Astron. Astrophys. 332, 849-856 (1998)

5. Conclusions

The imaging data presented in this paper revealed an S-shaped feature emerging from the central part of Cha IRN. This feature may be interpreted as a bended outflow. The necessity for a "bending" mechanism points towards the presence of a binary system inside the nebula. Additionally, our data confirmed earlier assumptions on the overall geometry of the system such as inclination and position angle of the large-scale molecular disk. spectroscopically, we detected one of the most prominent H₂ O features as well as indications for CO, CO₂ and possibly NH₃. No silicate absorption feature is found in the spectra, this indicates either an unusually low fraction of this molecular species or the presence of some cancelling mechanism for the absorption feature. The radiative transfer calculations show that the results on geometry and dust composition are compatible with the spectral energy distribution, if three prerequisites are met: The silicate-to-carbon-ratio has to be assumed to be 1:4, the central object has to be very luminous with and scattering of near-infrared light on the disk's surface has to be excluded somehow.

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 1998

Online publication: March 30, 1998
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