Molecular hydrogen jets and outflows in the Serpens South filamentary cloud^⋆

¹ Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal
e-mail: nanda@astro.up.pt
² Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (IGN), Calle Alfonso XII 3, 28014 Madrid, Spain

Received: 19 January 2012
Accepted: 19 April 2012

Abstract

Aims. We map the jets and outflows from the Serpens South star-forming region and find an empirical relationship between the magnetic field and outflow orientation.

Methods. We performed near-infrared H₂v = 1−0 S(1) 2.122 μm   – line imaging of the ~30′ – long filamentary shaped Serpens South star-forming region, and used K_s broadband imaging of the same region for the continuum subraction. Candidate driving sources of the mapped jets/outflows are identified from the list of known protostars and young stars in this region, which was derived from studies using Spitzer and Herschel telescope observations.

Results. We identify 14 molecular hydrogen emission-line objects (MHOs) in our continuum-subtracted images. They are found to constitute ten individual flows. Among these, nine flows are located in the lower-half(southern) part of the Serpens South filament, and one flow is located at the northern tip of the filament. Four flows are driven by well-identified Class 0 protostars, while the remaining six flows are driven by candidate protostars mostly in the Class I stage, based on Spitzer and Herschel observations. The orientation of the outflows is systematically perpendicular to the direction of the near-infrared polarization vector published in the literature. No significant correlation was observed between the orientation of the flows and the axis of the filamentary cloud.