THE EXCITING SOURCE OF THE BIPOLAR OUTFLOW IN L1448

A fast (± 70 km s-1), highly collimated CO bipolar outflow has been recently detected in the L1448 molecular cloud. No optical or infrared object has been found near the center of the outflow, implying a bolometric luminosity less than 3 L⊙ for the exciting source. With the VLA we detected at 2 cm wavelength a radio continuum source at the center of this outflow. This radio source may be the exciting source of the bipolar outflow. We failed to detect the radio source at 6 cm wavelength, implying that it has a spectral index of α ≥ 1.1, which may mean it is a partially thick H II region. We also detected at 6 and 2 cm wavelength a double radio continuum source (∼8″ component separation) that is associated with the source IRS 3, about 1′.4 to the north of the outflow center. The spectral index of the main component is α ≃ 0.2, similar to that expected for a thermal jet. The second component has a spectral index of α ≃ 1.0, consistent with that of a partially thick H II region.