The generation of jets from young stars: an observational perspective

Abstract

AbstractThe birth of a young star is accompanied not only by accretion but by the expulsion of matter as well in the form of a collimated outflow. These outflows are seen at various wavelengths from X-rays to the radio band, but ultimately the driving mechanism appears to be a highly collimated supersonic jet that contains not only atomic but molecular components as well. These jets may also play a key role in the star formation process itself since they could be one of the primary mechanism for removing angular momentum from the accretion disk thereby allowing accretion to occur. Whereas much is known about their propagation on large-scales (i.e., hundreds of AU to several parsecs) from both observations and simulations, we must explore the “central engine” in order to understand how they are generated. While this is particularly challenging, high spatial resolution studies are beginning to reveal interesting data from which we can confront the various models. In this review, I will summarise what these studies suggest and note how they already favour certain models over others. I will also describe some of the results from spectro-astrometry and interferometry that are revealing details of outflows on milliarcsecond scales from the source.