The Bipolar Optical Outflow Associated with PV Cephei

GOMEZ, M., KENYON, S. J., WHITNEY, B. A.

ASTRONOMICAL JOURNAL

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 1997 p. 265 - 271

0004-6256

We describe deep 10´ X 19´ CCD images of the bipolar [S II] jet emanating from the Herbig Ae/Be star PV Cephei. The 2.3 pc long jet exhibits a clear S-shaped morphology and lies within the lobes of the molecular outflow. The 23 HH knots-including 21 new detections-suggest an intermittent outflow with major eruptions every ?2000 yr. We model the morphology of the optical outflow with a simple precessing jet; our preferred model has a large inclination to the line-of-sight, i ~ 80°; an opening angle for the precession axis, theta ~ 45°; and a modest precession period of ~ 8300 yr. The close association of optical and radio outflows-together with our simple dynamical jet model-is consistent with Masson & Chernin´s (1993, ApJ, 414, 230) picture where a precessing optical jet carves out cavities in an infalling envelope and drives a molecular outflow.