Search

Low- and intermediate-mass stars evolve through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB), when an efficient mass-loss process removes a significant fraction of their initial mass. A substantial increase in the mass-loss rate at the end of the AGB is observed for at least some stars for unknown reasons. This creates post-AGB objects that are completely enshrouded in thick dusty envelopes and might be associated with binary interactions. We observed the $J=2-1$ line of $^{13}$CO, C$^{17}$O, and C$^{18}$O with the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) towards six obscured post-AGB stars (four C-rich and two O-rich sources) to constrain the properties of their circumstellar envelopes, recent mass-loss histories, and initial mass of the central stars. Based on the inferred $^{17}$O/$^{18}$O isotopic ratios, we find all stars to have relatively low initial masses ($< 2~M_\odot$) contrary to suggestions in the literature of higher masses for some sources. We infer a mass for HD~187885 $\sim 1.15~M_\odot$, which is relatively low for a carbon star. For all but one source (GLMP~950), we observe kinematic components with velocities $\gtrsim 30$~km~s$^{-1}$, which are faster than typical AGB wind expansion velocities. For most sources, these higher-velocity outflows display point-symmetric morphologies. The case of Hen~3-1475 is particularly spectacular, with the high-velocity molecular outflow interleaved with the high-velocity outflow of ionised gas observed at optical wavelengths. Based on the size of the emission regions of the slow components of the outflows, we derive typical kinematic ages associated with the C$^{18}$O~$J=2-1$ emission $\lesssim 1500$~years and obtain relatively high associated mass-loss rates ($\gtrsim10^{-4}~M_\odot~{\rm yr}^{-1}$). The sources with known spectral types are found to have evolved faster than expected based on stellar evolutionary models., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We search for radio emission from star-planet interactions in the M-dwarf system GJ~486, which hosts an Earth-like planet. We observed the GJ~486 system with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) from 550 to 750 MHz in nine different epochs, between October 2021 and February 2022, covering almost all orbital phases of GJ~486 b from different orbital cycles. We obtained radio images and dynamic spectra of the total and circularly polarized intensity for each individual epoch We do not detect any quiescent radio emission in any epoch above 3$\sigma$. Similarly, we do not detect any bursty emission in our dynamic spectra. While we cannot completely rule out that the absence of a radio detection is due to time variability of the radio emission, or to the maximum electron-cyclotron maser emission being below our observing range, this seems unlikely. We discuss two possible scenarios: an intrinsic dim radio signal, or alternatively, that the anisotropic beamed emission pointed away from the observer. If the non-detection of radio emission from star-planet interaction in GJ~486 is due to an intrinsically dim signal, this implies that, independently of whether the planet is magnetized or not, the mass-loss rate is small (\dot{M}_\star $\lesssim$ 0.3 \dot{M}_\sun) and that, concomitantly, the efficiency of the conversion of Poynting flux into radio emission must be low ($\beta \lesssim 10^{-3}$). Free-free absorption effects are negligible, given the high value of the coronal temperature. Finally, if the anisotropic beaming pointed away from us, this would imply that GJ~486 has very low values of its magnetic obliquity and inclination.

We present the spectral and spatial evolution of H$_2$O masers associated with the water fountain source IRAS 18043$-$2116 found in the observations with the Nobeyama 45 m telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We have found new highest velocity components of the H$_2$O masers (at the red-shifted side $V_{\rm LSR}\simeq376~\mathrm{km~s}^{-1}$ and at the blue-shifted side $V_{\rm LSR}\simeq$ $-165~\mathrm{km~s}^{-1}$), and the resulting velocity spread of $\simeq 540~\mathrm{km~s}^{-1}$ breaks the speed record of fast jets/outflows in this type of sources. The locations of those components have offsets from the axis joining the two major maser clusters, indicating a large opening angle of the outflow ($\sim60^{\circ}$). The evolution of the maser cluster separation of $\sim$2.9 mas yr$^{-1}$ and the compact ($\sim0.''2$) CO emission source mapped with the Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array suggest a very short ($\sim$30 yr) timescale of the outflow. We also confirmed the increase in the flux density of the 22 GHz continuum source. The properties of the jet and the continuum sources and their possible evolution in the transition to the planetary nebula phase are further discussed., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted by ApJ

Several radio sources have been detected in the HMSFR W75N(B), among them the massive YSOs VLA1 and VLA2 are of great interest. These are thought to be in different evolutionary stages. In particular, VLA1 is at the early stage of the photoionization and it is driving a thermal radio jet, while VLA2 is a thermal, collimated ionized wind surrounded by a dusty disk or envelope. In both sources 22 GHz water masers have been detected in the past. Those around VLA1 show a persistent distribution along the radio jet and those around VLA2 have instead traced the evolution from a non-collimated to a collimated outflow over a period of 20 years. By monitoring the polarized emission of the water masers around both VLA1 and VLA2 over a period of 6 years, we aim to determine whether the maser distributions show any variation over time and whether the magnetic field behaves accordingly. The EVN was used in full polarization and phase-reference mode to measure the absolute positions of the masers and to determine both the orientation and the strength of the magnetic field. We observed four epochs separated by two years from 2014 to 2020. We detected polarized emission from the water masers around both the YSOs in all the epochs. We find that the masers around VLA1 are tracing a nondissociative shock originating from the expansion of the thermal radio jet, while the masers around VLA2 are tracing an asymmetric expansion of the gas that is halted in the northeast where the gas likely encounters a very dense medium. We also found that the magnetic field inferred from the water masers in each epoch can be considered as a portion of a quasi-static magnetic field estimated in that location rather than in that time. This allowed us to study locally the morphology of the magnetic field around both YSOs in a larger area by considering the vectors estimated in all the epochs as a whole., Comment: 32 pages, 15 figures, 17 tables, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics

We present the full data release for the Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl (SPLASH), a sensitive, unbiased single-dish survey of the Southern Galactic Plane in all four ground-state transitions of the OH radical at 1612, 1665, 1667 and 1720 MHz. The survey covers the inner Galactic Plane, Central Molecular Zone and Galactic Centre over the range $|b|<$ 2$^{\circ}$, 332$^{\circ}$ $< l <$ 10$^{\circ}$, with a small extension between 2$^{\circ}$ $< b <$ 6$^{\circ}$, 358$^{\circ}$ $< l <$ 4$^{\circ}$. SPLASH is the most sensitive large-scale survey of OH to-date, reaching a characteristic root-mean-square sensitivity of $\sim15$ mK for an effective velocity resolution of $\sim0.9$ km/s. The spectral line datacubes are optimised for the analysis of extended, quasi-thermal OH, but also contain numerous maser sources, which have been confirmed interferometrically and published elsewhere. We also present radio continuum images at 1612, 1666 and 1720 MHz. Based on initial comparisons with $^{12}$CO(J=1-0), we find that OH rarely extends outside CO cloud boundaries in our data, but suggest that large variations in CO-to-OH brightness temperature ratios may reflect differences in the total gas column density traced by each. Column density estimation in the complex, continuum-bright Inner Galaxy is a challenge, and we demonstrate how failure to appropriately model sub-beam structure and the line-of-sight source distribution can lead to order-of-magnitude errors. Anomalous excitation of the 1612 and 1720 MHz satellite lines is ubiquitous in the inner Galaxy, but is disabled by line overlap in and around the Central Molecular Zone., Comment: Main paper: 22 pages, 15 figures. Online-only material (appended to ArXiv PDF): 11 pages, 3 figure sets. Accepted to MNRAS. Survey data is available from: https://docs.datacentral.org.au/splash/

