ALMA Survey of Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (ALMASOP): Evidence for a Molecular Jet Launched at an Unprecedented Early Phase of Protostellar Evolution

Protostellar outflows and jets play a vital role in star formation as they carry away excess angular momentum from the inner disk surface, allowing the material to be transferred toward the central protostar. Theoretically, low-velocity and poorly collimated outflows appear from the beginning of the collapse at the first hydrostatic core (FHSC) stage. With growing protostellar core mass, high-density jets are launched, entraining an outflow from the infalling envelope. Until now, molecular jets have been observed at high velocity (≳100 km s⁻¹) in early Class 0 protostars. We, for the first time, detect a dense molecular jet in SiO emission with low velocity (∼4.2 km s⁻¹, deprojected ∼24 km s⁻¹) from source G208.89-20.04Walma (hereafter G208Walma) using ALMA Band 6 observations. This object has some characteristics of FHSCs, such as a small outflow/jet velocity, extended 1.3 mm continuum emission, and N ₂D⁺ line emission. Additional characteristics, however, are typical of early protostars: collimated outflow and SiO jet. The full extent of the outflow corresponds to a dynamical timescale of ∼ 930 − 100 + 200 yr. The spectral energy distribution also suggests a very young source having an upper limit of T _bol ∼ 31 K and L _bol ∼ 0.8 L _⊙. We conclude that G208Walma is likely in the transition phase from FHSC to protostar, and the molecular jet has been launched within a few hundred years of initial collapse. Therefore, G208Walma may be the earliest object discovered in the protostellar phase with a molecular jet.