A Study of HH 270 with the James Webb Space Telescope

TL;DR

This study uses JWST, Subaru, and ALMA observations to reveal new details of the HH 270 Herbig-Haro object, including a previously unseen protostellar jet and complex outflow interactions across multiple wavelengths.

Contribution

First high-resolution infrared imaging of HH 270 with JWST uncovers a collimated jet and knots, enhancing understanding of protostellar outflows.

Findings

Discovery of a previously unseen collimated jet near the source.

Detection of knots associated with the jet.

Evidence of interaction between shock-excited jet emission and molecular outflow.

Abstract

We present a study of the Herbig-Haro object HH 270 based on observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), Subaru Telescope, and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). High-resolution infrared images of H$_2$ and CO were obtained with the NIRCam instrument (JWST) using the F212N (2.12 $\mu$m) and F460M (4.60 $\mu$m) filters, revealing a previously unseen collimated protostellar jet closer to the source, in addition to the very well defined bipolar cavities carved by the outflow. Newly identified knots associated with the jet were also detected. Ground-based optical images in the H$\alpha$ (660 nm) emission line, alongside millimeter spectral observations of the (2-1) transition of $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O, further enrich the analysis. The Subaru images show a connection between the optical outflow in H$\alpha$ and the protostellar jet observed in the infrared. ALMA CO observations trace the kinematics of the entrained molecular gas in the protostellar outflow and reveal the dense, slow-moving material distributed around the driving source, HH270VLA1. These multi-wavelength observations show evidence of the interaction between the shock-excited jet emission and the molecular outflow seen at optical, infrared and radio wavelengths, which provides a detailed view of the complex structure and dynamics of HH 270.