We present the most sensitive and detailed view of the neutral hydrogen (HI) emission associated with the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), through the combination of data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and Parkes (Murriyang), as part of the Galactic Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (GASKAP) pilot survey. These GASKAP-HI pilot observations, for the first time, reveal HI in the SMC on similar physical scales as other important tracers of the interstellar medium, such as molecular gas and dust. The resultant image cube possesses an rms noise level of 1.1 K (1.6 mJy/beam) per 0.98 km s$^{-1}$ spectral channel with an angular resolution of 30$''$ ($\sim$10 pc). We discuss the calibration scheme and the custom imaging pipeline that utilizes a joint deconvolution approach, efficiently distributed across a computing cluster, to accurately recover the emission extending across the entire $\sim$25 deg$^2$ field-of-view. We provide an overview of the data products and characterize several aspects including the noise properties as a function of angular resolution and the represented spatial scales by deriving the global transfer function over the full spectral range. A preliminary spatial power spectrum analysis on individual spectral channels reveals that the power-law nature of the density distribution extends down to scales of 10 pc. We highlight the scientific potential of these data by comparing the properties of an outflowing high velocity cloud with previous ASKAP+Parkes HI test observations., Comment: Accepted for publication in PASA, 34 pages, 18 figures, 5 tables

Water maser emitting planetary nebulae (H$_2$O-PNe) are believed to be among the youngest PNe. We present new optical narrow- and broad-band images, intermediate- and high-resolution long-slit spectra, and archival optical images of the H$_2$O-PN IRAS 18061--2505. It appears a pinched-waist bipolar PN consisting of knotty lobes with some point-symmetric regions, a bow-shock near the tip of each lobe, and a very compact inner nebula where five components are identified in the spectra by their kinematic and emission properties. The water masers most probably reside in an oxygen-rich ring tracing the equatorial region of the bipolar lobes. These two structures probably result from common envelope evolution plus several bipolar and non-bipolar collimated outflows that have distorted the lobes. The bow-shocks could be related to a previous phase to that of common envelope. The inner nebula may be attributed to a late or very late thermal pulse that occurred before 1951.6 when it was not detectable in the POSSI-Blue image. Chemical abundances and other properties favour a 3--4 M$_{\odot}$ progenitor, although if the common envelope phase accelerated the evolution of the central star, masses <1.5 M$_{\odot}$ cannot be discarded. The age of the bipolar lobes is incompatible with the existence of water masers in IRAS 18061--2505, which may have been lately reactivated through shocks in the oxygen-rich ring, that are generated by the thermal pulse, implying that this PN is not extremely young. We discuss H$_2$O-PNe and possibly related objects in the light of our results for IRAS 18061--2505., Comment: Submitted to MNRAS (second version incorporating the referee's comments). 20 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables; 3 appendices. The quality of some figues has been reduced

The massive star-forming region W75N~(B) is thought to host a cluster of massive protostars (VLA~1, VLA~2, and VLA~3) undergoing different evolutionary stages. In this work, we present radio continuum data with the highest sensitivity and angular resolution obtained to date in this region, using the VLA-A and covering a wide range of frequencies (4-48~GHz), which allowed us to study the morphology and the nature of the emission of the different radio continuum sources. We also performed complementary studies with multi-epoch VLA data and ALMA archive data at 1.3 mm wavelength. We find that VLA~1 is driving a thermal radio jet at scales of $\approx$0.1 arcsec ($\approx$130 au), but also shows signs of an incipient hyper-compact HII region at scales of $\lesssim$ 1 arcsec ($\lesssim$ 1300~au). VLA~3 is also driving a thermal radio jet at scales of a few tenths of arcsec (few hundred of au). We conclude that this jet is shock-exciting the radio continuum sources Bc and VLA~4 (obscured HH objects), which show proper motions moving outward from VLA~3 at velocities of $\approx$112--118~km/s. We have also detected three new weak radio continuum sources, two of them associated with millimeter continuum cores observed with ALMA, suggesting that these two sources are also embedded YSOs in this massive star-forming region., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Here we present deep (16 mumJy), very high (40 mas) angular resolution 1.14 mm, polarimetric, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations towards the massive protostar driving the HH 80-81 radio jet. The observations clearly resolve the disk oriented perpendicular to the radio jet, with a radius of ~0.171 arcsec (~291 au at 1.7 kpc distance). The continuum brightness temperature, the intensity profile, and the polarization properties clearly indicate that the disk is optically thick for a radius of R<170 au. The linear polarization of the dust emission is detected almost all along the disk and its properties suggest that dust polarization is produced mainly by self-scattering. However, the polarization pattern presents a clear differentiation between the inner (optically thick) part of the disk and the outer (optically thin) region of the disk, with a sharp transition that occurs at a radius of 0.1 arcsec (~170 au). The polarization characteristics of the inner disk suggest that dust settling has not occurred yet with a maximum dust grain size between 50 and 500 mum. The outer part of the disk has a clear azimuthal pattern but with a significantly higher polarization fraction compared to the inner disk. This pattern is broadly consistent with self-scattering of a radiation field that is beamed radially outward, as expected in the optically thin outer region, although contribution from non-spherical grains aligned with respect to the radiative flux cannot be excluded., Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

The nature of the far-IR source HOPS 108 has been a matter of debate in the last years. Previous radio observations detected a 3.6 cm source (VLA 12), coincident with HOPS 108, that was interpreted as a radio jet from this protostar. We present new multi-wavelength (0.7-5 cm), multi-configuration VLA observations as well as archive data (3.6 cm) that reveal VLA 12 as three knots of non-thermal emission, with HOPS 108 close to the central knot. We show that these knots have not been ejected by HOPS 108. We propose that the VLA 12 knots are actually part of a radio jet driven by VLA 11 (HOPS 370), a strong nearby source clearly elongated in the direction of the knots. The position of HOPS 108 in the path of the VLA 11-VLA 12 jet suggests an appealing new scenario: the triggered formation of HOPS 108 by the interaction of the jet with the surrounding medium., Comment: Proceedings of the Star Formation in Different Environments, ICISE, Quy Nhon, Vietnam, 2016, (eds. D. Johnstone, T. Hoang, F. Nakamura, Q. Nguyen-Luong, and J. T. Tranh Van)

