| Name: Sujay Jadhav |
| Affiliation: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai |
| Conference ID: ASI2026_539 |
| Title: Water, water everywhere: H2O in youngest protostars using JWST |
| Abstract Type: Poster |
| Abstract Category: Stars, Interstellar Medium, and Astrochemistry in Milky Way |
| Author(s) and Co-Author(s) with Affiliation: Sujay Jadhav(Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - 400005, India), Manoj Puravankara(Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - 400005, India), Himanshu Tyagi(Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - 400005, India), Shridharan Baskaran(Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - 400005, India), Bihan Banerjee(Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - 400005, India), Vinod Chandra Pathak(Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - 400005, India), Manya Arora and IPA and HEFE teams(Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai - 400005, India) |
| Abstract: Water, a fundamental ingredient for life, plays a crucial role in the earliest stages of star formation. In both gaseous and solid forms, H₂O regulates thermal balance, drives chemical pathways, and traces key dynamical processes in protostellar environments, particularly outflows.
We analyze JWST/MIRI integral-field spectroscopy (5-28 μm) of gas-phase H₂O emission and absorption in five protostars from the JWST Cycle 1 Investigating Protostellar Accretion (IPA) program, spanning masses of 0.1-12 M☉ and luminosities of 0.1-10,000 L☉. In the most luminous sources, HOPS 370 and IRAS 20126, H₂O is detected in the fundamental rovibrational (010–000) band at 5–8 μm. They show spatially extended emission and blueshifted absorption associated with outflows, features largely absent in lower-luminosity protostars. This contrast suggests that radiative excitation dominates water emission in high-luminosity systems. We study the morphology, kinematics, and excitation of H₂O emission/absorption by constructing moment maps, channel maps, and excitation diagrams.
We extend the analysis to thirteen young protostars from the JWST Cycle 3 program, High Angular Resolution observations of Stellar Emergence in Filamentary Environments (HEFE). Combining both samples reveals a clear increase in H₂O feature strength with protostellar luminosity, highlighting radiative pumping as a key excitation mechanism in the earliest phases of star formation. |
