Star-Birth “Fireworks”: Herbig-Haro 24 Complex in Orion | Gemini North Telescope
This Gemini North Telescope image reveals no less than six gas jets emerging at supersonic speeds from the reddish Herbig-Haro 24 (HH 24) complex—a small cluster of young stars embedded in a molecular cloud around 1,300 light years distant in the constellation Orion. It is the most detailed image ever obtained from the ground of this remarkable region. It contains the highest concentration of jets known anywhere. One jet is highly disturbed, suggesting that the source may be a close binary whose orbit perturbs the jet body. This dynamic environment also may be responsible for expelling the lowest mass stars in the area.
Most puzzling are the five very-low-mass protostars seen well outside the star-forming cloud core. As the gas is far too tenuous for the stars to have formed in their present locations, these orphaned protostars were most likely ejected shortly after birth from the core that hosts a small multiple protostellar system known as SSV 63. Such ejections may occur when the crowded stars start moving around each other in a chaotic dance, ultimately leading to the ejection of the smallest ones. The bright nebulous star to the south is the visible T Tauri star SSV 59.
T Tauri stars (TTS) are a class of variable stars that are less than about ten million years old. This class is named after the prototype, T Tauri, a young star in the Taurus star-forming region. They are found near molecular clouds and identified by their optical variability and strong chromospheric lines. T Tauri stars are pre-main-sequence stars in the process of contracting.
https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/gemini-observatory/gemini-north/
Release Date: Sept. 25, 2015
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