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Abstract Precise estimates of protostellar masses are crucial to characterize the formation of stars of low masses down to brown dwarfs (BDs;M*< 0.08M☉). The most accurate estimation of protostellar mass uses the Keplerian rotation in the circumstellar disk around the protostar. To apply the Keplerian rotation method to a protostar at the low-mass end, we have observed the Class 0 protostar IRAS 16253-2429 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the 1.3 mm continuum at an angular resolution of 0.″07 (10 au), and in the12CO, C18O,13CO (J= 2–1), and SO (JN= 65−54) molecular lines, as part of the ALMA Large Program Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks project. The continuum emission traces a nonaxisymmetric, disk-like structure perpendicular to the associated12CO outflow. The position–velocity (PV) diagrams in the C18O and13CO lines can be interpreted as infalling and rotating motions. In contrast, the PV diagram along the major axis of the disk-like structure in the12CO line allows us to identify Keplerian rotation. The central stellar mass and the disk radius are estimated to be ∼0.12–0.17M☉and ∼13–19 au, respectively. The SO line suggests the existence of an accretion shock at a ring (r∼ 28 au) surrounding the disk and a streamer from the eastern side of the envelope. IRAS 16253-2429 is not a proto-BD but has a central stellar mass close to the BD mass regime, and our results provide a typical picture of such very-low-mass protostars.
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This content will become publicly available on May 21, 2026
Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks (eDisk). XXI. Limited Role of Streamers in Mass Supply to the Disk in the Class 0 Protostar IRAS 16544-1604
Abstract Asymmetric and narrow infalling structures, often called streamers, have been observed in several Class 0/I protostars, which is not expected in the classical star formation picture. Their origin and impact on the disk formation remain observationally unclear. By combining data from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), we investigate the physical properties of the streamers and parental dense core in the Class 0 protostar, IRAS 16544–1604. Three prominent streamers associated to the disk with lengths between 2800 and 5800 au are identified on the northern side of the protostar in the C18O emission. Their mass and mass infalling rates are estimated to be in the range of (1–4) × 10−3M⊙and (1–5) × 10−8M⊙yr−1, respectively. Infall signatures are also observed in the more diffuse extended protostellar envelope observed with the ALMA from the comparison to the infalling and rotating envelope model. The parental dense core detected by the JCMT observation has a mass of ∼0.5M⊙, a subsonic to transonic turbulence of = 0.8–1.1, and a mass-to-flux ratio of 2–6. Our results show that the streamers in IRAS 16544–1604 only possess 2% of the entire dense core mass and contribute less than 10% of the mass infalling rate of the protostellar envelope. Therefore, the streamers in IRAS 16544–1604 play a minor role in the mass accretion process onto the disk, in contrast to those streamers observed in other sources and those formed in numerical simulations of collapsing dense cores with similar turbulence and magnetic field strengths.
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- PAR ID:
- 10609020
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Astronomical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Volume:
- 985
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 166
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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