Are large, cometary-shaped proplyds really (free-floating) evaporating gas globules?

Abstract

We report the detection of strong and compact molecular line emission (in the CO J = 3-2, 4-3, 6-5, 7-6, 13CO J = 3-2, HCN, and HCO+ J = 4-3 transitions) from a cometary-shaped object (Carina-frEGG1) in the Carina star-forming region (SFR) previously classified as a photoevaporating protoplanetary disk (proplyd). We derive a molecular mass of 0.35 M⊙ for Carina-frEGG1, which shows that it is not a proplyd, but belongs to a class of free-floating evaporating gas globules (frEGGs) recently found in the Cygnus SFR by Sahai et al. Archival adaptive optics near-IR (Ks) images show a central hourglass-shaped nebula. The derived source luminosity (about 8-18 L⊙), the hourglass morphology, and the presence of collimated jets seen in Hubble Space Telescope images imply the presence of a jet-driving, young, low-mass star deeply embedded in the dust inside Carina-frEGG1. Our results suggest that the true nature of many or most such cometary-shaped objects seen in massive SFRs and previously labeled as proplyds has been misunderstood, and that these are really frEGGs. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.