The accretion/ejection paradigm in young stellar objects: from HST and Herschel to JWST

Stellar jets and molecular outflows are observed in association with young accreting stars and are believed to play a key role in the star formation process. In this talk I will show how current and future space missions are of crucial importance to investigate the origin of stellar jets and their link to the accretion process. Thanks to its high angular (˜0.1") resolution, HST has been the first telescope allowing us to investigate the jet physics at optical/UV wavelengths down to the heart of the launching mechanism. We recently analysed a datacube of the jet emitted by the T Tauri star DG Tau obtaining spatio-kinematical maps of the hot atomic gas in the jet and of its physical conditions (Maurri et al., submitted). These data confirm the predictions of theoretical models including the fact that jets may extract the excess angular momentum from the system. In the last two years Herschel has further improved our comprehension of the ejection process observing the far infrared counterpart of fast and collimated atomic jets. PACS and HIFI observations, acquired within the GASPS (GAS in Protoplanetary Systems) Open Time Key Project (PI: B. Dent), show that T Tauri stars driving optical jets are also associated with a warm gas component emitting not only atomic ([OI], [CII]) but also molecular (high-J CO, H_2O, OH) lines. The comparison with Class 0 outflows highlights a clear evolutionary trend: the emission associated with evolved Class I/II sources is fainter and more compact and the estimated mass loss rates and lines cooling are one to two orders of magnitudes lower (Podio et al., to be submitted). The arrival of JWST will fill-in the gap between HST and Herschel opening a new window in the near and mid-infrared range at unprecedented angular resolution (down to 0.03"). This will allow resolving the emission in both atomic (e.g., [FeII]) and molecular (e.g., H_2) lines and understanding if the molecular gas is entrained by the atomic jet or launched with it. Moreover, we will be able to measure jet rotation in a number of tracers thus to confirm, or reject, previous HST measurements. This will be a crucial test of the magneto-centrifugal jet acceleration