2019/08/20 by Aidan McBride, Marina Kounkel · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Educational Leadership and Practices #Main sequence #Nebula #Orion Nebula #Stars #Stellar classification #Stellar collision #T Tauri star #Young stellar object #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab3df9
Accepted to ApJ, 8 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2019/08/20 · openalex created_date 2019/08/29 · openalex publication_date 2019/10/07 · arxiv updated 2019/10/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Abstract The star-forming region of the Orion Nebula (ONC) is ideal to study the stellar dynamics of young stars in a clustered environment. Using Gaia DR2 we search for pre-main sequence stars with unusually high proper motions that may be representative of a dynamical ejection from unstable young triple systems or other close three-body encounters. We identify 26 candidate stars that are likely to have had such an encounter in the last 1 Myr. Nine of these stars could be traced back to the densest central-most region of the ONC, the Trapezium, while five others have likely interactions with other OB-type stars in the cluster. Seven stars originate from other nearby populations within the Orion Complex that coincidentally scattered toward the ONC. A definitive point of origin cannot be identified for the remaining sources. These observations shed light on the frequency of the ejection events in young clusters.