English

The detection of spatially resolved protosteller outflows and episodic jets in the outer Galaxy

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2025-06-11 v1

Abstract

We present the first detection of spatially resolved protostellar outflows and jets in the outer Galaxy. We observed five star-forming regions in the outer Galaxy (Sh 2--283, NOMF05-16/19/23/63; galactocentric distance = 15.7--17.4 kpc) with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Towards Sh 2--283, we have detected distinct outflow (\sim5--50 km s1^{-1}) and jet components (\sim50--100 km s1^{-1}) associated with the protostar in CO(3--2) emission. The outflows and jets are well-collimated, with the jets exhibiting multiple bullet structures. The position-velocity diagram along the CO flow axis shows two characteristic structures: (a) the flow velocity which linearly increases with the position offset from the core center (Hubble-like flow), and (b) continuous velocity components of the periodical flows (spine-like structures), which may indicate the episodic mass-ejection event. The time intervals of the mass-ejection events are estimated to be 900--4000 years based on the slopes of these spine-like structures. These characteristics align with those of nearby protostellar systems, indicating that early star formation in low-metallicity environments, such as the outer Galaxy, resembles that in the inner Galaxy. In contrast to the physical similarities, the N(SiO)N\mathrm{(SiO)}/N(CO)N\mathrm{(CO)} ratio in the jet bullet appears to be lower than that measured in the low-mass protostellar sources in the inner Galaxy. This may indicate the different shock chemistry or different dust composition in the outer Galaxy source, although non-LTE effects could also affect the observed low N(SiO)N\mathrm{(SiO)}/N(CO)N\mathrm{(CO)} ratio. We also report the new detection of the other 4 outflow sources in the outer Galaxy.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.08601,
  title  = {The detection of spatially resolved protosteller outflows and episodic jets in the outer Galaxy},
  author = {Toki Ikeda and Takashi Shimonishi and Natsuko Izumi and Hiroyuki Kaneko and Satoko Takahashi and Kei E. I. Tanaka and Kenji Furuya and Chikako Yasui},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.08601},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

19 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal