Investigating Protostellar Accretion-Driven Outflows Across the Mass Spectrum: JWST NIRSpec IFU 3-5 μm Spectral Mapping of Five Young Protostars

Investigating Protostellar Accretion is a Cycle 1 JWST program using the NIRSpec+MIRI integral field units to obtain 2.9–28 μm spectral cubes of five young protostars with luminosities of 0.2-10,000 L_⊙ in their primary accretion phase. This paper introduces the NIRSpec 2.9–5.3 μm data of the inner 840-9000 au with spatial resolutions from 28-300 au. The spectra show rising continuum emission; deep ice absorption; emission from H_2, H I, and [Fe II]; and the CO fundamental series in emission and absorption. Maps of the continuum emission show scattered light cavities for all five protostars. In the cavities, collimated jets are detected in [Fe II] for the four < 320 L_⊙ protostars, two of which are additionally traced in Br-α. Knots of [Fe II] emission are detected toward the most luminous protostar, and knots of [FeII] emission with dynamical times of < 30 yrs are found in the jets of the others. While only one jet is traced in H_2, knots of H_2 and CO are detected in the jets of four protostars. H_2 is seen extending through the cavities, showing that they are filled by warm molecular gas. Bright H_2 emission is seen along the walls of a single cavity, while in three cavities narrow shells of H_2 emission are found, one of which has an [Fe II] knot at its apex. These data show cavities containing collimated jets traced in atomic/ionic gas surrounded by warm molecular gas in a wide-angle wind and/or gas accelerated by bow shocks in the jets.