Discovery of SiO Masers in the “Water Fountain” Source IRAS 16552−3050

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we report new detections of SiO v = 1 and v = 2 J = 1 → 0 masers in the “water fountain” source IRAS 16552−3050, which was observed with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope during 2021 March–April. Water fountains are evolved stars whose H2O maser spectra trace high-velocity outflows of >100 km s−1. This is the second known case of SiO masers in a water fountain, after their prototypical source, W 43A. These SiO masers should shed light on the evolutionary status of this category of evolved stars, which are likely to be at the end of the asymptotic giant branch phase, when the star exhibits the most copious stellar mass loss, followed by development of the complicated morphologies of planetary nebulae. The origin of a large (up to 25 km s−1) velocity offset of the SiO masers with respect to the systemic velocity derived from the spectrum of CO J = 2 → 1 line is discussed here.