New insight into shocks and star formation in Orion: First light with GriF^*

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Aarhus, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
² Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, LESIA, 92195 Meudon Principal Cedex, France
³ Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, LERMA and UMR8112 of the CNRS, 92195 Meudon Principal Cedex, France
⁴ Université de Cergy-Pontoise, LERMA and UMR8112 of the CNRS, 95806 Cergy Cedex, France
⁵ Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Université Paris XI, 91405 Orsay Cedex, France
⁶ Observatoire de Grenoble, Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de l'Observatoire de Grenoble, France

Corresponding author: D. Field, dfield@phys.au.dk

Received: 20 January 2003
Accepted: 30 June 2003

Abstract

A new instrument, “GriF”, has been used on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope to record spatially and velocity resolved images, in the H₂ –0 S(1) line in the K-band, of a field in the core of the Orion Molecular Cloud, OMC1. Using the PUEO adaptive optics system combined with Fabry-Perot interferometry, diffraction limited spatial resolution of 015 and velocity discrimination of ~1 kms^-1 has been achieved. These data yield graphic images of shocks in OMC1, presenting a level of detail which has not previously been attained. Observed structures suggest that a significant fraction of the regions strongly emitting in H₂ do so through local, internal shocks, associated with star formation within the clumps of gas involved. Thus the core of OMC1 is revealed for the first time as a region which contains a number of developed protostars.