Issue |
A&A
Volume 540, April 2012
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A119 | |
Number of page(s) | 11 | |
Section | Interstellar and circumstellar matter | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201117495 | |
Published online | 09 April 2012 |
A 3D view of the outflow in the Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC-1)⋆
1 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Århus, Ny Munkegade, 8000 Århus C, Denmark
e-mail: henrik.dahl.nissen@gmail.com; dfield@phys.au.dk, favre@phys.au.dk
2 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 116 Brace Laboratory, Lincoln, NE 68588-0111, USA
e-mail: ncunningham2@unl.edu
3 Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
e-mail: gustafsson@mpia.de
4 Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
e-mail: John.Bally@colorado.edu
5 LAMAp/LERMA, UMR8112 du CNRS, de l’Observatoire de Paris et de l’Université de Cergy Pontoise, 95031 Cergy Pontoise Cedex, France
e-mail: jean-louis.lemaire@obspm.fr
Received: 16 June 2011
Accepted: 9 March 2012
Context. Stars whose mass is an order of magnitude greater than the Sun play a prominent role in the evolution of galaxies, exploding as supernovae, triggering bursts of star formation and spreading heavy elements about their host galaxies. A fundamental aspect of star formation is the creation of an outflow. The fast outflow emerging from a region associated with massive star formation in the Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC-1), located behind the Orion Nebula, appears to have been set in motion by an explosive event.
Aims. We study the structure and dynamics of outflows in OMC-1. We combine radial velocity and proper motion data for near-IR emission of molecular hydrogen to obtain the first 3-dimensional (3D) structure of the OMC-1 outflow. Our work illustrates a new diagnostic tool for studies of star formation that will be exploited in the near future with the advent of high spatial resolution spectro-imaging in particular with data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA).
Methods. We used published radial and proper motion velocities obtained from the shock-excited vibrational emission in the H2 v = 1−0 S(1) line at 2.122 μm obtained with the GriF instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the Apache Point Observatory, the Anglo-Australian Observatory, and the Subaru Telescope.
Results. These data give the 3D velocity of ejecta yielding a 3D reconstruction of the outflows. This allows one to view the material from different vantage points in space giving considerable insight into the geometry. Our analysis indicates that the ejection occurred ≲720 years ago from a distorted ring-like structure of ~15″ (6000 AU) in diameter centered on the proposed point of close encounter of the stars BN, source I and maybe also source n. We propose a simple model involving curvature of shock trajectories in magnetic fields through which the origin of the explosion and the center defined by extrapolated proper motions of BN, I and n may be brought into spatial coincidence.
Key words: stars: formation / stars: general / methods: numerical / ISM: individual objects: OMC-1
© ESO, 2012
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