We present Submillimeter Array (SMA) 1.35 mm subarcsecond angular resolution observations toward the LkH{\alpha} 234 intermediate-mass star-forming region. The dust emission arises from a filamentary structure of $\sim$5 arcsec ($\sim$4500 au) enclosing VLA 1-3 and MM 1, perpendicular to the different outflows detected in the region. The most evolved objects are located at the southeastern edge of the dust filamentary structure and the youngest ones at the northeastern edge. The circumstellar structures around VLA 1, VLA 3, and MM 1 have radii between $\sim$200 and $\sim$375 au and masses in the $\sim$0.08-0.3 M$_{\odot}$ range. The 1.35 mm emission of VLA 2 arises from an unresolved (r$< 135$ au) circumstellar disk with a mass of $\sim$0.02 M$_{\odot}$. This source is powering a compact ($\sim$4000 au), low radial velocity ($\sim$7 km s$^{-1}$) SiO bipolar outflow, close to the plane of the sky. We conclude that this outflow is the "large-scale" counterpart of the short-lived, episodic, bipolar outflow observed through H$_2$O masers at much smaller scales ($\sim $180 au), and that has been created by the accumulation of the ejection of several episodic collimated events of material. The circumstellar gas around VLA 2 and VLA 3 is hot ($\sim$130 K) and exhibits velocity gradients that could trace rotation. There is a bridge of warm and dense molecular gas connecting VLA 2 and VLA 3. We discuss the possibility that this bridge could trace a stream of gas between VLA 3 and VLA 2, increasing the accretion rate onto VLA 2 to explain why this source has an important outflow activity., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The current paradigm of star formation through accretion disks, and magnetohydrodynamically driven gas ejections, predicts the development of collimated outflows, rather than expansion without any preferential direction. We present radio continuum observations of the massive protostar W75N(B)-VLA 2, showing that it is a thermal, collimated ionized wind and that it has evolved in 18 years from a compact source into an elongated one. This is consistent with the evolution of the associated expanding water-vapor maser shell, which changed from a nearly circular morphology, tracing an almost isotropic outflow, to an elliptical one outlining collimated motions. We model this behavior in terms of an episodic, short-lived, originally isotropic, ionized wind whose morphology evolves as it moves within a toroidal density stratification., Comment: See also Supplementary Materials (SupMat_carrasco-gonzalez_etal_astroph.pdf) within the source files

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is called to revolutionise essentially all areas of Astrophysics. With a collecting area of about a square kilometre, the SKA will be a transformational instrument, and its scientific potential will go beyond the interests of astronomers. Its technological challenges and huge cost requires a multinational effort, and Europe has recognised this by putting the SKA on the roadmap of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). The Spanish SKA White Book is the result of the coordinated effort of 120 astronomers from 40 different research centers. The book shows the enormous scientific interest of the Spanish astronomical community in the SKA and warrants an optimum scientific exploitation of the SKA by Spanish researchers, if Spain enters the SKA project., Comment: Editors: Miguel A. Perez-Torres (Editor-in-chief), L. Verdes-Montenegro, J. C. Guirado, A. Alberdi, J. Martin-Pintado, R. Bachiller, D. Herranz, J. M. Girart, J. Gorgas, C. Hernandez-Monteagudo, S. Migliari and J. M. Rodriguez Espinosa; 289 pages, published in June 2015 by Sociedad Espa\~nola de Astronom\'ia

Water maser emission at 22 GHz is a useful probe to study the transition between the nearly spherical mass-loss in the AGB to a collimated one in the post-AGB phase. In their turn, collimated jets in the post-AGB phase could determine the shape of planetary nebulae (PNe) once photoionization starts. We intend to find new cases of post-AGB stars and PNe with water maser emission, including water fountains or water-maser-emitting PNe. We observed water maser emission in a sample of 133 objects, with a significant fraction being post-AGB and young PN candidate sources with strong obscuration. We detected this emission in 15 of them, of which seven are reported here for the first time. We identified three water fountain candidates: IRAS 17291-2147, with a total velocity spread of ~96 km/s in its water maser components and two sources (IRAS 17021-3109 and IRAS 17348-2906) that show water maser emission outside the velocity range covered by OH masers. We have also identified IRAS 17393-2727 as a possible new water-maser-emitting PN. The detection rate is higher in obscured objects (14%) than in those with optical counterparts (7%), consistent with previous results. Water maser emission seems to be common in objects that are bipolar in the near-IR (43% detection rate). The water maser spectra of water fountain candidates like IRAS 17291-2147 show significantly less maser components than others (e.g., IRAS 18113-2503). We speculate that most post-AGBs may show water maser emission with wide enough velocity spread (> 100 km/s) when observed with enough sensitivity and/or for long enough periods of time. Therefore, it may be necessary to single out a special group of "water fountains", probably defined by their high maser luminosities. We also suggest that the presence of both water and OH masers in a PN is a better tracer of its youth, rather than the presence of just one of these species., Comment: To be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. 16 pages, 1 figure (spanning 5 pages). This version includes some minor language corrections and fixes some errors in Table 1

"Water fountains" (WFs) are evolved objects showing high-velocity, collimated jets traced by water maser emission. Most of them are in the post-Asymptotic Giant Branch and they may represent one of the first manifestations of collimated mass loss in evolved stars. We present water maser, carbon monoxide, and mid-infrared spectroscopic data (obtained with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, Herschel Space Observatory, and the Very Large Telescope, respectively) toward IRAS 15103--5754, a possible planetary nebula (PN) with WF characteristics. Carbon monoxide observations show that IRAS 15103-5754 is an evolved object, while the mid-IR spectrum displays unambiguous [NeII] emission, indicating that photoionization has started and thus, its nature as a PN is confirmed. Water maser spectra show several components spreading over a large velocity range ~75 km/s and tracing a collimated jet. This indicates that the object is a WF, the first WF known that has already entered the PN phase. However, the spatial and kinematical distribution of the maser emission in this object are significantly different from those in other WFs. Moreover, the velocity distribution of the maser emission shows a "Hubble-like" flow (higher velocities at larger distances from the central star), consistent with a short-lived, explosive mass-loss event. This velocity pattern is not seen in other WFs (presumably in earlier evolutionary stages). We therefore suggest that we are witnessing a fundamental change of mass-loss processes in WFs, with water masers being pumped by steady jets in post-AGB stars, but tracing explosive/ballistic events as the object enters the PN phase., Comment: To be published in The Astrophysical Journal. 7 pages, 4 figures

We present simultaneous observations of H$_2$O maser emission and radio continuum at 1.3 cm carried out with the Australia Telescope Compact Array towards two sources, IRAS 16333$-$4807 and IRAS 12405$-$6219, catalogued as planetary nebula (PN) candidates, and where single-dish detections of H$_2$O masers have been previously reported. Our goal was to unambiguously confirm the spatial association of the H$_2$O masers with these two PN candidates. We detected and mapped H$_2$O maser emission in both fields, but only in IRAS 16333$-$4807 the maser emission is spatially associated with the radio continuum emission. The properties of IRAS 16333$-$4807 provide strong support for the PN nature of the object, hereby confirming it as the fifth known case of a H$_2$O maser-emitting PN. This source is bipolar, like the other four known H$_2$O maser-emitting PNe, indicating that these sources might pertain to a usual, but short phase in the evolution of bipolar PNe. In IRAS 12405$-$6219, the H$_2$O maser and radio continuum emission are not associated with each other and, in addition, the available data indicate that this source is an H II region rather than a PN., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by MNRAS

We report multi-epoch VLBI H$_2$O maser observations towards the compact cluster of YSOs close to the Herbig Be star LkH$\alpha$ 234. This cluster includes LkH$\alpha$ 234 and at least nine more YSOs that are formed within projected distances of $\sim$10 arcsec ($\sim$9,000 au). We detect H$_2$O maser emission towards four of these YSOs. In particular, our VLBI observations (including proper motion measurements) reveal a remarkable very compact ($\sim$0.2 arcsec = $\sim$180 au), bipolar H$_2$O maser outflow emerging from the embedded YSO VLA 2. We estimate a kinematic age of $\sim$40 yr for this bipolar outflow, with expanding velocities of $\sim$20 km s$^{-1}$ and momentum rate $\dot M_w V_w$ $\simeq$ $10^{-4}-10^{-3}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ km s$^{-1}$$\times (\Omega$/$4\pi)$, powered by a YSO of a few solar masses. We propose that the outflow is produced by recurrent episodic jet ejections associated with the formation of this YSO. Short-lived episodic ejection events have previously been found towards high-mass YSOs. We show now that this behaviour is also present in intermediate-mass YSOs. These short-lived episodic ejections are probably related to episodic increases in the accretion rate, as observed in low-mass YSOs. We predict the presence of an accretion disk associated with VLA 2. If detected, this would represent one of the few known examples of intermediate-mass stars with a disk-YSO-jet system at scales of a few hundred au.

