Alberto Noriega-Crespo 1, Peter M. Garnavich 2, & Sergio Molinari 1
1 Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
2 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
The physical characteristics of Cepheus E (Cep E) `embedded'
outflow are analyzed using ISOCAM images in the v=0-0 S(5)
6.91
and S(3) 9.66
molecular hydrogen lines. We find that
the morphology of the Cep E outflow in the ground vibrational H2 lines
is similar to that of the near infrared v=1-0 2.12
line. At these
mid-IR wavelengths, we do not detect the second H2 outflow which is almost
perpendicular to Cep E 2.121
flow or traces of H2 emission along
the second 12CO J = 2-1 outflow at a 52 degrees angle, down to a
surface brightness of 12 - 46
Jy/arcsec square.
We do detect at 6.91
the likely source of the main H2 and CO
outflows,
IRAS 23011+6126, and show that the source is easily seen in all IRAS bands
using HiRes images. The source is not detected at 9.66
,
but we
think
this agrees with the interstellar extinction curve which has a minimum at
7
,
but rises at 9.7
due to the strong absorption
silicate feature, enhanced in this case by a cocoon surrounding the
Class 0 object. This idea is supported by our models of the spectral energy
distribution (SED) of the central object. The models assume that
the main source of opacity is due to bare silicates and our best fit for
the SED yields a total mass of envelope of 17
and a dust temperature of 18 K.