Water in massive star-forming regions: HIFI observations of W3 IRS5

We present Herschel observations of the water molecule in the massive star-forming region W3 IRS5. The o-H\_2^17O 1_10-1_01, p-H\_2^18O 1_11-0_00, p-H_2O 2_02-1_11, p-H_2O 1_11-0_00, o-H_2O 2_21-2_12, and o-H_2O 2_12-1_01 lines, covering a frequency range from 552 up to 1669 GHz, have been detected at high spectral resolution with HIFI. The water lines in W3 IRS5 show well-defined high-velocity wings that indicate a clear contribution by outflows. Moreover, the systematically blue-shifted absorption in the H_2O lines suggests expansion, presumably driven by the outflow. No infall signatures are detected. The p-H_2O 1_11-0_00 and o-H_2O 2_12-1_01 lines show absorption from the cold material (T ~ 10 K) in which the high-mass protostellar envelope is embedded. One-dimensional radiative transfer models are used to estimate water abundances and to further study the kinematics of the region. We show that the emission in the rare isotopologues comes directly from the inner parts of the envelope (T \gsim 100 K) where water ices in the dust mantles evaporate and the gas-phase abundance increases. The resulting jump in the water abundance (with a constant inner abundance of 10^-4) is needed to reproduce the o-H\_2^17O 1_10-1_01 and p-H\_2^18O 1_11-0_00 spectra in our models. We estimate water abundances of 10^-8 to 10^-9 in the outer parts of the envelope (T \lsim 100 K). The possibility of two protostellar objects contributing to the emission is discussed. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA