Letter to the Editor

A highly-collimated SiO jet in the HH212 protostellar outflow

¹ INAF, Istituto di Radioastronomia, Sezione di Firenze, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy e-mail: codella@arcetri.astro.it
² LERMA, UMR 8112 du CNRS, Observatoire de Paris, 61 Av. de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
³ IRAM, 300 rue de la Piscine, 38406 Saint Martin d'Hères, France
⁴ INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁵ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de l'Observatoire de Grenoble, BP 53, 38041 Grenoble Cedex, France
⁶ University of Exeter, School of Physics, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4QL, UK

Received: 23 November 2006
Accepted: 12 December 2006

Abstract

Context.In young stars, jets are believed to play a role in removing angular momentum from the circumstellar disk, allowing accretion onto the central star. Recent results suggest that in earlier phases of star formation, SiO might trace the primary jet launched close to the protostar, but further observations are required in order to reveal the properties of this molecular component.

Aims.We wish to exploit the combination of high angular and spectral resolution provided by millimetre interferometry to investigate the collimation and kinematics of molecular protostellar jets, and their angular momentum content.

Methods.We mapped the inner 40″ of the HH212 Class 0 outflow in SiO(2–1), SiO(5–4) and continuum using the Plateau de Bure interferometer in its extended configurations. The unprecedented angular resolution (down to 034) allows accurate comparison with a new, deep H₂ image obtained at the VLT.

Results.The SiO emission is confined to a highly-collimated bipolar jet (width ~035 close to the protostar) along the outflow axis. The jet can be traced down to within 500 AU of the protostar, in a region that is heavily obscured in H₂ images. Where both species are detected, SiO shows the same overall kinematics and structure as H₂, indicating that both molecules are tracing the same material. Transverse cuts reveal no velocity gradient compatible with jet rotation above 1 km s^-1, in contrast to previous claims based on H₂ spectra. The central continuum peak is unresolved and close to optically thick, suggesting an edge-on disk with diameter ≤117 AU.

Conclusions.SiO proves to be a powerful tracer of molecular jets in Class 0 sources, in particular of their obscured innermost regions. The very small blue/red overlap in the SiO outflow lobes, despite the nearly edge-on view to HH212, further implies that the high-velocity SiO gas is not tracing a wide-angle wind but is already confined to a flow inside a narrow cone of half-opening angle <6° at ≤500 AU from the protostar. The broad SiO line widths and the transverse velocity gradients both appear significantly affected by internal bowshocks, and should thus be interpreted with caution.