YSO jets in the Galactic Plane from UWISH2: V - Jets and Outflows in M17

Jets and outflows are the first signposts of stellar birth. Emission in the H2 1–0?S(1) line at 2.122-??m is a powerful tracer of shock excitation in these objects. Here we present the analysis of 2.0?×?0.8?deg2 data from the UK Wide-field Infrared Survey for H2 (UWISH2) in the ?1–0?S(1) line to identify and characterize the outflows of the M17 complex. We uncover 48 probable outflows, of which 93?per cent are new discoveries. We identified driving source candidates for 60?per cent of outflows. Among the driving source candidate young stellar objects (YSOs), 90?per cent are protostars and the remaining 10 per cent are Class?II YSOs. In comparison with results from other surveys, we suggest that H2 emission fades very quickly as the objects evolve from protostars to pre-main-sequence stars. We fit spectral energy distribution (SED) models to 14 candidate outflow-driving sources and conclude that the outflows of our sample are mostly driven by moderate-mass YSOs that are still actively accreting from their protoplanetary disc. We examined the spatial distribution of the outflows with the gas and dust distribution of the complex and observed that the filamentary dark cloud M17SWex, located on the south-western side of the complex, is associated with a greater number of outflows. We find that our results corroborate previous suggestions that, in the M17 complex, M17SWex is the most active site of star formation. Several of our newly identified outflow candidates are excellent targets for follow-up studies to understand better the very early phase of protostellar evolution.