THE HH-83 MOLECULAR CLOUD - GONE WITH THE WIND

The HH 83 optical outflow and its host cloud core has been mapped in t he J = 1 --> 0 and J = 2 --> 1 transitions of CO and its isotopes. The (CO)-C-12 and (CO)-C-13 maps exhibit a hot spot, a column density enh ancement, and increased velocity dispersion at the position of the you ng star driving the optical jet. The cloud exhibits an overall velocit y gradient along its major axis, which if interpreted as rotation woul d be consistent with a rotation axis roughly aligned with the optical jet. The (CO)-C-13 line width and a region of enhanced velocity gradie nts surrounding HH 83 IR are used to constrain the mass of this star a nd surrounding gas. In addition to the compact core, several other sub -condensations in the HH 83 cloud have been identified in the (CO)-C-1 3 map. The cloud may contain a pair of cavities symmetrically located on either side of HH 83 IR that lie roughly along the axis defined by the optical jet. A very low velocity and poorly collimated molecular o utflow with a large redshifted lobe and a small blueshifted one is ass ociated with HH 83. This molecular outflow has one of the lowest termi nal velocities of any known source (about 5 km s-1), a small total mas s (0.1-0.2 M.), and is one of the least energetic molecular flows (2 x 10(43) ergs) known. In this system, the Herbig-Haro jet is the most e nergetic component and dominates the energy and momentum of the CO-emi tting lobes. The outflow from HH 83 IR has ''blown out'' of the HH 83 molecular cloud and may be interacting with predominantly atomic gas i n the intercloud medium. The morphology and kinematics of the HH 83 ou tflow suggests that it ma be in a late stage of evolution.