Near-infrared, polarimetric imaging of the bipolar lobes of GSS 30 - Protostellar infall and/or outflow?

Abstract

The morphology noted in the present 1.65 and 2.2 micron polarimetric images of the bipolar reflection nebula GSS 30 is consistent with that expected for protostellar infall and/or outflow, and the polarization maps suggest that the scattering orbital depth is larger along the limbs and the neck of the nebula than along the polar axis. Interpreting the lobes as cavities formed by polar outflows leads to the suggestion that the outflow is characterized by temporal variability in either mass-loss rate or outflow velocity, on time scales of less than several hundred years.