We present a sensitive search for methanol line emission in evolved stars at 1 cm, aiming to detect, for the first time, methanol masers in this type of objects. Our sample comprised post-AGB stars and young planetary nebulae (PNe), whose mass-loss processes and circumstellar structures resemble those of young stellar objects (YSOs), where methanol masers are detected. Class I masers were searched for in 73 objects, whereas Class II ones were searched in 16. No detection was obtained. The non-detection of Class I methanol masers indicated that methanol production in dust grains and/or the enhancement of its gas-phase abundance in the shocked regions of evolved objects are not as efficient as in YSOs. We suggest that relatively more evolved PNe might have a better probability of harboring Class II masers., Comment: 11 pages, no figure. Accepted by Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica. Errors corrected during proof revision

SPLASH (the Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl) is a sensitive, unbiased and fully-sampled survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Galactic Centre in all four ground-state transitions of the hydroxyl (OH) radical. The survey provides a deep census of 1612-, 1665-, 1667- and 1720-MHz OH absorption and emission from the Galactic ISM, and is also an unbiased search for maser sources in these transitions. We present here first results from the SPLASH pilot region, which covers Galactic longitudes 334 to 344 degrees and latitudes of -2 to +2 degrees. Diffuse OH is widely detected in all four transitions, with optical depths that are always small (averaged over the Parkes beam), and with departures from LTE common even in the 1665- and 1667-MHz main lines. To a 3$\sigma$ sensitivity of 30 mK, we find no evidence of OH envelopes extending beyond the CO-bright regions of molecular cloud complexes, and conclude that the similarity of the OH excitation temperature and the level of the continuum background is at least partly responsible for this. We detect masers and maser candidates in all four transitions, approximately 50 per cent of which are new detections. This implies that SPLASH will produce a substantial increase in the known population of ground-state OH masers in the Southern Galactic Plane., Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Although gravitational collapse is supposed to play an essential role in the star formation process, infall motions have been always elusive to detect. So far, only a few observational signatures have been commonly used to claim for the presence of infall. Often these features consist in either "blue-asymmetries" or absorption at red-shifted velocities (e.g., inverse P-Cygni profiles). Both signatures are based only on the shape of the line profile and they do not guarantee by themselves the presence of dominant infall motions. More robust "mapping signatures" can be obtained from images that angularly resolve the infalling gas. Here we present VLA observations of the ammonia inversion transitions (2,2), (3,3), (4,4), (5,5), and (6,6) towards the hot molecular core (HMC) near G31.41+0.31 that show the signatures of protostellar infall theoretically predicted by Anglada et al. (1991). The intensity of the ammonia emission is compact and sharply increases towards the centre in the blue-shifted velocity channel maps, while it shows a more flattened distribution in the red-shifted velocity channels. Additionally, the emission becomes more compact with increasing (relative) velocity for both red and blue-shifted channels. We introduce a new infall signature, the "central blue spot", easily identifiable in the first-order moment maps. We show that rotation produces an additional, independent signature, making the distribution of the emission in the channel maps asymmetric with respect to the central position, but without masking the infall signatures. All these mapping signatures, which are identified here for the first time, are present in the observed ammonia transitions of G31 HMC., Comment: Too appear in MNRAS

We present multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) H$_2$O maser observations toward the massive young stellar objects (YSOs) VLA 2 and VLA 3 in the star-forming region AFGL 2591. Through these observations, we have extended the study of the evolution of the masers towards these objects up to a time span of $\sim$ 10 yrs, measuring their radial velocities and proper motions. The H$_2$O masers in VLA 3, the most massive YSO in AFGL 2591 ($\sim$ 30--40~M$_{\odot}$), are grouped within projected distances of $\lesssim$ 40 mas ($\lesssim$ 130 AU) from VLA 3. In contrast to other H$_2$O masers in AFGL 2591, the masers associated with VLA 3 are significantly blueshifted (up to $\sim$ 30 km s$^{-1}$) with respect to the velocity of the ambient molecular cloud. We find that the H$_2$O maser cluster as a whole, has moved westwards of VLA~3 between the 2001 and 2009 observations, with a proper motion of $\sim$ 1.2 mas yr$^{-1}$ ($\sim$ 20 km s$^{-1}$). We conclude that these masers are tracing blueshifted outflowing material, shock excited at the inner parts of a cavity seen previously in ammonia molecular lines and infrared images, and proposed to be evacuated by the outflow associated with the massive VLA 3 source. The masers in the region of VLA 2 are located at projected distances of $\sim$ 0.7$''$ ($\sim$ 2300 AU) north from this source, with their kinematics suggesting that they are excited by a YSO other than VLA 2. This driving source has not yet been identified.

Water fountain stars represent a stage between the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and planetary nebulae phases, when the mass loss changes from spherical to bipolar. These types of evolved objects are characterized by high-velocity jets in the 22 GHz water maser emission. We surveyed the CO and 13CO line emission towards a sample of ten water fountain stars through observing the J=1-0 and 2-1 lines of CO and 13CO, using the 30m IRAM radio telescope at Pico Veleta. All the water fountains visible from the observatory were surveyed. Most of the line emission arises from foreground or background Galactic clouds, and we had to thoroughly analyse the spectra to unveil the velocity components related to the stars. In two sources, IRAS 18460-0151 and IRAS 18596+0315, we identified wide velocity components with a width of 35-40 km/s that are centred at the stellar velocities. These wide components can be associated with the former AGB envelope of the progenitor star. A third case, IRAS 18286-0959, is reported as tentative; in this case a pair of narrow velocity components, symmetrically located with respect to the stellar velocity, has been discovered. We also modelled the line emission using an LVG code and derived some global physical parameters, which allowed us to discuss the possible origin of this gas in relation to the known bipolar outflows. For IRAS 18460-0151 and IRAS 18596+0315, we derived molecular masses close to 0.2 solar masses, mean densities of 10^4 cm^{-3}, and mass-loss rates of 10^{-4} M_sun/yr. The kinetic temperatures are rather low, between 10 and 50 K in both cases, which suggests that the CO emission is arising from the outer and cooler regions of the envelopes. No fitting was possible for IRAS 18286-0959, because line contamination can not be discarded in this case., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted to Astronomy and Astrophysics

In this paper we analyze multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) water maser observations carried out with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) toward the high-mass star-forming region AFGL 2591. We detected maser emission associated with the radio continuum sources VLA 2 and VLA 3. In addition, a water maser cluster, VLA 3-N, was detected ~ 0.5" north of VLA 3. We concentrate the discussion of this paper on the spatio-kinematical distribution of the water masers towards VLA 3-N. The water maser emission toward the region VLA 3-N shows two bow shock-like structures, Northern and Southern, separated from each other by ~ 100 mas (~ 330 AU). The spatial distribution and kinematics of the water masers in this cluster have persisted over a time span of seven years. The Northern bow shock has a somewhat irregular morphology, while the Southern one has a remarkably smooth morphology. We measured the proper motions of 33 water maser features, which have an average proper motion velocity of ~ 1.3 mas/yr (~ 20 km/s). The morphology and the proper motions of this cluster of water masers show systematic expanding motions that could imply one or two different centers of star formation activity. We made a detailed model for the Southern structure, proposing two different kinematic models to explain the 3-dimensional spatio-kinematical distribution of the water masers: (1) a static central source driving the two bow-shock structures; (2) two independent driving sources, one of them exciting the Northern bow-shock structure, and the other one, a young runaway star moving in the local molecular medium exciting and molding the remarkably smoother Southern bow-shock structure. Future observations will be necessary to discriminate between the two scenarios, in particular by identifying the still unseen driving source(s).

