SMA Research: First Confirmed Detection of a Bipolar Molecular Outflow from a Young Brown Dwarf
 

A bipolar molecular outflow was discovered from the young brown dwarf ISO-Oph 102 of 60 Jupiter mass in Rho Ophiuchi using the SMA. The figure represents an overlay of the J-band (1.25 micron) near-infrared Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) image of the brown dwarf and the integrated intensity in the carbon monoxide (CO J=2-1) line emission from 3.8 to 7.7 km/s line-of-sight velocities. The blue and red contours represent the blueshifted (integrated over 3.8 and 5.9 km/s) and redshifted (integrated over 5.9 and 7.7 km/s) emissions, respectively. The contours are 3, 6, 9, ... times the rms of 0.15 Jy/beam km/s. The position angle of the outflow is about 3 degrees. The synthesized beam of 3.60 x 2.43 arcsec is shown in the bottom left corner. The results indicate that the bipolar molecular outflow in brown dwarfs is very similar to outflows as seen in young stars but scaled down by 3 and 2 orders of magnitude for the outflow mass and the mass-loss rate, respectively. The discovery provides a new, strong evidence that brown dwarfs can form through turbulent/gravitational fragmentation like low-mass stars, in a version scaled down by a factor of over 100.

Science Publication

  • Ngoc Phan-Bao (ASIAA), et al. First Confirmed Detection of a Bipolar Molecular Outflow from a Young Brown Dwarf , 2008, ApJ, 689, L141
  •   ISO-Oph102

    Ngoc Phan-Bao (ASIAA), 2008

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