A cluster of outflows in the Vulpecula Rift

We present 12CO, 13CO and C18O (J=3−2) observations of a new cluster of outflows in the Vulpecula Rift with HARP on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The mass associated with the outflows, measured using the 12CO HARP observations and assuming a distance to the region of 2.3 kpc, is 129 M⊙, while the mass associated with the dense gas from C18O observations is 458 M⊙ and the associated sub-millimeter (sub-mm) core has a mass of 327 ± 112 M⊙ independently determined from Bolocam 1.1-mm data. The outflow-to-core mass ratio is therefore ∼0.4, making this region one of the most efficient observed thus far with more than an order of magnitude more mass in the outflow than would be expected based on previous results. The kinetic energy associated with the flows, 94 × 1045 erg, is enough to drive the turbulence in the local clump, and potentially unbind the local region altogether. The detection of SiO (J=8−7) emission towards the outflows indicates that the flow is still active, and not simply a fossil flow. We also model the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the four young stellar objects (YSOs) associated with the molecular material, finding them all to be of mid to early B spectral type. The energetic nature of the outflows and significant reservoir of cold dust detected in the sub-mm suggest that these intermediate mass YSOs will continue to accrete and become massive, rather than reach the main sequence at their current mass.