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| EPoS Contribution |
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Water in low-mass star-forming regions - first Herschel results
Lars E. Kristensen Leiden Observatory, Leiden, The Netherlands | |
| Water plays a key role in star formation since it efficiently traces energetic processing in star formation, from the very early, prestellar phases all the way to disks. During the cold dense phase it resides on the surface of dust grains, where it originally formed. Whenever energy is dumped into a cloud, water is evaporated from the grains, and thus acts as a 'switch' that turns on, and the gas-phase abundance jumps by 3-4 orders of magnitude. Observations have been carried out with HIFI and PACS onboard Herschel to follow the temporal evolution of water in star-forming regions as part of the WISH GT KP ("Water in star-forming regions with Herschel") Early results will be presented that highlight the capability of Herschel to distinguish where and how energy is dumped into Class 0 and I, low-mass protostars, either in the form of molecular outflows, or irradiation (UV, thermal) by the protostar itself. Together with complementary data (e.g., APEX-CHAMP+), it is possible to quantify the relative amounts of energetic input as a function of position in protostellar systems. | |
| Collaborators: G. Herzceg, MPE, Germany R. Visser, Leiden O, The Netherlands T.A. van Kempen, CfA, USA E.F. van Dishoeck, Leiden O, The Netherlands S. Wampfler, ETH, Switzerland S. Bruderer, ETH, Switzerland S. Doty, Denison, USA J. Jorgensen, CfSPF, Denmark and the WISH consortium |
Suggested Session:
Chemistry, Herschel |