Astronomy & Astrophysics

Free access article

Issue		A&A Volume 424, Number 2, September III 2004
Page(s)		L1 - L4
Section		Letters
DOI		10.1051/0004-6361:200400014

A&A 424, L1-L4 (2004)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200400014

Letter

The X-ray emission mechanism in the protostellar jet HH 154

R. Bonito¹, S. Orlando², G. Peres¹, F. Favata³ and R. Rosner^{4, 5}

¹ Dip. Scienze Fisiche ed Astronomiche, Sez. Astronomia, Università di Palermo, P.zza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy
e-mail: sbonito@oapa.astropa.unipa.it
² INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, P.zza del Parlamento 1, 90134 Palermo, Italy
³ Astrophys. Div. - Res. and Science Support Dept. of ESA, ESTEC, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
⁴ Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
⁵ Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes, University of Chicago, 5640 S. Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

(Received 7 May 2004 / Accepted 24 June 2004 )

Abstract
We study the mechanism causing the X-ray emission recently detected in protostellar jets, by performing a detailed modeling of the interaction between a supersonic jet originating from a young stellar object and the ambient medium, for various values of density contrast, $\nu$ , between the ambient density and the jet, and of Mach number, M; radiative losses and thermal conduction have been taken into account. Here we report a representative case which reproduces, without any ad hoc assumption, the characteristics of the X-ray emission recently observed in the protostellar jet HH 154. We find that the X-ray emission originates from a localized blob, consistent with observations, which moves with velocity $v \sim 500$ km s ^-1; we therefore predict the X-ray source to have a detectable proper motion.

Key words: ISM: Herbig-Haro objects -- ISM: individual objects: HH 154 -- ISM: jets and outflows -- X-rays: ISM

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