AAS Meeting #193 - Austin, Texas, January 1999
Session 71. Molecular Clouds
Display, Friday, January 8, 1999, 9:20am-6:30pm, Exhibit Hall 1

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[71.14] The Near-IR Structure of OMC-1

A.S.B Schultz, E.F Erickson, S.W.J. Colgan (NASA-Ames), M.J. Kaufman (San Jos\'e State), C.R. O'Dell (Rice U.), D. J. Hollenbach (NASA-Ames), E.T. Young (U. Arizona)

We present HST NICMOS narrowband images of OMC-1 taken during the January 1998 camera 3 campaign. This work is a more quantitative and detailed analysis of the data in our previous paper (Schultz et~al 1999 ApJ 511, in press). The outstanding feature of the data is the array of molecular hydrogen ``streamers'' which emanate from the general vicinity of IRc2. There are also several Herbig-Haro objects and objects with extended continuum emission, which may be related to the streamers. The intensities of the near-infrared lines of H2, P\alpha, and [FeII] are compared with those of the optical H\alpha, [NII], and [SII] 6730~Å\ lines observed with WFPC2.

We compare the observed line strengths and line ratios with models of molecular cloud shock waves (e.g. Hollenbach & McKee 1989 ApJ 342 306). The shock conditions and morphology of the streamers provide clues to the mechanism and location of the source driving this unusual outflow. Using morphological and excitation comparisons, we also examine the relation between the streamers in our field with the H2 fingers to the north, which may arise from the same source.


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