Jets, Outflows, and Explosions in Massive Star Formation

Abstract

Multispectral studies of nearby, forming stars provide insights into all classes of accreting systems. Objects which have magnetic fields, spin, and accrete produce jets and collimated outflows. Jets are seen in systems ranging from brown dwarf stars to supermassive black holes. Outflow speeds are typically a few times the escape speed from the launch region - 100s of km s-1 for young stars to nearly the speed of light for black-holes. Because many young stellar objects (YSOs) are nearby, we can see outflow evolution and measure proper motions on times scales of years. Because the shocks in YSO outflows emit in atoms, ions, and molecules in addition to the continuum, many physical properties such as temperatures, densities, and velocities can be measured. Momenta and kinetic energies can be computed. YSO outflows are a major source of feedback in the self-regulation of star formation. The lessons learned can be applied to much more distant and energetic cosmic sources such as AGN and galactic nuclear super winds - systems in which evolution occurs on time-scales of hundreds to millions of years. Some dense star-forming regions produce powerful explosions. The nearest massive star-forming region, Orion OMC1, powered a ~1048 erg explosion about 550 years ago (that is when the light from the event would have reached the Solar System). The OMC1 explosion was likely powered by an N-body interaction which resulted in the formation of a compact, AU-scale binary or resulted in a protostellar merger. The binary or merger remnant, the ~15M⊙ object known as radio source I (Src I) was ejected from the core with a speed of ~10 km s-1 along with two other stars. The ~10 M⊙ BN object was ejected with ~30 km s-1 = and a ~3 M· star was ejected with ~55 km s-1.