2008/09/02 by Olga Suárez, José F. Gómez, J. F. Gómez +2 · 28 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Collimated light #Emission spectrum #Maser #Milky Way #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/592493
published in The Astrophysical Journal 689(1), 430-435 (IOP Publishing) · 15 pages, 4 figures. Accepted by ApJ
arxiv created 2008/09/02 · openalex publication_date 2008/11/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the water maser emission toward IRAS 16552–3050. The maser emission shows a velocity spread of ≃170 km s −1 , and a bipolar distribution with a separation between the red- and blueshifted groups of ≃0.08 '' . These observations and the likely post-AGB nature of the source indicate that IRAS 16552–3050 can be considered as a member of the "water fountain" class of sources (evolved stars showing H 2 O maser emission with a velocity spread ≳100 km s −1 , probably tracing collimated jets). The water maser emission in IRAS 16552–3050 does not seem to be associated with any known optical counterpart. Moreover, this source does not have a near-IR 2MASS counterpart, as it happens in about half of the water fountains known. This suggests that these sources tend to be heavily obscured objects, probably with massive precursors (≳4-5 M ☉ ). We suggest that the water maser emission in IRAS 16552–3050 could be tracing a rapidly precessing bipolar jet.