Corona Australis 151: an extremely young protostar
Abstract
Context. Prestellar cores are the birthplace of stars and planetary systems, but they are short-lived objects, since the initial stages of dense core evolution, collapse, and the formation of a protostellar seed are fast. In an effort to build a catalogue of bona-fide prestellar cores in the Solar neighbourhood, we used APEX observations to identify dynamically evolved cores among dense cores observed with Herschel. One of them, Corona Australis 151, stood out because of its centrally peaked structure, with densities above 1e7cm-3 in the central 500-1000 au, and high deuteration levels (N2D+/N2H+~0.5), suggestive of an evolved, prestellar stage. Aims. Corona Australis 151 appears to be an evolved prestellar core, but the presence of broad wings in some of the detected lines and a tentative 70micron detection with Herschel partially challenges its prestellar stage. We intend to assess its evolutionary stage. Methods. We analyse new ALMA data of the continuum emission and of several line tracers (including typical outflow tracers) at a resolution of~150-200au, tracing the envelope. Results. We unveil the presence of a compact and young outflow (projected dynamical age:~500yr), traced by SiO, CO, and H2CO emission. The continuum emission traces an envelope structure of size~1000 au and mass 0.33M_sun(assuming Tdust=20 K). Conclusions. Corona Australis 151 is an extremely young protostar, possibly one of the youngest known in the Solar neighbourhood, and hence a new laboratory to study the chemical and dynamical evolution at the dawn of star formation.
Related
- The protostar FU Orionis may not be bursting: dramatic accretion suppression in embedded young eccentric binaries
- A Cyanopolyyne-rich but COM-poor Massive Protostar: The First Hot Carbon Chain Chemistry Source G28.28-0.36
- A new submillimeter Class I methanol maser at 345.903 GHz near the massive protostar S255IR NIRS3
- A Cyanopolyyne-rich but Complex-organic-molecule-poor Massive Protostar: The First Hot Carbon-chain Chemistry Source G28.28-0.36
- Dust Seeding Molecules in a Massive Protostar -- Detection of TiO in Orion Source I
BibTeX
@misc{redaelli2026corona,
title = {{Corona Australis 151: an extremely young protostar}},
author = {E. Redaelli and S. Spezzano and P. Caselli and J. Harju and D. Arzoumanian and O. Sipilä and A. Belloche and F. Wyrowski and J. E. Pineda and S. Jensen and Y. Misugi and G. Majerczyk},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.05026},
eprint = {2609.05026},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05026},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Corona Australis 151: an extremely young protostar
AU - E. Redaelli
AU - S. Spezzano
AU - P. Caselli
AU - J. Harju
AU - D. Arzoumanian
AU - O. Sipilä
AU - A. Belloche
AU - F. Wyrowski
AU - J. E. Pineda
AU - S. Jensen
AU - Y. Misugi
AU - G. Majerczyk
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/04
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.05026
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05026
AB - Context. Prestellar cores are the birthplace of stars and planetary systems, but they are short-lived objects, since the initial stages of dense core evolution, collapse, and the formation of a protostellar seed are fast. In an effort to build a catalogue of bona-fide prestellar cores in the Solar neighbourhood, we used APEX observations to identify dynamically evolved cores among dense cores observed with Herschel. One of them, Corona Australis 151, stood out because of its centrally peaked structure, with densities above 1e7cm-3 in the central 500-1000 au, and high deuteration levels (N2D+/N2H+~0.5), suggestive of an evolved, prestellar stage. Aims. Corona Australis 151 appears to be an evolved prestellar core, but the presence of broad wings in some of the detected lines and a tentative 70micron detection with Herschel partially challenges its prestellar stage. We intend to assess its evolutionary stage. Methods. We analyse new ALMA data of the continuum emission and of several line tracers (including typical outflow tracers) at a resolution of~150-200au, tracing the envelope. Results. We unveil the presence of a compact and young outflow (projected dynamical age:~500yr), traced by SiO, CO, and H2CO emission. The continuum emission traces an envelope structure of size~1000 au and mass 0.33M_sun(assuming Tdust=20 K). Conclusions. Corona Australis 151 is an extremely young protostar, possibly one of the youngest known in the Solar neighbourhood, and hence a new laboratory to study the chemical and dynamical evolution at the dawn of star formation.
ER -