Pushing the Envelope: The Impact of an Outflow at the Earliest Stages of Star Formation

Abstract

We present new multiline and 3 mm continuum interferometer observationsof the circumstellar environment within 2{\times}10^{4} AU of theclass 0 protostar IRAS 05295+1247, the source of the RNO 43 outflow. Thehigh-resolution molecular line and continuum images enable a thoroughstudy of the circumstellar envelope, the molecular outflow, and itsimpact on the surroundings. We detect a highly collimated bipolarmolecular outflow seen in the ^{12}CO (1-0) map, which weinterpret to be a new outflow episode, undetected in previousobservations of the RNO 43 outflow. The medium-density gas of the outercircumstellar envelope, which is traced by the ^{13}CO (1-0)emission, is accelerated over an extended volume and not confined to thenarrow ^{12}CO outflow axis. Our data also suggest that theoutflow affects the chemical composition of the surroundings, enhancingthe HCO^{+} (1-0) abundance along its edges. Most importantly,the kinetic energy injected by the outflow is sufficient to produce avelocity gradient in the dense inner circumstellar envelope traced bythe C^{18}O (1-0) and H^{13}CO^{+} (1-0)emission. Such a strong perturbation to the envelope will clearly havean important effect on the mass-assembling process in IRAS 05295+1247.