Spectroscopy of Herbig-Haro Objects in Perseus: Physical Conditions and Kinematics

Abstract

Through calculating emission-line ratios of Herbig-Haro (HH) objects’ optical spectra, we can perform an analysis of their physical and kinematic conditions. The purpose of this work is to obtain such diagnosis for the HH objects located in the Perseus molecular cloud. Even though not enough data are available to complete a study of the region, 45 objects were studied and divided into two categories according to their degree of excitation; a prevalence for high/intermediate excitation was found in the sample, with 36/45 objects belonging to that group. It was also noticed that the ionization fraction and shock velocity values were lower for the low excitation objects, and no significant correlation was found between the values of radial velocity and degree of excitation.