Explosive Disintegration of a Massive Young Stellar System in Orion

TL;DR

This paper presents observational evidence of a violent explosive event caused by a close dynamical interaction in a young stellar system in Orion, leading to a wide-angle outflow distinct from typical bipolar flows.

Contribution

It provides the first clear observational evidence linking a stellar dynamical interaction to an explosive outflow in a young star cluster.

Findings

The outflow was caused by a stellar interaction about 500 years ago.

The outflow is a different class of molecular flow, not related to classical bipolar flows.

A 3D view of the debris flow was created, linking it to Orion H$_2$ "fingers".

Abstract

Young massive stars in the center of crowded star clusters are expected to undergo close dynamical encounters that could lead to energetic, explosive events. However, there has so far never been clear observational evidence of such a remarkable phenomenon. We here report new interferometric observations made with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) that indicate the well known enigmatic wide-angle outflow located in the Orion BN/KL star-forming region to have been produced by such a violent explosion during the disruption of a massive young stellar system, and that this was caused by a close dynamical interaction about 500 years ago. This outflow thus belongs to a totally different family of molecular flows which is not related to the classical bipolar flows that are generated by stars during their formation process. Our molecular data allow us to create a 3D view of the debris flow and to link this directly to the well known Orion H$_2$ "fingers" farther out