Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
We review the observational evidence for interstellar and circumstellar size gaseous structures that appear to be collimating the bipolar outflows observed in regions of star formation. In particular, there is growing evidence for circumstellar disk-like objects that may be related to a protoplanetary cloud like the one that once surrounded the Sun. There are similarities between these disks around young stars and that found around the main sequence star β Pictoris. Both flattened structures around L1551 IRS5 and β Pictoris appear to have an inner “hole” with radius of a few tens of AU. On the other hand, there is observational support for focusing and collimation processes acting on the same source from tens of AU (circumstellar dimensions) to tenths of pc (interstellar dimensions).