Multiple H protostellar jets in the bright-rimmed globule IC 1396-N^*

¹ Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, 00040 Monteporzio Catone, Italy
² Osservatorio Astronomico di Collurania-Teramo, Via M. Maggini, 64100 Teramo, Italy
³ CNR-Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, Area di Ricerca Tor Vergata, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy

Corresponding author: B. Nisini, bruni@coma.mporzio.astro.it

Received: 13 March 2001
Accepted: 5 July 2001

Abstract

We present near infrared images of the bright rimmed globule IC 1396-N in the H₂ 2.12 μm narrow band filter as well as in broad band J, H and K filters. We detected several chains of collimated H₂ knots inside the globule, having different luminosities but similar orientations in the sky. Most of the knots are associated with peaks of high velocity CO emission, indicating that they trace shocked regions along collimated stellar jets. From the H₂ knots morphology and orientation, we identify at least three different jets: one of them is driven by the young protostar associated with IRAS 21391+5802, which represents the most luminous object in the region, while we were able to identify only one of the two other driving sources by means of near infrared photometry. Our photometry reveals the existence of a cluster of young embedded sources located in a south-north line which follows the distribution of the high density gas and testifies for a highly efficient star formation activity through all the globule.