The onset of the asymmetry of planetary nebulae (PNe) is expected to occur during the late Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) and early post-AGB phases of low- and intermediate-mass stars. Among all post-AGB objects, the most heavily obscured ones might have escaped the selection criteria of previous studies detecting extreme axysimmetric structures in young PNe. Since the most heavily obscured post-AGB sources can be expected to descend from the most massive PN progenitors, these should exhibit clear asymmetric morphologies. We have obtained VISIR-VLT mid-IR images of four heavily obscured post-AGB objects barely resolved in previous Spitzer IRAC observations to analyze their morphology and physical conditions across the mid-IR. The VISIR-VLT images have been deconvolved, flux calibrated, and used to construct RGB composite pictures as well as color and optical depth maps that allow us to study the morphology and physical properties of the extended emission of these sources. We have detected extended emission from the four objects in our sample and resolved it into several structural components that are greatly enhanced in the temperature and optical depth maps. They reveal the presence of asymmetry in three young PNe (IRAS 15534-5422, IRAS 17009-4154, and IRAS 18454+0001), where the asymmetries can be associated with dusty torii and slightly bipolar outflows. The fourth source (IRAS 18229-1127), a possible post-AGB star, is better described as a rhomboidal detached shell. The heavily obscured sources in our sample do not show extreme axisymmetric morphologies. This is at odds with the expectation of highly asymmetrical morphologies in post-AGB sources descending from massive PN progenitors. The sources presented in this paper may be sampling critical early phases in the evolution of massive PN progenitors, before extreme asymmetries develop., Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures

Aims. We studied the characteristics of planetary nebulae (PNe) that show both OH maser and radio continuum emission (hereafter OHPNe). These have been proposed to be very young PNe, and therefore, they could be key objects for understanding the formation and evolution of PNe. Methods. We consulted the literature searching for interferometric observations of radio continuum and OH masers toward evolved stars, including the information from several surveys. We also processed radio continuum and OH maser observations toward PNe in the Very Large Array data archive. The high positional accuracy provided by interferometric observations allow us to confirm or reject the association between OH maser and radio continuum emission. Results. We found a total of six PNe that present both OH maser and radio continuum emissions, as confirmed with radio interferometric observations. These are bona fide OHPNe. The confirmed OHPNe present a bipolar morphology in resolved images of their ionized emission at different wavelengths, suggesting that the OH maser emission in PNe is related to nonspherical mass-loss phenomena. The OH maser spectra in PNe present a clear asymmetry, tending to show blueshifted emission with respect to the systemic velocity. Their infrared colors suggest that most of these objects are very young PNe. OHPNe do not form a homogeneous group, and seem to represent a variety of different evolutionary stages. We suggest that OH masers pumped in the AGB phase may disappear during the post-AGB phase, but reappear once the source becomes a PN and its radio continuum emission is amplified by the OH molecules. Therefore, OH maser emission could last significantly longer than the previously assumed 1000 yr after the end of the AGB phase. This maser lifetime may be longer in PNe with more massive central stars, which ionize a larger amount of gas in the envelope., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysics

A survey of the Milky Way disk and the Magellanic System at the wavelengths of the 21-cm atomic hydrogen (HI) line and three 18-cm lines of the OH molecule will be carried out with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope. The survey will study the distribution of HI emission and absorption with unprecedented angular and velocity resolution, as well as molecular line thermal emission, absorption, and maser lines. The area to be covered includes the Galactic plane (|b|< 10deg) at all declinations south of delta = +40deg, spanning longitudes 167deg through 360deg to 79deg at b=0deg, plus the entire area of the Magellanic Stream and Clouds, a total of 13,020 square degrees. The brightness temperature sensitivity will be very good, typically sigma_T ~ 1 K at resolution 30arcsec and 1 km/s. The survey has a wide spectrum of scientific goals, from studies of galaxy evolution to star formation, with particular contributions to understanding stellar wind kinematics, the thermal phases of the interstellar medium, the interaction between gas in the disk and halo, and the dynamical and thermal states of gas at various positions along the Magellanic Stream., Comment: 45 pages, 8 figures, Pub. Astron. Soc. Australia (in press)

VLBI multi-epoch water maser observations are a powerful tool to study the dense, warm shocked gas very close to massive protostars. The very high-angular resolution of these observations allow us to measure the proper motions of the masers in a few weeks, and together with the radial velocity, to determine their full kinematics. In this paper we present a summary of the main observational results obtained toward the massive star-forming regions of Cepheus A and W75N, among them: (i) the identification of different centers of high-mass star formation activity at scales of 100 AU; (ii) the discovery of new phenomena associated with the early stages of high-mass protostellar evolution (e.g., isotropic gas ejections); and (iii) the identification of the simultaneous presence of a wide-angle outflow and a highly collimated jet in the massive object Cep A HW2, similar to what is observed in some low-mass protostars. Some of the implications of these results in the study of high-mass star formation are discussed., Comment: Submitted to Bolet\'in de la Asociaci\'on Argentina de Astronom\'ia (BAAA), Vol. 54, AAA-SOCHIAS meeting (September 17-21, 2011)

We present centimeter and millimeter observations of the NGC 2071 star-forming region performed with the VLA and CARMA. We detected counterparts at 3.6 cm and 3 mm for the previously known sources IRS 1, IRS 2, IRS 3, and VLA 1. All these sources show SEDs dominated by free-free thermal emission at cm wavelengths, and thermal dust emission at mm wavelengths, suggesting that all of them are associated with YSOs. IRS 1 shows a complex morphology at 3.6 cm, with changes in the direction of its elongation. We discuss two possible explanations to this morphology: the result of changes in the direction of a jet due to interactions with a dense ambient medium, or that we are actually observing the superposition of two jets arising from two components of a binary system. Higher angular resolution observations at 1.3 cm support the second possibility, since a double source is inferred at this wavelength. IRS 3 shows a clear jet-like morphology at 3.6 cm. Over a time-span of four years, we observed changes in the morphology of this source that we interpret as due to ejection of ionized material in a jet. The emission at 3 mm of IRS 3 is angularly resolved, with a deconvolved size (FWHM) of ~120 AU, and seems to be tracing a dusty circumstellar disk perpendicular to the radio jet. An irradiated accretion disk model around an intermediate-mass YSO can account for the observed SED and spatial intensity profile at 3 mm, supporting this interpretation., Comment: Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal

