Ultraviolet Radiation and Circumstellar Environments

Journal:
The Orion Molecular Complex Revisited: Ringberg Conf. in press.
Authors:
 JOHNSTONE, DOUG; BERTOLDI, FRANK

We discuss the nature of the photoevaporating circumstellar disks in the Orion Nebula. The structure of thermally driven neutral and ionized flow from the disks is derived through a simple, spherical model. Evaporation flows are self-regulating, and from the estimated mass loss rates we show that it is possible to estimate the present disk masses. Two-dimensional effects are discussed qualitatively and proposed as the mechanism for the creation of observed tails. Disk magnetic fields may be able to collimate the evaporation flows, giving rise to bipolar lobes; HST 10 provides an observed example of an evaporating system with bipolar lobes symmetric about the disk.

Local Paper Access:
· Electronic Refereed Journal Article (gzipped postscript)

Related Web Pages:

· Doug Johnstone's Orion Nebula Research Page (with images of the Orion Nebula)

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Last updated: October 30, 1998.
Doug Johnstone (johnstone@cita.utoronto.ca)