016, held in Edinburgh, UK on 26 June - 1 July
201
- …