A precessing jet in the NGC2264G outflow

Author(s)

Carolyn McCoey, P. S. Teixeira, M. Fich, C. J. Lada

Abstract

We present new infrared imaging of the NGC 2264 G protostellar outflow

region, obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope. A jet in the red

(eastern) outflow lobe is clearly detected in all four IRAC bands and,

for the first time, is shown to continuously extend over the entire

length of the red outflow lobe, as traced by CO observations. The jet

also extends to a deeply embedded Class 0 source, VLA2, confirming

previous suggestions that it is the driving source of the outflow. The

images show that the easternmost part of the jet exhibits what appears

to be multiple changes of direction. We consider two possible

explanations for the jet morphology: (i) deflection of the jet off the

walls of the outflow lobes as proposed by Fich & Lada (1997) and

(ii) precession. The jet structure shown in the IRAC images can be

largely, although not entirely, explained by a slowly precessing jet

(period 8000 yr) that lies mostly on the plane of the sky. In either

case it appears that the observed and inferred changes in the jet

direction are sufficient to broaden the NGC 2264 G outflow to an extent

comparable to that observed in the CO emission.

P. S. T. acknowledges support from the scholarship SFRH/BD/13984/2003

awarded by the Fundaçao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (Portugal).

Both M. F. and C. M. are supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering

Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant.

Organisation(s)

Department of Astrophysics

External organisation(s)

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, University of Waterloo (UW)

Journal

Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society

Volume

39

Pages

271

ISSN

0002-7537

Publication date

05-2007

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103003 Astronomy

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