Proper motion studies of outflows from Classical T Tauri stars

¹ Department of Experimental Physics, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland e-mail: fiona.mcgroarty@nuim.ie
² Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 5 Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Ireland
³ Centre for Astrophysics & Planetary Science, School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent, Canterbury CT2 7NH, UK

Received: 4 December 2006
Accepted: 7 March 2007

Abstract

In a previous paper (McGroarty & Ray 2004) we examined the environment of a number of evolved low-mass young stars, i.e. Classical T Tauri Stars, to see if they are capable of driving parsec-scale outflows. These stars – CW Tau, DG Tau, DO Tau, HV Tau C and RW Aur – were previously known to drive only “micro-jets” or small-scale outflows of ≤1´  or 0.04 pc at the distance of the Taurus-Auriga Cloud. We found that they drive outflows of 0.5 pc–1 pc, based on the morphology and alignment of newly discovered and previously known HH objects with these sources and their “micro-jets”. Here, we use a cross-correlation method to determine the proper motions of the HH objects in these five outflows (HH 220, HH 229, HH 702, HH 705 and HH 826 – HH 835) which in turn allows us to confirm their driving sources. Moreover, the tangential velocities of HH objects at large distances from their origin are currently poorly known so these proper motions will allow us to determine how velocities evolve with distance from their source. We find tangential velocities of typically 200 km s^-1 for the more distant objects in these outflows. Surprisingly, we find similar tangential velocities for the “micro-jets” that are currently being ejected from these sources. This leads us to suggest that either the outflow velocity was much higher 10³ years ago when the more distant objects were ejected and that these objects have decelerated to their current velocity or that the outflow velocity at the source has remained approximately constant and the more distant objects have not undergone significant deceleration due to interactions with the ambient medium. Numerical simulations are needed before we can decide between these scenarios.