Shocks and UV radiation around low-mass protostars: The Herschel-PACS legacy

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

  • Agata Karska
  • Michael J. Kaufman
  • Lars E. Kristensen
  • Ewine F. Van Dishoeck

Far-infrared spectroscopy reveals gas cooling and its underlying heating due to physical processes taking place in the surroundings of protostars. These processes are reflected in both the chemistry and excitation of abundant molecular species. Here, we present the Herschel-PACS far-IR spectroscopy of 90 embedded low-mass protostars from the WISH (van Dishoeck et al. 2011), DIGIT (Green et al. 2013), and WILL surveys (Mottram et al. 2017). The 5 × 5 spectra covering the ∼50″ × 50″ field-of-view include rotational transitions of CO, H2O, and OH lines, as well as fine-structure [O I] and [C II] in the ∼50-200 μm range. The CO rotational temperatures are typically ∼300 K, with some sources showing additional components with temperatures as high as ∼1000 K. The H2O / CO and H2O / OH flux ratios are low compared to stationary shock models, suggesting that UV photons may dissociate some H2O and decrease its abundance. Comparison to C shock models illuminated by UV photons show a good agreement between the line emission and the models for pre-shock densities of 105 cm-3 and UV fields 0.1-10 times the interstellar value. The far-infrared molecular and atomic lines are the unique diagnostic of shocks and UV fields in deeply-embedded sources.

Original languageEnglish
JournalProceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Volume13
Issue numberS332
Pages (from-to)225-227
Number of pages3
ISSN1743-9213
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017

    Research areas

  • jets, outflows, shocks, Young stellar objects

ID: 229730988