We present Very Large Array (VLA) high resolution observations of the NH3(1,1) and NH3(2,2) molecular transitions towards the high mass star forming region AFGL 437. Our aim was to investigate if the poorly collimated CO molecular outflow previously detected in the region is the result of a projection effect, with no intrinsic bipolarity, as suggested by Gomez et al. We complemented our observations with radio continuum archived data from the VLA at 2 and 3.6 cm, and with unpublished public data at 450 {\mu}m taken with Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Ammonia emission was found mainly in three clumps located at the south and east of the position of the compact infrared cluster of AFGL 437, where the CO outflow seemed to have its origin. One of the NH3(1,1) clumps coincides with the maximum of NH3(2,2) and with a local peak of emission at 450 {\mu}m. A near infrared source (s11) is also found at that position. Our continuum map at 2 cm shows extended elongated emission associated with the infrared source AFGL 437W. This elongated morphology and its spectral index between 3.6 and 2 cm (\simeq 0.4) suggest the presence of a jet in AFGL 437W. We suggest that several molecular bipolar outflows may exist in the region. The observed CO outflow would be the superposition of those individual outflows, which would explain its low degree of collimation observed at larger scales., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, 3 tables, accepted by MNRAS

In the present work we consider the electromagnetic wave equation in terms of the fractional derivative of the Caputo type. The order of the derivative being considered is 0 <\gamma<1. A new parameter \sigma, is introduced which characterizes the existence of the fractional components in the system. We analyze the fractional derivative with respect to time and space, for \gamma = 1 and \gamma = 1/2 cases., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure

Planetary Nebulae (PNe) evolve from Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars after a brief post-AGB phase. Water maser emission is characteristic of oxygen-rich AGB stars, is observed in post-AGB stars and, unexpectedly, has been detected in three PNe (IRAS17347-3139, IRAS18061-2505 and IRAS19255+2123) where the physical conditions to generate water maser emission did not seem to exist. These three objects may be considered as the youngest PNe known up to date and, therefore, they are key objects to understand the formation of PNe. In addition, the existence of water maser PNe allow us to study every phase in the AGB to PN transition using water maser emission which can be observed at very high spatial and spectral resolution. In this paper we review the properties of water maser emission in PNe, the existing observations of the three water maser emitting PNe and their implications in our understanding of PN formation and evolution., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, in press in Lecture Notes and Essays in Astrophysics

One of the Survey Science Projects that the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope will do in its first few years of operation is a study of the 21-cm line of HI and the 18-cm lines of OH in the Galactic Plane and the Magellanic Clouds and Stream. The wide-field ASKAP can survey a large area with very high sensitivity much faster than a conventional telescope because of its focal plane array of receiver elements. The brightness sensitivity for the widespread spectral line emission of the interstellar medium depends on the beam size and the survey speed. In the GASKAP survey, maps with different resolutions will be synthesized simultaneously; these will be matched to different scientific applications such as diffuse HI and OH emission, OH masers, and HI absorption toward background continuum sources. A great many scientific questions will be answered by the GASKAP survey results; a central topic is the exchange of matter and energy between the Milky Way disk and halo. The survey will show how neutral gas at high altitude (z) above the disk, like the Magellanic Stream, makes its way down through the halo, what changes it experiences along the way, and how much is left behind., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in "The Dynamic ISM: A celebration of the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey," ASP Conference Series

We present five epochs of VLBI water maser observations around the massive protostar Cepheus A HW2 with 0.4 mas (0.3 AU) resolution. The main goal of these observations was to follow the evolution of the remarkable water maser linear/arcuate structures found in earlier VLBI observations. Comparing the data of our new epochs of observation with those observed five years before, we find that at "large" scales of > 1" (700 AU) the main regions of maser emission persist, implying that both the surrounding medium and the exciting sources of the masers have been relatively stable during that time span. However, at smaller scales of < 0.1" (70 AU) we see large changes in the maser structures, particularly in the expanding arcuate structures R4 and R5. R4 traces a nearly elliptical patchy ring of ~ 70 mas size (50 AU) with expanding motions of ~ 5 mas/yr (15 km/s). This structure is probably driven by the wind of a still unidentified YSO located at the centre of the ring (~ 0.18" south of HW2). On the other hand, the R5 expanding bubble structure (driven by the wind of a previously identified YSO located ~ 0.6" south of HW2) is currently dissipating in the circumstellar medium and losing its previous degree of symmetry, indicating a very short-lived event. In addition, our results reveal, at scales of ~ 1" (700 AU), the simultaneous presence of a relatively slow (~ 10-70 km/s) wide-angle outflow (opening angle of ~ 102 deg, traced by the masers, and the fast (~ 500~km/s) highly collimated radio jet associated with HW2 (opening angle of ~ 18 deg, previously observed with the VLA. This simultaneous presence of a wide-angle outflow and a highly collimated jet associated with a massive protostar is similar to what is found in some low-mass YSOs. The implications of these results in the study of the formation of high-mass stars are discussed., Comment: 28 pages, 7 figures. Animations will be included as supporting material online (MNRAS web page)

We have done a statistical analysis of Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) data of water masers in the star-forming regions (SFRs) Cepheus A and W75 N, using correlation functions to study the spatial clustering and Doppler-velocity distribution of these masers. Two-point spatial correlation functions show a characteristic scale size for clusters of water maser spots < or ~1 AU, similar to the values found in other SFRs. This suggests that the scale for water maser excitation tends to be < or ~1 AU. Velocity correlation functions show power-law dependences with indices that can be explained by regular velocity fields, such as expansion and/or rotation. These velocity fields are similar to those indicated by the water maser proper-motion measurements; therefore, the velocity correlation functions appear to reveal the organized motion of water maser spots on scales larger than 1 AU., Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, and 3 tables. Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal

We intended to study the incidence and characteristics of water masers in the envelopes of stars in the post-AGB and PN evolutionary stages. We have used the 64-m antenna in Parkes (Australia) to search for water maser emission at 22 GHz, towards a sample of 74 sources with IRAS colours characteristic of post-AGB stars and PNe, at declination $< -32 \deg$. In our sample, 39% of the sources are PNe or PNe candidates, and 50% are post-AGB stars or post-AGB candidates. We have detected four new water masers, all of them in optically obscured sources: three in PNe candidates (IRAS 12405-6219, IRAS 15103-5754, and IRAS 16333-4807); and one in a post-AGB candidate (IRAS 13500-6106). The PN candidate IRAS 15103-5754 has water fountain characteristics, and it could be the first PN of this class found. We confirm the tendency suggested in Paper I that the presence of water masers in the post-AGB phase is favoured in obscured sources with massive envelopes. We propose an evolutionary scenario for water masers in the post-AGB and PNe stages, in which ``water fountain'' masers could develop during post-AGB and early PN stages. Later PNe would show lower velocity maser emission, both along jets and close to the central objects, with only the central masers remaining in more evolved PNe., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics

We present high angular resolution observations of water masers at 1.3 cm and radio continuum emission at 1.3, 3.6 and 6 cm towards the Bok globule CB 54 using the Very Large Array. At 1.3 cm, with subarsecond angular resolution, we detect a radio continuum compact source located to the south-west of the globule and spatially coincident with a mid-infrared embedded object (MIR-b). The spectral index derived between 6 and 1.3 cm (alpha=0.3+/-0.4) is flat, consistent with optically thin free-free emission from ionized gas. We propose the shock-ionization scenario as a viable mechanism to produce the radio continuum emission observed at cm frequencies. Water masers are detected at two different positions separated by 2.3'', and coincide spatially with two mid-infrared sources: MIR-b and MIR-c. The association of these mid-IR sources with water masers confirms that they are likely protostars undergoing mass-loss, and they are the best candidate as driving sources of the molecular outflows in the region., Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in AJ

