The Spatial Distribution of Fluorescent H$_2$ Near T Tau
Abstract
New subarcsecond FUV observations of T Tau with HST/STIS show spatially resolved structures in the 2"x2" area around the star. The structures show in multiline emission of fluorescent H_2 pumped by Lyman alpha. One emission structure follows the cavity walls observed around T Tau N in scattered light in the optical. A temperature greater or equal to 1000K is required to have enough population in the H_2 to produce the observed fluorescent lines; in the cool environment of the T Tau system, shock heating is required to achieve this temperature at distances of a few tens of AU. Fluorescent H_2 along the cavity wall represents the best evidence to date for the action of low-density, wide-opening-angle outflows driving cavities into the molecular medium at scales smaller than 100 AU. A southern region of emission consists of two arcs, with shape and orientation similar to the arcs of H_2 2.12 microns and forbidden line emission crossing the outflow associated with the embedded system T Tau S. This region is located near the centroid of forbidden line emission at the blueshifted lobe of the N-S outflow.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0304531,
title = {The Spatial Distribution of Fluorescent H$_2$ Near T Tau},
author = {José Saucedo and Nuria Calvet and Lee Hartmann and John Raymond},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0304531},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
To appear in ApJ, vol. 591. Color figures available online at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/youngstars/