[Context] Water fountain stars are very young post-AGB stars with high velocity water maser jets. They are the best objects to study the onset of bipolar jets from evolved stars due to their young dynamical ages. [Methods] We use the Arizona Radio Observatory 10m telescope to observe the CO J=2-1 line and compare the line parameters with that of masers. [Results] We report the detection of 12CO and 13COJ=2-1 lines from IRAS 16342-3814. The inferred 12CO mass loss rate is an order of magnitude lower than the infrared and OH mass loss rates, indicating a very cold and thick O-rich circumstellar envelope around the star. We also find a 12CO expansion velocity of Vexp = 46 +- 1 km/s that is too high for an AGB wind and confirm the systemic velocity of 44 +- 1 km/s. In addition we measure a very low 12CO/13CO line ratio of 1.7. [Conclusions] The first detection of CO lines has provided a new way to investigate the water fountain stars. Given the high expansion velocity of the CO gas and its relation to maser velocities, we infer that the CO emission region is co-located with the OH mainline masers in the warm base of the optical bipolar lobes, while the high velocity OH1612MHz and H2O masers are located in the side walls and at the farthest ends of the bipolar lobes, respectively. Further observations are highly desired to understand the very low 12CO/13CO line ratio.
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 ass…
We present observational evidence that the OH/IR star OH 12.8-0.9 is the fourth in a class of objects previously dubbed "water-fountain" sources. Using the Very Long Baseline Array, we produced the first images of the water maser emission associated with OH 12.8-0.9. We find that the masers are located in two compact regions with an angular separation of ~109 mas on the sky. The axis of separation between the two maser regions is at a position angle of 1.5 deg. East of North with the blue-shifted (-80.5 to -85.5 km/s) masers located to the North and the red-shifted (-32.0 to -35.5 km/s) masers…
Highly collimated jets found in AGB and post-AGB stars are expected to play an important role for shaping planetary nebulae. Recent VLBI observations of H2O maser sources have revealed that some of the spatio-kinematical structures of H2O maser sources exhibit stellar jets with extremely spatially and kinematically high collimation. Such stellar H2O maser jets, so-called "water fountain" sources, have been identified in about 10 sources to date. Here we review recent VLBI observations and relevant observational results of the water fountain sources. They have revealed a typical dynamical age a…
Observations of H$_2$O masers towards the post-AGB star and water fountain source OH 009.1--0.4 were made as part of HOPS (The H$_2$O southern galactic Plane Survey), with the Mopra radiotelescope. Together with followup observations using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), we have identified H$_2$O maser emission over a velocity spread of nearly 400km/s (--109 to +289km/s). This velocity spread appears to be the largest of any known maser source in our Galaxy. High resolution observations with the ATCA indicate the maser emission is confined to a region $0\farcs3 \times 0\farcs3$ a…
We present high angular resolution observations, using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) of the NRAO, of the high-velocity water masers toward the "water-fountain" pre-planetary nebula, IRAS 16342-3814. The detailed structure of the water masers appears to be that of bow shocks on either side of a highly collimated jet. The proper motions of the water masers are approximately equal to the radial velocities; the three-dimensional velocities are approximately +/-180 km/s, which leads to a very short dynamical time-scale of ~100 years. Although we do not find direct evidence for precession of t…
We present the results of 22 GHz H_2O maser observations of a sample of 85 post-Asymptotic Giant Branch (post-AGB) candidate stars, selected on the basis of their OH 1612 MHz maser and far-infrared properties. All sources were observed with the Tidbinbilla 70-m radio telescope and 21 detections were made. 86 GHz SiO Mopra observations of a subset of the sample are also presented. Of the 21 H_2O detections, 15 are from sources that are likely to be massive AGB stars and most of these show typical, regular H_2O maser profiles. In contrast, nearly all the detections of more evolved stars exhibite…
Simulations of an isolated Milky Way-like galaxy, in which supernovae power a galactic fountain, reproduce the observed velocity and 21cm brightness statistics of galactic neutral hydrogen (HI). The simulated galaxy consists of a thin HI disk, similar in extent and brightness to that observed in the Milky Way, and extra-planar neutral gas at a range of velocities due to the galactic fountain. Mock observations of the neutral gas resemble the HI flux measurements from the Leiden-Argentine-Bonn (LAB) HI, survey, including a high-velocity tail which matches well with observations of high-velocity…
