Evolution of the Structure of the H2O Supermaser Outburst Region in Orion KL

During the period 1979–1999, we investigated the hyperfine structure of the H2O supermaser region located in the core of the molecular cloud OMC-1 in Orion KL. The angular resolution is 0.1 mas, which corresponds to 0.045 AU. The detected structure, which consists of a central object, an accretion disk, a bipolar outflow, and an envelope, corresponds to the initial formation stage of a low-mass star. The accretion disk is at the stage of separation into groups of concentric rings. The bipolar outflow is a neutral, highly collimated jet of accreted material that includes H2O molecules and dust grains in the icy envelope. The injector is a bright compact source with a size <0.05 AU and a brightness temperature Tb≈1017 K. The velocity of the bipolar outflow is v≈10 km s−1. The rotation velocity of the jet is vrot≈1.5 km s−1. The jet has the shape of a conical helix due to the precession of the rotation axis. Occasionally, dense blobs (comet-shaped bullets) are ejected. The envelope amplifies the radio emission from the structures in a ∼0.5 km s−1 maser window band with velocities v≈7.65 km s−1 by more than two orders of magnitude.