Life in the fast lane: H₂O reveals the universal nature of shocks in outflows

¹ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA, Leiden, The Netherlands
² Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany ;
³ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 2, 85478 Garching, Germany
⁴ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

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Abstract

Water is an unique tracer of motion in protostars. It has broad and complex line profiles, dominated by the jet/outflow system. We summarise the results of spectrally resolved H₂O line profiles observed with Herschel HIFI from the “Water in star-forming regions with Herschel” (WISH, van Dishoeck et al. 2011), “William Herschel Line Legacy” (WILL, Mottram et al. in prep.) and Cygnus-X surveys. In total, more than 100 low-, intermediate and high-mass (LM, IM & HM) protostars have been observed with L_bol from 0.1 to 10⁵ L_⊙. On Galactic scales, water traces star formation.