Herschel/PACS Imaging of Protostars in the HH 1-2 Outflow Complex

TL;DR

This study uses Herschel/PACS imaging to analyze protostars in the Orion A molecular cloud, revealing their spectral energy distributions, fundamental properties, and surrounding dust structures at far-infrared wavelengths.

Contribution

First Herschel/PACS imaging of protostars in Orion A, providing detailed SEDs and physical properties of protostars at 70 and 160 microns.

Findings

Protostars have luminosities of 12-84 L_sun.

Envelope densities vary over two orders of magnitude.

Surrounding dust and gas exhibit filamentary structures.

Abstract

We present 70 and 160 micron Herschel science demonstration images of a field in the Orion A molecular cloud that contains the prototypical Herbig-Haro objects HH 1 and 2, obtained with the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS). These observations demonstrate Herschel's unprecedented ability to study the rich population of protostars in the Orion molecular clouds at the wavelengths where they emit most of their luminosity. The four protostars previously identified by Spitzer 3.6-40 micron imaging and spectroscopy are detected in the 70 micron band, and three are clearly detected at 160 microns. We measure photometry of the protostars in the PACS bands and assemble their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from 1 to 870 microns with these data, Spitzer spectra and photometry, 2MASS data, and APEX sub-mm data. The SEDs are fit to models generated with radiative transfer codes. From these fits we can constrain the fundamental properties of the protostars. We find luminosities in the range 12-84 L_sun and envelope densities spanning over two orders of magnitude. This implies that the four protostars have a wide range of envelope infall rates and evolutionary states: two have dense, infalling envelopes, while the other two have only residual envelopes. We also show the highly irregular and filamentary structure of the cold dust and gas surrounding the protostars as traced at 160 microns.