The transition from the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) to the planetary nebula (PN) phase is critical in the shaping of PNe. It is suggested that the most asymmetric PNe are the descendant of massive AGB stars. Since these AGB stars are believed to evolve into heavily obscured post-AGB stars and PNe, the compilation of a sample of bona fide obscured post-AGB stars and PNe is important to help understand the formation of asymmetric PNe. We have used 2MASS, Spitzer GLIMPSE, MSX, and IRAS data in search of the near-IR counterparts of a sample of 165 presumably obscured IRAS post-AGB and PN candidates, and DSS red images to identify the optical counterparts among the objects detected in the near-IR. The IR spectral energy distributions (SEDs) in the wavelength range from 1 to 100 microns of the sources with unambiguous near-IR counterparts have been analyzed using appropriate colour-colour diagrams. We have identified the near-IR counterparts of 119 sources out of the 165 IRAS post-AGB and PN candidates in our sample. The improved astrometric coordinates of these sources have allowed us to find optical counterparts for 59 of them, yielding a reduced sample of 60 optically obscured post-AGB star and PN candidates. Among the 119 sources with near-IR counterparts, only 80 have unambiguous identifications in the 2MASS Point Source Catalogue., Comment: 13 pages, online material 39 pages (please contact first author for a full version), 5 tables, 8 figures, A&A accepted

All the effort that the astrophysical community has put into the development of the Virtual Observatory (VO) has surpassed the non-return point: the VO is a reality today, and an initiative that will self-sustain, and to which all archival projects must adhere. We have started the design of the scientific archive for the DSS-63 70-m antenna at NASA's DSN station in Robledo de Chavela (Madrid). Here we show how we can use all VO proposed data models to build a VO-compliant single-dish, multiple-feed, radio astronomical archive data model (RADAMS) suitable for the archival needs of the antenna. We also propose an exhaustive list of Universal Content Descriptors (UCDs) and FITS keywords for all relevant metadata. We will further refine this data model with the experience that we will gain from that implementation., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the accompanying CD-ROM to Highlights of Spanish Astrophysics IV, 2007, eds. F. Figueras, J.M. Girart, M. Hernanz, C. Jordi (Springer)

We present observations of continuum (lambda = 0.7, 1.3, 3.6 and 18 cm) and OH maser (lambda = 18 cm) emission toward the young planetary nebula IRAS 17347-3139, which is one of the three planetary nebulae that are known to harbor water maser emission. From the continuum observations we show that the ionized shell of IRAS 17347-3139 consists of two main structures: one extended (size ~1". 5) with bipolar morphology along PA=-30 degrees, elongated in the same direction as the lobes observed in the near-infrared images, and a central compact structure (size ~0". 25) elongated in the direction perpendicular to the bipolar axis, coinciding with the equatorial dark lane observed in the near-infrared images. Our image at 1.3 cm suggests the presence of dense walls in the ionized bipolar lobes. We estimate for the central compact structure a value of the electron density at least ~5 times higher than in the lobes. A high resolution image of this structure at 0.7 cm shows two peaks separated by about 0". 13 (corresponding to 100-780 AU, using a distance range of 0.8-6 kpc). This emission is interpreted as originating in an ionized equatorial torus-like structure, from whose edges the water maser emission might be arising. We have detected weak OH 1612 MHz maser emission at VLSR ~ -70 km/s associated with IRAS 17347-3139. We derive a 3 sigma upper limit of < 35% for the percentage of circularly polarized emission. Within our primary beam, we detected additional OH 1612 MHz maser emission in the LSR velocity ranges -5 to -24 and -90 to -123 km/s, associated with the sources 2MASS J17380406-3138387 and OH 356.65-0.15, respectively., Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

We present Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the water maser emission towards IRAS 16552-3050. The maser emission shows a velocity spread of ~170 km/s, and a bipolar distribution with a separation between the red and blueshifted groups of ~0.08". These observations and the likely post-AGB nature of the source indicate that IRAS 16552-3050 can be considered as a member of the "water fountain" class of sources (evolved stars showing H2O maser emission with a velocity spread $\ga$ 100 km/s, probably tracing collimated jets). The water maser emission in IRAS 16552-3050 does not seem to be associated with with any known optical counterpart. Moreover, this source does not have a near-IR 2MASS counterpart, as it happens in about half of the water fountains known. This suggests that these sources tend to be heavily obscured objects, probably with massive precursors ($\ga 4-5$ M$_\odot$). We suggest that the water maser emission in IRAS 16552-3050 could be tracing a rapidly precessing bipolar jet., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. Accepted by ApJ

We have studied the kinematics traced by the water masers located at the centre of the planetary nebula (PN) K3-35, using data from previous Very Large Array (VLA) observations. An analysis of the spatial distribution and line-of-sight velocities of the maser spots allows us to identify typical patterns of a rotating and expanding ring in the position-velocity diagrams, according to our kinematical model. We find that the distribution of the masers is compatible with tracing a circular ring with a ~0.021 arcsec (~100 AU) radius, observed with an inclination angle with respect to the line of sight of 55 degrees. We derive expansion and rotation velocities of 1.4 and 3.1 km/s, respectively. The orientation of the ring projected on the plane of the sky, at PA 158 degrees, is almost orthogonal to the direction of the innermost region of the jet observed in K3-35, suggesting the presence of a disc or torus that may be related to the collimation of the outflow., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by MNRAS

PANIC is a wide-field NIR camera, which is currently under development for the Calar Alto observatory (CAHA) in Spain. It uses a mosaic of four Hawaii-2RG detectors and covers the spectral range from 0.8-2.5 micron(z to K-band). The field-of-view is 30x30 arcmin. This instrument can be used at the 2.2m telescope (0.45arcsec/pixel, 0.5x0.5 degree FOV) and at the 3.5m telescope (0.23arcsec/pixel, 0.25x0.25 degree FOV). The operating temperature is about 77K, achieved by liquid Nitrogen cooling. The cryogenic optics has three flat folding mirrors with diameters up to 282 mm and nine lenses with diameters between 130 mm and 255 mm. A compact filter unit can carry up to 19 filters distributed over four filter wheels. Narrow band (1%) filters can be used. The instrument has a diameter of 1.1 m and it is about 1 m long. The weight limit of 400 kg at the 2.2m telescope requires a light-weight cryostat design. The aluminium vacuum vessel and radiation shield have wall thicknesses of only 6 mm and 3 mm respectively., Comment: This paper has been presented in the SPIE of Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation 2008 in Marseille (France)

Aims: We investigated the possible relationship between the evolutionary stage of post-AGB stars and planetary nebulae (PNe) and the presence of water masers in their envelopes. Methods: We have used NASA's 70-m antenna in Robledo de Chavela (Spain) to search for the water maser transition at 22235.08 MHz, towards a sample of 105 sources with IRAS colour characteristic of post-AGB stars and PNe at declination >-32 deg. 83% of the sources in the sample are post-AGB stars, 15% PNe or PN candidates, while only 2% seem to be HII regions. Results: We have detected five water masers, of which four are reported for the first time: two in PNe (IRAS 17443-2949 and IRAS 18061-2505), a ``water fountain'' in a post-AGB star (IRAS 16552-3050), and one in a source previously catalogued as a PN, but whose classification is uncertain (IRAS 17580-3111). Conclusions: The unexpected detections of water masers in two objects among the small subset of PNe led us to suggest that the PNe harbouring water masers are a special type of massive, rapidly evolving PNe., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

