Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
The fundamental properties of optical and molecular outflows associated with young stellar objects are reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on a discussion of new results concerning outflow energetics, collimating structures and the relationship between outflow properties and the magnetic field geometry characterizing their host molecular clouds. IRAS observations of YSO mass outflows reveal extended far-IR emission associated with high velocity molecular gas; in the case of L1551 IRS5, the luminosity of the extended emission is ∼10 times the mechanical luminosity inferred from observation of the molecular flow (and thus ≳0.1 the bolometric luminosity of the YSO driving the outflow). Circumstellar disks of size ∼100 au appear to be a common, if not certain outcome of the stellar birth process for stars of ∼1M⊙. In a few cases, it has been possible to resolve disk-like structures associated with YSO outflow sources. In such cases, the disk axes appear to lie along the direction of molecular outflows or stellar jets. The mass outflows (and by inference, the axes of circumstellar disks) show a remarkable tendency to align along the direction of the magnetic fields which thread their host molecular clouds. This suggests that the cloud magnetic field must play an important role in determining the flattening (and perhaps the rotation) of protostellar structures.