Centimeter continuum observations of the northern head of the HH 80/81/80N jet: revising the actual dimensions of a parsec scale jet

TL;DR

This study uses radio observations to identify a new knot in the HH 80/81/80N jet, revising its size to 18.4 parsecs and suggesting it influences star formation in its environment.

Contribution

The paper presents the discovery of a new jet knot and updates the jet's dimensions and age, providing insights into jet-driven star formation.

Findings

Identified a new radio source aligned with the jet

Revised the jet length to 18.4 parsecs

Estimated the jet's dynamical age to be over 9000 years

Abstract

We present 6 and 20 cm JVLA/VLA observations of the northern head of the HH 80/81/80N jet, one of the largest collimated jet systems known so far, aimed to look for knots further away than HH 80N, the northern head of the jet. Aligned with the jet and 10 arcmin northeast of HH 80N, we found a radio source not reported before, with a negative spectral index similar to that HH 80, HH 81 and HH 80N. The fit of a precessing jet model to the knots of the HH 80/81/80N jet, including the new source, shows that the position of this source is close to the jet path resulting from the modeling. If the new source belongs to the HH 80/81/80N jet, its derived size and dynamical age are 18.4 pc and >9000 yr, respectively. If the jet is symmetric, its southern lobe would expand beyond the cloud edge resulting in an asymmetric appearance of the jet. Based on the updated dynamical age, we speculate on the possibility that the HH 80/81/80N jet triggered the star formation observed in a dense core found ahead of HH 80N, which shows signposts of interaction with the jet. These results indicate that pc scale radio jets can play a role on the stability of dense clumps and the regulation of star formation in the molecular cloud.