Anisotropic mass outflow in regions of star formation

Abstract

CO observations are presented for the molecular clouds associated with the three red nebulous objects GGD 4, 12-15, and 27-28. Blueshifted and redshifted CO wings in GGD 12-15, indicating a high velocity gas, originate in spatially separated zones located on opposite sides of a water maser source and suggests that the stellar wind of the star associated with the water maser is being channeled into two antiparallel streams. Eight reported cases of high velocity CO outflows are discussed, and it is found that four of the sources are associated with water maser emission. Although the total velocity extent is not obviously correlated with the luminosity of the possible exciting sources, the time-averaged energy and momentum in the outflow appear to increase with the luminosity of the associated objects. If the gas outflow occurs once in the early life of a star, reported cases suggest that at least O, B and A stars should be able to produce it.