Letter to the Editor

A pair of gigantic bipolar dust jets close to the solar system

Institut für Astrophysik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria e-mail: ronald.weinberger@uibk.ac.at;birgit.armsdorfer@uibk.ac.at

Corresponding author: R. Weinberger, ronald.weinberger@uibk.ac.at

Received: 4 December 2003
Accepted: 10 February 2004

Abstract

We present two adjacent jet candidates with a length of each – 10 longer than the largest known jets – discovered by us on 60 μm and 100 μm IRAS maps, but not observed at any other wavelength. They are extremely collimated (length-to-width ratios 20–50), curved, knotty, and end in prominent bubbles. Their dust temperatures are 25 ± 3 K and 30 ± 4 K, respectively. Both harbour faint stars, one having a high proper motion ( yr^-1) and being very red, suggesting a distance of ~60 pc. At this distance, the combined mass of both jets (assuming a gas-to-dust ratio of 200) totals ~1 . We suspect that these gigantic ( pc length) jets have a common origin, due to the decay of a system of evolved stars. They are the first examples of jets radiating in the far IR and might be the closest non-diffuse nebulae to the solar system.