A Parsec‐Scale Outflow in the Rosette Molecular Cloud?

Abstract

We report on new observations of a purported parsec-scale outflow in the hostile environment at the boundary of the Rosette Nebula, a well-known H II region driven by several O stars in the open cluster NGC 2244, and the Rosette Molecular Cloud (RMC). Several emission features were first reported by Ybarra & Phelps in 2004 , but with only optical [S II] imaging, their nature could not then be established. Our new near-infrared (NIR) H2 imaging observations reveal bulleted NIR emission between a Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) NIR excess point source and the optical [S II] emission for RMC C of Ybarra & Phelps. Analysis of the 2MASS colors indicates that the point source is likely to be a Class I young stellar object (YSO). Together these results imply that RMC C is in fact part of a true YSO outflow, now designated HH 871. The presence of additional [S II] emission, apparently connected to the HH 871 outflow but separated by ~1.2 pc, assuming a distance of 1600 pc for the RMC, also lends support to the Ybarra & Phelps hypothesis that a parsec-scale outflow is present in this harsh ionizing environment.