A Jet Associated with the Classical T Tauri Star RY Tauri

Abstract

High spatial resolution images have been taken on the Gemini North telescope of the classical T Tauri star RY Tauri. The Hα image, with the continuum properly subtracted, shows a jet extending out to at least 31'' at a position angle of about 295° from the star. A counterjet extending to at least 3.5' in the opposite direction is also visible. The knots in the inner part of the jet are probably less than 10 years old. This new Herbig-Haro bipolar jet has been labeled HH 938. Comparison with previous Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images revealed a probable tangential motion of the brightest knot by about 165 km s^-1. The orientation of the disk, as given by the average position angle of published polarization measurements, is ≈20°, or almost perpendicular to the direction of the jet. Because of the proximity of its inner knots to the star and their very young dynamical age, this jet is a very good candidate to study jet emission mechanisms.

Based on observations obtained at the Gemini Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF on behalf of the Gemini partnership: the National Science Foundation (United States), the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (United Kingdom), the National Research Council (Canada), CONICYT (Chile), the Australian Research Council (Australia), CNPq (Brazil), and CONICET (Argentina).