Laboratory Analog of Heavy Jets Impacting a Denser Medium in Herbig–Haro (HH) Objects

Abstract

X-ray emissions in protostars play an important role in the chemistry of protostellar disks and in constraining the physics of jet formation. We have experimentally investigated the mechanism of X-ray emission in protostellar jets and modeled their interaction with the surrounding medium. The simulated supersonic jet is generated by intense laser beams irradiating a K -shaped target and then impacts an obstacle. We have successfully observed X-ray emission from the obstacle surface, and we find that it comes from the outflow material and not completely from the ambient medium heated by shock.