Water masers and the near-stellar environment in YSOs

Abstract

I present a review of observations of water masers, in particular very high angular resolution of water masers using Very Long Baseline Interferometry, with which it is possible to probe the environment of young stellar objects and forming stars within only a few A.U. of the protostar, its accretion disk, and therefore the base of outflowing material. Although reference is made to some high-luminosity sources, the main thrust of the review are the water masers found toward forming objects whose mass and luminosity will be approximately that of the Sun when they reach the main sequence.