Outflows from the youngest stars are mostly molecular
Journal article, 2023
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.
Author
Tom Ray
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Trinity College Dublin
M. J. McCaughrean
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
A. Caratti o. Garatti
Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte
Patrick Kavanagh
Maynooth University
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Kay Justtanont
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
E. F. van Dishoeck
Leiden University
M. Reitsma
Leiden University
European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC)
H. Beuther
Max Planck Society
L. Francis
Leiden University
C. Gieser
Max Planck Society
Pamela Klaassen
Royal Observatory
G. Perotti
Max Planck Society
Łukasz Tychoniec
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
M. L. Van Gelder
Leiden University
L. Colina
Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB)
T. R. Greve
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
M. Gudel
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
University of Vienna
Max Planck Society
T. Henning
Max Planck Society
P. O. Lagage
University Paris-Saclay
G. Östlin
Stockholm University
B. Vandenbussche
KU Leuven
C. Waelkens
KU Leuven
G. Wright
Royal Observatory
Nature
0028-0836 (ISSN) 1476-4687 (eISSN)
Vol. 622 7981 48-52Subject Categories
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
DOI
10.1038/s41586-023-06551-1
PubMed
37619607