* Astronomy

Title: VLA observations of the "water fountain" IRAS 16552-3050
Authors: Olga Suárez (1 and 2), J.F. Gómez (2), L.F. Miranda (2) ((1) University of Nice, France, (2) IAA, Granada-Spain)

We present Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the water maser emission towards IRAS 16552-3050. The maser emission shows a velocity spread of ~170 km/s, and a bipolar distribution with a separation between the red and blueshifted groups of ~0.08". These observations and the likely post-AGB nature of the source indicate that IRAS 16552-3050 can be considered as a member of the "water fountain" class of sources (evolved stars showing H2O maser emission with a velocity spread \ga 100 km/s, probably tracing collimated jets). The water maser emission in IRAS 16552-3050 does not seem to be associated with any known optical counterpart. Moreover, this source does not have a near-IR 2MASS counterpart, as it happens in about half of the water fountains known. This suggests that these sources tend to be heavily obscured objects, probably with massive precursors (\ga 4-5 solar masses). We suggest that the water maser emission in IRAS 16552-3050 could be tracing a rapidly precessing bipolar jet.

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