The geometry of anisotropic CO outflows

Abstract

A simple geometrical model for the space motions of the bipolar high-velocity CO outflows in regions of recent, active star formation is proposed. It is assumed that the velocity field of the neutral gas component can be represented by large-scale uniform motions. From observations of the spatial distribution and from the characteristics of the line shape of the high-velocity molecular gas emission the geometry of the line-emitting regions can be inferred, i.e., the direction in space and the collimating angle of the flow. The model has been applied to regions where a check on presently obtained results is provided by independent optical determinations of the motions of Herbig-Haro objects associated with the CO flows. These two methods are in good agreement and, furthermore, the results obtained provide convincingly strong evidence for the physical association of CO outflows and Herbig-Haro objects. This also supports the common view that a young stellar central source is responsible for the active phenomena observed in its environmental neighborhood. It is noteworthy that within the framework of the model the determination of the flow geometry of the high-velocity gas from CO measurements is independent of the distance to the source and, furthermore, can be done atmore » relatively low spatial resolution. 32 references.« less