Hubble Space Telescope Images of the HH 34 Jet and Bow Shock: Structure and Proper Motions

We present new, deep Hα and [S II] images of the HH 34 jet and bow shock obtained with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which reveal the structure of this fine HH flow with unprecedented detail. Many of the knots in the jet appear to form small working surfaces with bright [S II] cores and thin Hα filaments where the mini-bow shocks extend into the surrounding medium. In combination with earlier, short-exposure HST images we have determined very precise proper-motion vectors for the various shock structures in the outflow. The jet becomes visible within about an arcsecond of the source, where a new knot has emerged between our two epoch images; it has a space velocity of at least 300 km s^-1, as derived from the proper motions and correcting for the 30° angle of the flow to the line of sight. The jet rapidly slows down to a mean space velocity of about 220 km s^-1, with a standard deviation of 20 km s^-1 among the jet knots. Such low internal velocities lead to weak shocks, consistent with the high [S II]/Hα ratio along the jet body and in accordance with the internal working surface model for jets. The jet motion appears to be ballistic, with no evidence for a turbulent boundary layer. The jet is well resolved and steadily expands with a half-opening angle of 0.4d. The large HH 34 working surface shows a multitude of knots, all of which are enveloped by a series of very thin, limb-brightened Hα-emitting filaments immediately behind the shock front where the flow faces into the preshock medium. One of these filaments developed four regularly spaced tiny knots between the two epochs, possibly due to a Rayleigh-Taylor instability along the filament or caused by the presence of small, dense clumps in the ambient medium. Proper motions of the HH 34 working surface show an obvious expansion due to material being squirted sideways. In addition to the large-scale S-shaped symmetry of the giant HH 34 flow, the jet shows a marked and surprisingly abrupt change in flow direction during a 65 yr interval that ended 10 yr ago, suggesting that the jet-disk system may have been influenced by powerful tidal effects by a companion star during a recent periastron passage. A second, smaller bowlike flow, called HH 534, possibly emanates from the HH 34 source region, and if so this supports the contention that the source is a binary. This data set is a testament to the unique abilities of the HST to follow morphological, photometric, and excitation changes on cooling timescales in the shocks of flows from young stars.