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 a…
We present Very Long Baseline Array observations of the kinematics of the water masers associated with OH 12.8-0.9, the fourth member of the so-called "water fountain" class of sources. We find that the masers occupy two distinct regions at the ends of a bipolar jet-like structure oriented north-south, with the blue-shifted masers located to the north and the red-shifted masers to the south. The masers are distributed along arc-like structures 12-20 mas across oriented perpendicular to the separation axis with an angular separation of ~110 mas on the sky. Our multi-epoch observations, show the…
We present Very Large Array (VLA) observations of H2O and OH masers, as well as radio continuum emission at 1.3 and 18 cm toward three sources previously cataloged as planetary nebulae (PNe) and in which single-dish detections of H2O masers have been reported: IRAS 17443-2949, IRAS 17580-3111, and IRAS 18061-2505. Our goal was to unambiguously confirm their nature as water-maser-emitting PNe, a class of objects of which only two bona-fide members were previously known. We detected and mapped H2O maser emission toward all three sources, while OH maser emission is detected in IRAS 17443-2949 and…
Further analysis has been made on the millimeter and submillimeter-wave (100-1600 GHz or 3 mm - 188 micron) atmospheric opacity data taken with the Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) at Pampa la Bola, 4800 m above sea level in northern Chile, which is the site of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Time-sequence plots of millimeter and submillimeter-wave opacities show similar variations to each other, except for during the periods with liquid water (fog or clouds) in the atmosphere. Using millimeter and submillimeter-wave opacity correlations under two conditions, which…
X-ray absorption lines of highly-ionized species such as OVII at about zero redshift have been firmly detected in the spectra of several active galactic nuclei. However, the location of the absorbing gas remains a subject of debate. To separate the Galactic and extragalactic contributions to the absorption, we have obtained Chandra LETG-HRC and FUSE observations of the black hole X-ray binary LMC X--3. A joint analysis of the detected OVII and Ne IX Kalpha lines, together with the non-detection of the OVII Kbeta and OVIII Kalpha lines, gives the measurements of the temperature, velocity disper…
Circumstellar disks provide the material reservoir for the growth of young stars and for planet formation. We combine a high-level radiative transfer program with a thermal-chemical model of a typical T Tauri star disk to investigate the diagnostic potential of the far-infrared lines of water for probing disk structure. We discuss the observability of pure rotational H2O lines with the Herschel Space Observatory, specifically the residual gas where water is mainly frozen out. We find that measuring both the line profile of the ground 110-101 ortho-H2O transition and the ratio of this line to t…
We report ISO-LWS far infrared observations of CO, water and oxygen lines towards the protobinary system IRAS4 in the NGC1333 cloud. We detected several water, OH, CO rotational lines, and two [OI] and [CII] fine structure lines. Given the relatively poor spectral and spatial resolution of these observations, assessing the origin of the observed emission is not straightforward. In this paper, we focus on the water line emission and explore the hypothesis that it originates in the envelopes that surround the two protostars, IRAS4 A and B, thanks to an accurate model. The model reproduces quite …
We have modeled the far-infrared water line emission expected from circumstellar outflows from oxygen-rich late-type stars, as a function of the mass-loss rate and the terminal outflow velocity. For each mass-loss rate and terminal outflow velocity considered, we computed self-consistently the gas density, temperature, outflow velocity, and water abundance as a function of distance from the star. We then used an escape probability method to solve for the equilibrium level populations of 80 rotational states of water and thereby obtained predictions for the luminosity of a large number of far-i…
Using the 3.6/4.5/5.8/8.0 micron images with 1.2 arcsec pixel resolution from the Spitzer/GLIMPSE survey, we investigated 23 masing and 18 very red objects that were not identified in the 2MASS survey. Counterparts for all selected objects were found in the GLIMPSE images. Color indices in these IR bands suggest the presence of a high-extinction layer of more than a few tenths of a solar mass in front of the central star. Furthermore, radio observations in the SiO and H2O maser lines found characteristic maser-line spectra of the embedded objects, e.g., the SiO J=1-0 line intensity in the v=2 …
