We present an infrared, millimeter, and radio survey of 20 Class 0–III young stellar objects in the Ophiuchus A L1688 star-forming cluster, combining high-resolution (7–25 au) Very Large Array (VLA) and James Webb Space Telescope observations with archival Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array data. We implement physically motivated models to derive dust and ionized gas properties, spectral behaviour, and their relative contributions through the millimeter-to-centimeter radio spectral energy distribution. Our models reveal circumstellar dust disks that are, on average, tens to hundreds of times more massive than millimeter-only estimates (subject to uncertainties arising from the choice of dust opacity) and contain millimeter-sized grains even at the Class 0 stage. Owing to the VLA’s high resolution, we are able to connect outflows to their origins, detecting protostellar jet emission on scales of tens to thousands of au. Our results represent a homogeneous characterization of the dust and ionized gas properties in Ophiuchus and present a potential solution to the long-standing “missing disk mass” problem. However, our understanding is still limited by resolution and sensitivity at frequencies <40 GHz. Future facilities like the Square Kilometre Array and ngVLA are needed to provide the necessary capabilities to fully spatially resolve this emission (< 0. " 18) even in one of the closest star-forming regions.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)