Water fountains in the sky

W43A was known to have regions near it in which water
molecules are amplifying, or strengthening, radio emission at a
frequency of 22 GigaHertz. Such regions are called masers,
because they amplify microwave radiation the same way a laser
amplifies light radiation. Imai's team used the VLBA, the sharpest 
radio "eye" in the world, to find out where these masers are. To
their surprise, they found that the maser regions are strung out in
two curved lines, moving in opposite directions from the star at
about 325,000 miles per hour.

Phillip Diamond, director of the MERLIN radio observatory at Jodrell
Bank in England, and one of the researchers using the VLBA -
"The path of the jets is curved like a corkscrew, as if whatever is
squirting them out is slowly rotating, or precessing, like a child's
top wobbles just before it falls down," said Diamond. 

What is producing the jets? "We're not sure," Diamond said.
"Traditional wisdom says that it takes a disk of material closely
orbiting the star to produce jets, but we don't yet know how such
a disk could be produced around such an old star," he added.

The research team, led by Hiroshi Imai of Japan's National
Astronomical Observatory (now at the Joint Institute for VLBI in
Europe, based in the Netherlands), also includes Kumiko Obara
of the Mizusawa Astrogeodynamics Observatory and Kagoshima
University; Toshihiro Omodaka, also of Kagoshima University;
and Tetsuo Sasao of the Japanese National Astronomical
Observatory. The scientists reported their findings in the June 20
issue of the scientific journal Nature.

 NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY NEWS RELEASE
 Posted: June 19, 2002

 http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0206/20fountains/

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 "Perceptions" note:

 If they _still_ don't know it's not for want of telling!

 Check 

 http://www.perceptions.couk.com/uef/jets.html
        
 and links

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