Discovery of an Extremely Young Accreting Protostar in Taurus

Abstract

We report the discovery of a new, very young accreting class 0 protostar in the southern part of the Taurus molecular cloud. This object, designated by IRAM 041911522, coincides with a cold (K) dust continuum T ∼ 12 condensation found at 1.3 mm with the IRAM 30 m telescope ∼1 southwest of the class I infrared source IRAS 041911523. Although IRAM 041911522 was not seen by IRAS, it is associated with a weak 3.6 cm VLA radio continuum source, a highly collimated CO bipolar outflow, and 60-850 mm emission detected by ISOPHOT and SCUBA. Molecular line observations are consistent with the protostellar condensation currently undergoing gravitational collapse. The spectral energy distribution and low bolometric luminosity () we derive L ∼ 0.15 L bol , suggest that the protostellar core at the center of IRAM 041911522 may still be dissociating molecular hydrogen. High-resolution snapshot 1.4 mm continuum observations with the IRAM interferometer fail to detect this protostar, implying it has not yet developed a large accretion disk.