A rotating molecular jet in Orion

L. A. Zapata, J. Schmid-Burgk, D. Muders, P. Schilke, K. Menten and R. Guesten

Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany e-mail: lzapata@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de

Received: 22 May 2008
Accepted: 23 October 2009

Abstract

We present CO(2-1), ¹³CO(2-1), CO(6-5), CO(7-6), and SO(6₅-5₄) line observations made with the IRAM 30 m and Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) radiotelescopes and the Submillimeter Array (SMA) toward the highly collimated (11) and extended (~2') southwest lobe of the bipolar outflow Ori-S6 located in the Orion South region. We report for all these lines, the detection of velocity asymmetries about the flow axis with velocity differences roughly on the order of 1 km s^-1 over distances of about 5000 AU, 4 km s^-1 over distances of about 2000 AU, and close to the source of between 7 and 11 km s^-1 over smaller scales of about 1000 AU. The redshifted gas velocities are located to the southeast of the outflow's axis, the blueshifted ones to the northwest. We interpret these velocity differences as a signature of rotation, but also discuss some alternatives which we recognize as unlikely in view of the asymmetries' large downstream continuation. In particular, any straightforward interpretation by an ambient velocity gradient does not seem viable. This rotation across the Ori-S6 outflow is observed out to (projected) distances beyond 2.5  10⁴ AU from the flow's presumed origin. Comparison of our large-scale (single dish) and small-scale (SMA) observations suggests the rotational velocity to decline not faster than 1/R with distance R from the axis; in the innermost few arcsecs an increase of rotational velocity with R is even indicated. The magnetic field lines threading the inner rotating CO shell may well be anchored in a disk of a radius of ~50 AU; the field lines further out need a more extended rotating base. Our high angular resolution SMA observations also suggest this outflow to be energized by the compact millimeter radio source 139-409, a circumbinary flattened ring that is located in a small cluster of very young stars associated with the extended and bright source FIR4.