WFPC2 Observations of the HH 30 Disk and Jet

Session 48 -- Young Stars
Display presentation, Tuesday, 10, 1995, 9:20am - 6:30pm

[48.02] WFPC2 Observations of the HH 30 Disk and Jet

Karl R. Stapelfeldt (JPL), C. J. Burrows (STSci), J. Krist (STSci), A. M. Watson (Lowell), J.T. Trauger (JPL), G.E. Ballester (Michigan), S. Casertano (Johns Hopkins), J.T. Clarke (Michigan), D. Crisp (JPL), R.W. Evans (JPL), J.S. Gallagher (Wisconsin), R.E. Griffiths (Johns Hopkins), J.J. Hester (Arizona State), J.G. Hoessel (Wisconsin), J. Holtzman (Lowell), J.R. Mould (Mt. Stromlo), P.A. Scowen (Arizona State), J.A. Westphal (Caltech)

We have observed HH 30 using the WFPC2 Wide Field Camera aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. We find three major components to this object: 1) A shield-shaped reflection nebula 2.5$^{\prime\prime}$ long, 0.5$^{\prime\prime}$ wide that extends from SE to NW; 2) A highly collimated optical jet emerging perpendicular to the reflection nebula; and 3) a second fainter reflection nebula SW of the shield nebula, and separated from it by 0.5$^{\prime\prime}$. The observed morphology is strikingly similar to models of a optically thick circumstellar disk viewed from near the equator plane, with a jet emerging along the disk rotation axis. With a diameter of 30 AU, the HH 30 jet is significantly narrower than other Herbig-Haro jets whose widths have been resolved. We present models for the density structure which produces the reflection nebulosities, and find that models with an obscured central star, disk diameter of at least 300 AU, and steep flaring at distances $>$ 50 AU provide a good description of the object.

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