Description |
The main goal of this project is to estimate the luminosity of the high-mass protostar IRAS20126+4104 and obtain a direct measurement of the mass loss rate of the associated bipolar outflow. This is a well studied object, where a 7 Msun protostar is surrounded by a Keplerian disk and powers a bipolar outflow. The relatively small distance (1.64 kpc) and the limited complexity of the surroundings of this object, combined with the unique angular resolution of HERSCHEL in the far-IR, make it possible to reconstruct the spectral energy distribution and thus obtain an accurate estimate of the stellar luminosity. Knowledge of the mass and luminosity will set constraints on the evolutionary stage of the young stellar object. We also want to observe the OI 63 micron line which is strictly related to the mass los rate of the outflow. The latter can thus be obtained independent of the usual drawbacks (uncertain molecular abundance, unknown outflow inclination angle) of the estimates obtained from CO and other typical outflow tracers. Moreover, since the outflow is precessing, one can also relate the position along the outflow with the time of ejection and reconstruct the mass loss rate history of this object. We will also observe the OI 145 micron line to verify possible opacity effects in the 63 micron line, from the ratio between the two lines. These data will be complemented with observations of the CI line to image possible photo dissociation regions, plus a number of CO lines observed with SPIRE, PACS, and HIFI, to reconstruct the excitation structure of the outflow, both in space and velocity. |