Outflows from the youngest stars are mostly molecular

Autor(en)

T. P. Ray, M. J. McCaughrean, A. Caratti o Garatti, P. J. Kavanagh, K. Justtanont, E. F. van Dishoeck, M. Reitsma, H. Beuther, L. Francis, C. Gieser, P. Klaassen, G. Perotti, L. Tychoniec, M. van Gelder, L. Colina, Th R. Greve, M. Güdel, Th Henning, P. O. Lagage, G. Östlin, B. Vandenbussche, C. Waelkens, G. Wright

Abstrakt

The formation of stars and planets is accompanied not only by the build-up of matter, namely accretion, but also by its expulsion in the form of highly supersonic jets that can stretch for several parsecs ^1,2. As accretion and jet activity are correlated and because young stars acquire most of their mass rapidly early on, the most powerful jets are associated with the youngest protostars ³. This period, however, coincides with the time when the protostar and its surroundings are hidden behind many magnitudes of visual extinction. Millimetre interferometers can probe this stage but only for the coolest components ³. No information is provided on the hottest (greater than 1,000 K) constituents of the jet, that is, the atomic, ionized and high-temperature molecular gases that are thought to make up the jet’s backbone. Detecting such a spine relies on observing in the infrared that can penetrate through the shroud of dust. Here we report near-infrared observations of Herbig-Haro 211 from the James Webb Space Telescope, an outflow from an analogue of our Sun when it was, at most, a few times 10⁴ years old. These observations reveal copious emission from hot molecules, explaining the origin of the ‘green fuzzies’ ^4–7 discovered nearly two decades ago by the Spitzer Space Telescope ⁸. This outflow is found to be propagating slowly in comparison to its more evolved counterparts and, surprisingly, almost no trace of atomic or ionized emission is seen, suggesting its spine is almost purely molecular.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Astrophysik

Externe Organisation(en)

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Chalmers University of Technology, Leiden University, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, European Southern Observatory (Germany), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Université Paris Saclay, Stockholm University, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Trinity College Dublin, European Space Research & Technology Centre (ESA/ESTEC), Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA)

Journal

Nature

Band

622

Seiten

48-52

Anzahl der Seiten

5

ISSN

0028-0836

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06551-1

Publikationsdatum

10-2023

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

103003 Astronomie, 103004 Astrophysik

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

General

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/dac1f524-4e56-4330-95ee-345398cdf6a3