Pushing the envelope: The impact of an outflow at the earliest stages of star formation

We present new multiline and 3 mm continuum interferometer observations of the circumstellar environment within 2 x 10(4) AU of the class 0 protostar IRAS 05295+ 1247, the source of the RNO 43 outflow. The high-resolution molecular line and continuum images enable a thorough study of the circumstellar envelope, the molecular outflow, and its impact on the surroundings. We detect a highly collimated bipolar molecular outflow seen in the (CO)-C-12 ( 1 - 0) map, which we interpret to be a new outflow episode, undetected in previous observations of the RNO 43 outflow. The medium-density gas of the outer circumstellar envelope, which is traced by the (CO)-C-13 ( 1 - 0) emission, is accelerated over an extended volume and not confined to the narrow (CO)-C-12 outflow axis. Our data also suggest that the outflow affects the chemical composition of the surroundings, enhancing the HCO+ ( 1 - 0) abundance along its edges. Most importantly, the kinetic energy injected by the outflow is sufficient to produce a velocity gradient in the dense inner circumstellar envelope traced by the (CO)-O-18 ( 1 - 0) and (HCO+)-C-13 ( 1 - 0) emission. Such a strong perturbation to the envelope will clearly have an important effect on the mass-assembling process in IRAS 05295+ 1247.