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Scientific Highlights with the SMA

Molecular jet of IRAS 04166+2706

The molecular outflow driven by the Class 0 protostar IRAS 04166+2706 in Taurus was imaged in CO J=3-2 using the SMA. Our high angular resolution (~1") observations show a collimated jet in extremely high velocity regime (EHV, the right panel of Figure 1) and a conical shell-like structure at close to systemic velocity (the left panel of Figure 1). The EHV jet observed with the CO J=3-2 delineates the intriguing sawtooth velocity pattern more clearly as compared to the previous CO J=2-1 data of Santiago-Garcia et al. (2009). The innermost pair of knots (B1 and R1) are found to have the highest velocities among the sequence. A comparison between the CO J=3-2 and 2-1 reveals that the emission in CO J=3-2 almost always peaks further away from the central source than that of CO J=2-1 in the red-shifted lobe (Figure 2, a-f), This may reflect a higher temperature of the gas toward the head.


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CO J=3-2 emission integrated over different velocity regimes. The jet and shell structures are clearly demonstrated.



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Channel maps (a-f) and Position-Velocity diagram of EHV range along the outflow axis(top). CO J=3-2 emission are plotted with red and blue contours in the PV diagram and with white contours in the channel maps for clarity. CO J=2-1 emission are shown with green contours and color scale for comparison.

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