Observations of Bok Globule Cb 17: a Candidate First Hydrostatic Core?

Abstract

We present high angular resolution Submillimeter Array (SMA) and Spitzer observations toward the Bok globule CB 17. SMA 1.3 mm dust continuum images reveal within CB 17 two sources with an angular separation of ~21'' (~5250 AU at a distance of ~250 pc). The northwestern continuum source, referred to as CB 17 IRS, dominates the infrared emission in the Spitzer images, drives a bipolar outflow extending in the northwest-southeast direction, and is classified as a low-luminosity Class 0/I transition object (L bol ~ 0.5 L &sun;). The southeastern continuum source, referred to as CB 17 MMS, has faint dust continuum emission in the SMA 1.3 mm observations (~6σ detection; ~3.8 mJy), but is not detected in the deep Spitzer infrared images at wavelengths from 3.6 to 70 μm. Its bolometric luminosity and temperature, estimated from its spectral energy distribution, are