Outflows, Dusty Cores, and a Burst of Star Formation in the North America and Pelican Nebulae

Abstract

We present observations of near-infrared 2.12 micro-meter molecular hydrogen outflows emerging from 1.1 mm dust continuum clumps in the North America and Pelican Nebula (NAP) complex selected from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS). Hundreds of individual shocks powered by over 50 outflows from young stars are identified, indicating that the dusty molecular clumps surrounding the NGC 7000 / IC 5070 / W80 HII region are among the most active sites of on-going star formation in the Solar vicinity. A spectacular X-shaped outflow, MHO 3400, emerges from a young star system embedded in a dense clump more than a parsec from the ionization front associated with the Pelican Nebula (IC 5070). Suspected to be a binary, the source drives a pair of outflows with orientations differing by 80 degrees. Each flow exhibits S-shaped symmetry and multiple shocks indicating a pulsed and precessing jet. The `Gulf of Mexico' located south of the North America Nebula (NGC 7000), contains a dense cluster of molecular hydrogen objects (MHOs), Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, and over 300 YSOs, indicating a recent burst of star formation. The largest outflow detected thus far in the North America and Pelican Nebula complex, the 1.6 parsec long MHO 3417 flow, emerges from a 500 Solar mass BGPS clump and may be powered by a forming massive star. Several prominent outflows such as MHO 3427 appear to be powered by highly embedded YSOs only visible at a wavelength > 70 micro-meters. An `activity index' formed by dividing the number of shocks by the mass of the cloud containing their source stars is used to estimate the relative evolutionary states of Bolocam clumps. Outflows can be used as indicators of the evolutionary state of clumps detected in mm and sub-mm dust continuum surveys.

67 pages, 22 figures, 4 table. Accepted by The Astronomical Journal

References in corpus (4)

• The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey IV: 1.1 and 0.35 mm Dust Continuum Emission in the Galactic Center Region
• Capture Formed Binaries via Encounters with Massive Protostars
• Binary Capture Rates for Massive Protostars
• A Multiple System of Radio Sources at the Core of the L723 Multipolar Outflow

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The Formation of a Stellar Association in the NGC 7000/IC 5070 Complex: Results from Kinematic Analysis of Stars and Gas
• The First Extensive Spectroscopic Study of Young Stars in the North America and Pelican Nebulae Region
• Variability of young stellar objects in the star-forming region Pelican Nebula
• Searching for Molecular Outflows with Support Vector Machines: Dark Cloud Complex in Cygnus
• YSO jets in the Galactic Plane from UWISH2: IV - Jets and outflows in Cygnus-X
• Long-term multicolor photometry of the young stellar objects FHO 26, FHO 27, FHO 28, FHO 29 and V1929 Cygni
• Testing the star formation scaling relations in the clumps of the North American and Pelican cloud complexes
• A survey for variable young stars with small telescopes: IV -- Rotation Periods of YSOs in IC5070
• High-resolution CARMA Observation of Molecular Gas in the North America and Pelican Nebulae
• Survey of Hα emission-line stars in the star-forming region IC 5070
• LAMOST MRS-N Observations of the W80 Region