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G.A. Wolf-Chase (Adler Planetarium/U. Chicago), M. A. Barsony (U. California, Riverside), J. C. O'Linger (IPAC)
The suggestion that protostars may power giant Herbig-Haro flows (Bally et al. 1997; Reipurth, Bally, & Devine 1997) has motivated us to use the relatively new spectral line On-The-Fly (OTF) mapping technique at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory 12-meter telescope to search for molecular outflows over a ~4 pc X 0.6 pc region of the L1448 molecular cloud. Our observations indicate a direct connection between the Herbig-Haro objects and four Class 0 protostars, through parsec-scale molecular outflows which span the entire extent of the L1448 cloud. The outflow timescales are ~104 yrs, providing further evidence that protostars initiate bipolar outflows at the beginning of the main accretion phase. The inferred spatial extents and high collimation of the L1448 outflows are unprecedented for low-mass protostars. The striking alignment of these outflows has allowed us to separate the individual outflows, and see their true extents and dramatic effects on the ambient cloud structure. Our observations strongly suggest that the outflows contain sufficient energy and momentum to generate the observed turbulence and disperse their natal cloud cores.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: grace@horta.uchicago.edu