Water in Shocks and Outflows
Abstract
We have observed water vapor emission from several protostellar outflow regions with SWAS, including the sources Orion-KL, NGC 2071, NGC 1333 IRAS 4, L1157, RCrA, and L1689N. Observations of the 110}-1{01 water transition toward each of these sources have revealed the presence of broad line emission accompanied by narrow absorption in quiescent foreground gas or -- in the case of Orion-KL, by a narrow emission line component. In each case, the width of the broad emission line component, typically 20 - 40 km s-1 (FWHM), suggests an origin in the outflowing gas. From the observed line fluxes, we estimate water abundances ranging from 10-6 in low mass outflow regions to several x 10-4 in the Orion-KL region. These values are all significantly larger than the water abundance estimates of few x 10-9 - 10-7 derived from SWAS observations of quiescent regions, implying that the water abundances are enhanced in outflow regions. Such enhancements are indeed expected to result from the effects of shocks in (1) vaporizing icy grain mantles and/or (2) producing water in the gas-phase (by means of neutral-neutral reactions that are negligibly slow at the low temperatures of quiescent clouds but rapid at the elevated temperatures present behind a shock.)
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 1999
- Bibcode:
- 1999AAS...195.6303N