The discovery of OH 1667-MHz maser emission from the circumstellar envelope of the F-type supergiant star, HD 101584 (IRAS 11385 - 5517) is reported. The OH spectrum has a total velocity range of 84 km/s and shows two unusually broad emission features. Images obtained show that the OH masers are located in a bipolar outflow. Along the bipolar axis there is a strong velocity gradient which is interpreted as resulting from an interaction between a hot stellar wind and a remnant circumstellar envelope. The presence of high-velocity, bipolar molecular gas in the circumstellar envelope of HD 101584, together with the optical classification, provides strong evidence that the star is a protoplanetary nebula. High-velocity outflows associated with axisymmetric geometries are likely to be a general phenomenon for stars in this short-lived evolutionary stage.
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Hekkert et al. (1992) studied this question.