Published July 10, 2009 | Version v1
Journal article

ROTATION AND OUTFLOW MOTIONS IN THE VERY LOW-MASS CLASS 0 PROTOSTELLAR SYSTEM HH 211 AT SUBARCSECOND RESOLUTION

  • 1. Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, P.O. Box 23-141, Taipei 106, Taiwan (China)
  • 2. Laboratorio de Astrofisica Estelar y Exoplanetas, Centro de Astrobiologia (INTA-CSIC), LAEFF Campus, P.O. Box 78, E-28691 Villanueva de la Canada (Madrid) (Spain)
  • 3. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)

Description

HH 211 is a nearby young protostellar system with a highly collimated jet. We have mapped it in 352 GHz continuum, SiO (J = 8 - 7), and HCO+ (J = 4 - 3) emission at up to ∼0.''2 resolution with the Submillimeter Array (SMA). The continuum source is now resolved into two sources, SMM1 and SMM2, with a separation of ∼ 84 AU. SMM1 is seen at the center of the jet, probably tracing a (inner) dusty disk around the protostar driving the jet. SMM2 is seen to the southwest of SMM1 and may trace an envelope-disk around a small binary companion. A flattened envelope-disk is seen in HCO+ around SMM1 with a radius of ∼ 80 AU perpendicular to the jet axis. Its velocity structure is consistent with a rotation motion and can be fitted with a Keplerian law that yields a mass of ∼50 ± 15 M Jup (a mass of a brown dwarf) for the protostar. Thus, the protostar could be the lowest mass source known to have a collimated jet and a rotating flattened envelope-disk. A small-scale (∼200 AU) low-speed (∼2 km s-1) outflow is seen in HCO+ around the jet axis extending from the envelope-disk. It seems to rotate in the same direction as the envelope-disk and may carry away part of the angular momentum from the envelope-disk. The jet is seen in SiO close to ∼100 AU from SMM1. It is seen with a 'C-shaped' bending. It has a transverse width of ∼< 40 AU and a velocity of ∼ 170 ± 60 km s-1. A possible velocity gradient is seen consistently across its innermost pair of knots, ∼0.5 km s-1 at ∼10 AU, consistent with the sense of rotation of the envelope-disk. If this gradient is an upper limit of the true rotational gradient of the jet, then the jet carries away a very small amount of angular momentum of ∼< 5 AU km s-1 and thus must be launched from the very inner edge of the disk near the corotation radius.

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/699/2/1584

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Astrophysical Journal
Journal Volume
699
Journal Issue
2
Journal Page Range
p. 1584-1594
ISSN
0004-637X
CODEN
ASJOAB

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
41069574
Subject category
S79: ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY;
Descriptors DEI
ANGULAR MOMENTUM; EMISSION; MASS; SILICON OXIDES; STARS
Descriptors DEC
CHALCOGENIDES; OXIDES; OXYGEN COMPOUNDS; SILICON COMPOUNDS