We present Very Large Array observations at 1.3 cm of several water maser detections obtained by previous single-dish studies of Bok globules in the Clemens & Barvainis (1988; CB) catalog. We report water maser emission in CB 3 (CB3-mm), CB 54 (IRAS 07020-1618), CB 101 (IRAS 17503-0833), and CB 232 (IRAS 21352+4307), and non-detection towards CB 65 (IRAS 16277-2332) and CB 205 (IRAS 19433+2743). These are the first reported interferometric observations of water masers in Bok globules of the CB catalog. We also present single-dish observations of millimeter and centimeter spectral lines towards CB 101 (IRAS 17503-0833) and CB 65 (IRAS 16277-2332). All the maser emission seems to be associated with star forming regions hosting bipolar molecular outflows, except IRAS 17503-0833 in CB 101, which we suggest to be a possible Mira evolved star, and IRAS 16277-2332 in CB 65, of unknown nature. We have used the precise position of the maser emission to derive information about the powering source of the masers. By analyzing the spatio-kinematical distribution of the water masers, we confirm the millimeter source CB 3-mm as the most likely powering source of the CB 3 masers. We propose the near-IR source CB 232 YC1-I as the best candidate for pumping the maser emission observed in CB 232, while in CB 54, we suggest that the pumping source of the masers could be located at the position of an elongated feature observed in near-infrared maps., Comment: 29 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by The Astronomical Journal

In this work we present a sensitive and systematic single-dish survey of CCS emission (complemented with ammonia observations) at 1 cm, toward a sample of low- and intermediate-mass young star forming regions known to harbor water maser emission, made with NASA's 70 m antenna at Robledo de Chavela, Spain. Out of the 40 star forming regions surveyed in the CCS(2_{1}-1_{0}) line, only 6 low-mass sources show CCS emission: one transitional object between pre-stellar and protostellar Class 0 phase (GF9-2), three Class 0 protostars (L1448-IRS3, L1448C, and B1-IRS), a Class I source (L1251A), and a young T Tauri star (NGC2071-North). Since CCS is considered an ``early-time'' (<10E+5 yr) molecule, we explain these results by either proposing a revision of the classification of the age of NGC2071-North and L1251A, or suggesting the possibility that the particular physical conditions and processes of each source affect the destruction/production of the CCS. No statistically significant relationship was found between the presence of CCS and parameters of the molecular outflows and their driving sources. Nevertheless, we found a significant relationship between the detectability of CCS and the ammonia peak intensity (higher in regions with CCS), but not with its integrated intensity. This tendency found may suggest that the narrower ammonia line widths in the less turbulent medium associated with younger cores may compensate for the differences in ammonia peak intensity, rendering differences in integrated intensity negligible. From the CCS detection rate we derive a lifetime of this molecule of ~(0.7-3) x 10E+4 yr in low-mass star forming regions., Comment: 28 pages, 1 figure, 3 tables, to appear in the 2006 May 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal

We report the discovery of water maser emission in eight active galactic nuclei (AGN) with the 70-m NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) antennas at Tidbinbilla, Australia and Robledo, Spain. The positions of the newly discovered masers, measured with the VLA, are consistent with the optical positions of the host nuclei to within 1 sigma (0.3 arcsec radio and 1.3 arcsec optical) and most likely mark the locations of the embedded central engines. The spectra of two sources, NGC 3393 and NGC 5495, display the characteristic spectral signature of emission from an edge-on accretion disk, with orbital velocities of ~600 and ~400 km s^-1, respectively. In a survey with DSN facilities of 630 AGN selected from the NASA Extragalactic Database, we have discovered a total of 15 water maser sources. The resulting incidence rate of maser emission among nearby (v_sys < 7000 km s^-1) Seyfert 1.8-2.0 and LINER systems is ~10 percent for a typical rms noise level of ~14 mJy over 1.3 km s^-1 spectral channels. As a result of this work, the number of nearby AGN (v_sys < 7000 km s^-1) observed with <20 mJy rms noise has increased from 130 to 449., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, 2 tables, to appear in the 2006 February 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal, uses twocolumns.cls

We present radio continuum observations of the planetary nebula (PN) IRAS 17347-3139 (one of the only two known to harbour water maser emission), made to derive its spectral index and the turnover frequency of the emission. The spectrum of the source rises in the whole frequency range sampled, from 2.4 to 24.9 GHz, although the spectral index seems to decrease at the highest frequencies (0.79+-0.04 between 4.3 and 8.9 GHz, and 0.64+-0.06 between 16.1 and 24.9 GHz). This suggests a turnover frequency around 20 GHz (which is unusual among PNe, whose radio emission usually becomes optically thin at frequencies < 10 GHz), and a relatively high emission measure (1.5 x 10^9 cm^{-6} pc). The radio continuum emission has increased by a factor of ~1.26 at 8.4 GHz in 13 years, which can be explained as expansion of the ionized region by a factor of ~1.12 in radius with a dynamical age of ~120 yr and at an expansion velocity of ~5-40 km/s. These radio continuum characteristics, together with the presence of water maser emission and a strong optical extinction suggest that IRAS 17347-3139 is one of the youngest PNe known, with a relatively massive progenitor star., Comment: Five pages, 2 figures, accepted by MNRAS

In this work we present VLA observations of the NH3, CCS, and H2O maser emission at 1 cm from the star forming region B1-IRS (IRAS 03301+3057) with ~ 5" (=1750 AU) of angular resolution. CCS emission is distributed in three clumps around the central source. These clumps exhibit a velocity gradient from red- to blueshifted velocities toward B1-IRS, probably due to an interaction with the outflow from an embedded protostar. The outflow and its powering source are traced by a reflection nebula and an associated infrared point source detected in a 2MASS K-band image. We find that this infrared point source is associated with water maser emission distributed in an elongated structure (~ 450 AU size) along the major axis of the reflection nebula and tracing the base of the outflow of the region. Ammonia emission is extended and spatially anticorrelated with CCS. This is the first time that this kind of anticorrelation is observed in a star forming region with such a high angular resolution, and illustrates the importance of time-dependent chemistry on small spatial scales. The relatively large abundance of CCS with respect to ammonia, compared with other star forming regions, suggests an extreme youth for the B1-IRS object (<10E+5 yr). We suggest the possibility that CCS abundance is enhanced via shock-induced chemistry., Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures. Accepted by The Astrophysical Journal

We present a study of the structure and dynamics of the star forming region B1-IRS (IRAS 03301+3057) using the properties of different molecules at high angular resolution (~4''). We have used VLA observations of NH3, CCS, and H2O masers at 1 cm. CCS emission shows three clumps around the central source, with a velocity gradient from red to blueshifted velocities towards the protostar, probably due to the interaction with outflowing material. Water maser emission is elongated in the same direction as a reflection nebula detected at 2micron by 2MASS, with the maser spots located in a structure of some hundreds of AU from the central source, possibly tracing a jet. We propose a new outflow model to explain all our observations, consisting of a molecular outflow near the plane of the sky. Ammonia emission is extended and anticorrelated with CCS. We have detected for the first time this anticorrelation at small scales (1400 AU) in a star forming region., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 2004 European Workshop: "Dense Molecular Gas around Protostars and in Galactic Nuclei", Eds. Y.Hagiwara, W.A.Baan, H.J.van Langevelde, 2004, a special issue of ApSS, Kluwer