High spatial velocity features in the Orion Nebula

Abstract

We have used widely spaced in time Hubble Space Telescope images to determine tangential velocities of features associated with outflows from young stars. These observations were supplemented by ground-based telescope spectroscopy, and from the resultant radial velocities, space velocities were determined for many outflows. Numerous new moving features were found and grouped into known and newly assigned Herbig-Haro objects. It was found that stellar outflow is highly discontinuous, as frequently is the case, with long-term gaps of a few hundred years, and that these outflow periods are marked by staccato bursts over periods of about ten years. Although this has been observed in other regions, the Orion Nebula Cluster presents the richest display of this property. Most of the large-scale Herbig-Haro objects in the brightest part of the Orion Nebula appear to originate from a small region northeast of the strong Orion-S radio and infrared sources. With the possible exception of HH 203, we are not able to identify specific stellar sources, but do identify candidate sources for several other bright Herbig-Haro objects. We find that there are optical features in the BN-KL region that can be related to the known large-scale outflow that originates there. We find additional evidence for this outflow originating 500-1000 years ago. © 2008. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.