Letter to the Editor

Forbidden emission line spectro-imaging of the RU Lupi jet and low-velocity component^⋆

¹ Department of Physics, Maynooth University, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
² Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
³ Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
⁴ Academica Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, No 1. Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei 10617, Taiwan, ROC
⁵ Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark
⁶ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
⁷ School of Physics, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

^⋆⋆ Corresponding author; matthew.birney@mu.ie

Received: 27 September 2024
Accepted: 21 November 2024

Abstract

The first images of the jet and low-velocity component (LVC) from the strongly accreting classical T Tauri star RU Lupi are presented. Adaptive optics-assisted spectro-imaging of forbidden emission lines was used. The main aim of the observations was to test the conclusion from a recent spectro-astrometric study that the narrow component (NC) of the LVC traces a magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) disk wind, and to estimate the mass-loss rate in the wind. The structure and morphology support a wind origin for the NC. The upper limit to the launch radius and semi-opening angle of the wind in [O I] λ6300 emission are estimated to be 2 au and 19°, in agreement with MHD wind models for high accretors. The height of the [O I] λ6300 wind-emitting region, a key parameter for the derivation of the mass-loss rate, is estimated for the first time at ∼35 au, giving Ṁ_out = 2.6 × 10⁻¹¹ M_⊙ yr⁻¹. When compared to the derived mass-accretion rate of Ṁ_acc = 1.6 × 10⁻⁷ M_⊙ yr⁻¹, the efficiency in the wind is too low for the wind to contribute significantly to the angular momentum removal.