The Outflow of the B335 Protostar II: After the Outburst

Abstract

The B335 protostar has recently undergone a major, still ongoing, outburst detected in scattered light from its outflow cavity, offering a rare opportunity to study its impact on a protostellar jet. We use JWST/NIRCam photometry of background stars behind B335 from 2.7 to 4.4 $\hat{I}¼$m to map extinction and H${}_2$O ice absorption, showing that the outflow has carved a cavity in the molecular core. We measure proper motions of shock fronts emerging from the protostar of 131--227 km s${}^{-1}$. The kinematic age of the most prominent shock front, 3E, corresponds to the early phase of the current outburst. JWST/NIRSpec IFU data show that the youngest shock, 2E, exhibits ionic lines but no molecular emission. Shock 3E shows strong CO emission together with H${}_2$ and [\ion{Fe}{2}], whereas older shocks show weaker CO and are dominated by H${}_2$ and [\ion{Fe}{2}]. The feature 0E, closest to the protostar, appears to be a stationary shock. CO-line-removed spectra near the protostar show that the unsaturated absorption features of ${}^{13}$CO${}_2$, OCN${}^{-}$, and OCS increase strongly toward the source. The ice properties are otherwise similar to those along lower-extinction sight lines. In the central bipolar reflection nebula, CO gas is seen in scattered emission from the immediate protostellar surroundings, but a few arcsec farther out, absorption by cooler CO gas in the outflow cavity is detected.

48 pages, 23 figures. This paper has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal