The Optical Proper Motions of HH 7-11 and Cep E (HH 377)

Abstract

A key ingredient in understanding the dynamics of stellar outflows is their proper motion. We have used optical images in the [SII] emission at 6717/31 A and the red Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (DSS) plates to determine the proper motion of HH 7-11 system and the optical knot of Cep E (HH 377). The DSS plate measurements span nearly 37 years for both HH 7-11 and HH 377 and have wide field of view, which allows an accurate determination of the proper motions despite their relatively low angular resolution. The optical images, with higher angular resolution, cover a shorter period of 7 and 4 years, respectively, and have been used to complement the DSS measurements. From the DSS plates we have found that HH 377 has a proper motion of 0.031 +/- 0.003 arcsec/yr with a PA = 206 arcdeg, i.e. moving away from IRAS 230111+63, that at a distance of 730 pc corresponds to a tangential velocity of 107 +/- 14 km/s. The values obtained from the optical images are consistent with these measurements. Similarly, the proper motions of HH 7-11 range from 0.015 +/- 0.009 (HH 9) to 0.044 +/- 0.007 (HH 11) arcsec/yr, and the flow is moving away from SVS 13 with a mean PA = 136 arcdeg. At a distance of 330 pc, these motions correspond to tangential velocities of 25 - 70 km/s, i.e. comparable to the original values obtained by Herbig & Jones (1983). The measurements from the optical CCD [SII] images are again consistent with these motions, although in detail there are some difference, particularly for HH 7 and HH 10.