Within low-mass star formation, water vapor plays a key role in the chemistry and energy balance of the circumstellar material. The Herschel Space Observatory will open up the possibility to observe water lines originating from a wide range of excitation energies.Our aim is to simulate the emission of rotational water lines from envelopes characteristic of embedded low-mass protostars. A large number of parameters that influence the water line emission are explored: luminosity, density,density slope and water abundances.Both dust and water emission are modelled using full radiative transfer in…
First detections of thermal water vapor absorption lines have been made toward Orion IRc2 using the Short Wavelength Spectrometer (SWS) on board the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO). Grating spectra covering wavelengths 25-45 micron yield 19 pure rotational lines, originating from energy levels 200-750 K above ground. Fabry-Perot spectra of 5 transitions resolve the line profiles and reveal the water gas kinematics. The fact that all lines are seen in absorption is in striking contrast with data from the ISO Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS), where the water lines appear in emission. At least…
(Abridged) We present a new high-resolution (7 km/s FWHM) echelle spectrum of 3C 351 obtained with STIS. 3C 351 lies behind the low-latitude edge of high-velocity cloud Complex C, and the new spectrum provides accurate measurements of O I, Si II, Al II, Fe II, and Si III absorption lines at the velocity of the HVC. We use collisional and photoionization models to derive ionization corrections; in both models we find that the overall metallicity Z = 0.1 - 0.3 Z_{solar} in Complex C, but nitrogen must be underabundant. The iron abundance indicates that Complex C contains very little dust. The ab…
V838 Monocerotis had an intriguing, nova-like outburst in January 2002 which has subsequently led to several studies of the object. It is now recognized that the outburst of V838 Mon and its evolution are different from that of a classical nova or other classes of well-known eruptive variables. V838 Mon, along with two other objects that have analogous properties, appears to comprise a new class of eruptive variables. There are limited infrared studies of V838 Mon. Here, we present near-infrared H band (1.5 - 1.75micron) spectra of V838 Mon from late 2002 to the end of 2004. The principal, new…
Context: observations of water lines are a sensitive probe of the geometry, dynamics and chemical structure of dense molecular gas. The launch of Herschel with on board HIFI and PACS allow to probe the behaviour of multiple water lines with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. Aims: we investigate the diagnostic value of specific water transitions in high-mass star-forming regions. As a test case, we apply our models to the AFGL2591 region. Results: in general, for models with a constant water abundance, the ground state lines, i.e., 1_(10)-1_(01), 1_(11)-0_(00), and 2_(12)-1_(01), are pr…
We have mapped the submillimeter emission from the 1(10)-1(01) transition of ortho-water in the W3 star-forming region. A 5'x5' map of the W3 IRS4 and W3 IRS5 region reveals strong water lines at half the positions in the map. The relative strength of the Odin lines compared to previous observations by SWAS suggests that we are seeing water emission from an extended region. Across much of the map the lines are double-peaked, with an absorption feature at -39 km/s; however, some positions in the map show a single strong line at -43 km/s. We interpret the double-peaked lines as arising from opti…
A computed list of H$_{2}$$^{16}$O infra-red transition frequencies and intensities is presented. The list, BT2, was produced using a discrete variable representation two-step approach for solving the rotation-vibration nuclear motions. It is the most complete water line list in existence, comprising over 500 million transitions (65% more than any other list) and it is also the most accurate (over 90% of all known experimental energy levels are within 0.3 cm$^{-1}$ of the BT2 values). Its accuracy has been confirmed by extensive testing against astronomical and laboratory data. The line list h…
Radiative transfer equations are derived and solved for the stimulated Raman scattering of water maser lines in the astrophysical plasmas with electron density of about 10^6 - 10^7 cm-3. In stimulated Raman scattering, the energy of water maser line is transferred to the side band modes: Stokes mode and anti-Stokes mode. The Stokes mode is easily produced by backward Raman scattering while the anti-Stokes mode is created by the interacting intersecting masers in the plasma. The intensity of the Stokes mode is higher than that of the anti-Stokes mode. These side band modes are proposed as expla…
