THE DISPERSING CLOUD CORE AROUND T-TAURI

Citation
M. Momose et al., THE DISPERSING CLOUD CORE AROUND T-TAURI, The Astrophysical journal, 470(2), 1996, pp. 1001
Citations number
66
Categorie Soggetti
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Journal title
ISSN journal
0004637X
Volume
470
Issue
2
Year of publication
1996
Part
1
Database
ISI
SICI code
0004-637X(1996)470:2<1001:TDCCAT>2.0.ZU;2-A
Abstract
We have made (CO)-C-13 (J = 1-0) observations of T Tauri with the Nobe yama Millimeter Array (NMA) and with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope. The (CO)-C-13 (J = 1-0) emission detected with the NMA shows three differe nt features: (1) a pair of ringlike features surrounding T Tauri with a radius of 30 '' (corresponding to 4200 AU at the distance of 140 pc to T Tauri) at the velocities blueshifted and redshifted by less than 1 km s(-1) from the systemic velocity, (2) a blueshifted compact featu re 3 '' east of T Tauri, and (3) another compact feature 7 '' southwes t of T Tauri at velocities redshifted by more than 1 km s(-1). On the other hand, the (CO)-C-13 maps obtained with the 45 m telescope show a smoothly extended feature near the systemic velocity, which is missed in the NMA observations, as well as the above-mentioned three feature s. The total masses of gas detected with the NMA and the 45 m telescop e are estimated to be (0.054-0.23) M(.) and (0.31-1.3) M(.), respectiv ely. The difference in the estimated mass between the two observations is mainly due to resolving out of the smoothly extended feature in th e NMA observations. The (CO)-C-13 rings are interpreted as biconical o utflowing shells in a nearly pole-on configuration. The high-velocity stellar wind ejected from T Tauri is estimated to be energetic enough to drive these outflowing shells. We have analyzed the three-dimension al structure of the shells by correcting for the projection effect on the plane of the sky, and we have found that the spatial extent of the shells is nearly equal to or slightly smaller than the typical size o f the molecular cloud cores in the Taurus Molecular Cloud. This fact i ndicates that the outflowing shells are part of the parent cloud core that still remains around T Tauri, which is now dispersing under the i nfluence of the stellar wind. Such an environment around T Tauri is qu ite different from those around typical T Tauri stars, which are assoc iated only with compact gaseous components. These results suggest stro ngly that T Tauri is one of the objects in the transitional phase from the protostar stage, in which a central star is deeply embedded in an infalling envelope, to the T Tauri stage, in which a central star is surrounded by a compact circumstellar disk instead of a spatially exte nded envelope.