2008/09/15 by Xuepeng Chen, Tyler L. Bourke, R. Launhardt +2
Chemistry · Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Atmospheric Ozone and Climate #Binary number #Binary system #Bipolar outflow #Galaxy #Geometry #Molecular Spectroscopy and Structure #Outflow #Perpendicular #Physics #Redshift #Star formation #Submillimeter Array #Velocity gradient #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/593033
12 pages, 3 figures, to be published by ApJL in October 2008
arxiv created 2008/09/15 · openalex publication_date 2008/09/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present interferometric observations in the 12 CO (2-1) line and at 1.3 mm dust continuum of the low-mass protostellar binary system in the cometary globule CG 30, using the Submillimeter Array. The dust continuum images resolve two compact sources (CG 30N and CG 30S), with a linear separation of ~8700 AU and total gas masses of ~1.4 and ~0.6 M ☉ , respectively. With the CO images, we discover two high-velocity bipolar molecular outflows, driven by the two sources. The two outflows are nearly perpendicular to each other, showing a quadrupolar morphology. The northern bipolar outflow extends along the southeast (redshifted, with a velocity up to ~23 km s −1 ) and northwest (blueshifted, velocity up to ~30 km s −1 ) directions, while the southern pair has an orientation from southwest (blueshifted, velocity up to ~13 km s −1 ) to northeast (redshifted, velocity up to ~41 km s −1 ). The outflow mass of the northern pair, driven by the higher mass source CG 30N, is ~9 times larger than that of the southern pair. The discovery of the quadrupolar molecular outflow in the CG 30 protobinary system, as well as the presence of other quadrupolar outflows associated with binary systems, demonstrate that the disks in (wide) binary systems are not necessarily co-aligned after fragmentation.