Alicia Porras

The Binary Jet in L1551 IRS 5

We have used the Very Large Array with the Pie Town antenna of the Very Long Baseline Array to image for the first time L1551 IRS 5 at 3.5 cm with an angular resolution of ~01. These observations clearly reveal the presence of a binary jet, with each component approximately centered on the 7 mm compact protoplanetary disks previously reported. As anticipated from results at various wavelengths, L1551 IRS 5 is a binary system where each star is surrounded by a disk and drives a collimated jet. The curved morphology of the northern jet, showing reflection symmetry, is suggestive of that expected for a source in a binary orbit. A region of radio emission located between the two jets could be a zone of shock interaction between the two outflows.

About the IMF in Young Stellar Clusters

The initial mass function obtained from an infrared study of 38 young stellar clusters in the Perseus Arm is presented. The main results are that star formation processes are able to create clusters with the same number of stars but either massive or low-mass, with M cluster in the massive case about three times larger. An “average” IMF for young stellar clusters is constructed, which results flatter (Γ = -1.00 ± 0.10) than both Salpeter’s and Scalo’s IMF.