  We have performed observations of water maser emission towards a sample of
low-mass protostars, in order to investigate the properties of jets associated
with the earliest stages of star formation and their interaction with the
surrounding medium. The main aim is to measure the absolute positions and
proper motions of the H_2O spots in order to investigate the kinematics of the
region from where the jet is launched. We imaged the protostars in the nearby
region NGC 1333-IRAS 4 in the water maser line at 22.2 GHz by using the VLBA in
phase-reference mode at the milliarcsecond scale over four epochs, spaced by
one month to measure proper motions. Two protostars (A2 and B) were detected in
a highly variable H_2O maser emission, with an active phase shorter than four
weeks. The H_2O maps allow us to trace the fast jet driven by the B protostar:
we observed both the red- and blue-shifted lobes very close to the protostar,
=< 35 AU, moving away with projected velocities of ~10-50 km/s. The comparison
with the molecular outflow observed at larger scale suggests a jet precession
with a 18'/yr rate. By measuring the positional spread of the H_2O spots we
estimate a jet width of ~2 AU at a distance of ~12 AU from the driving
protostar.
