Herbig-Haro Flows and the Birth of Low Mass Stars

Herbig-Haro objects were discovered 50 years ago, and during this half century they have developed from being mysterious small nebulae to be­ coming an important phenomenon in star formation. Indeed, HH flows are now recognized not only as fascinating astrophysical laboratories involving shock physics and chemistry, hydrodynamics and radiation processes, but it has gradually been realized that HH flows hold essential clues to the birth and early evolution of low mass stars. IAU Symposium No. 182 on Herbig-Haro Flows and the Birth of Low Mass Stars were held from January 20 to 24, 1997 in Chamonix in the french alps. A total of 178 researchers from 26 countries met to discuss our present level of understanding of Herbig-Haro flows and their relation to disk accretion events and T Tauri winds and other outflow phenomena like molecular outflows, embedded molecular hydrogen flows and radio jets. The present book contains the manuscripts from the oral contributions of the symposium. The poster papers were printed in a separate volume Low Mass Star Formation - from Infall to Outflow, edited by Fabien Malbet and Alain Castets, which was distributed at the beginning of the meeting. Together these two books document the vigorous state and the scientific appeal which research into Herbig-Haro flows and related issues in star formation enjoys today, observationally as well as theoretically.