A 10,000 Years Old Explosion in DR21

TL;DR

This study presents high-resolution CO observations of the DR21 outflow, suggesting it resulted from an explosive event 10,000 years ago, possibly linked to stellar system disintegration, indicating such phenomena may be common in massive star formation.

Contribution

It provides evidence that the DR21 outflow was caused by an explosive event, supporting the idea that stellar disintegration is a frequent process in massive star formation.

Findings

DR21 outflow likely caused by an explosion 10,000 years ago

Event possibly related to disintegration of a massive stellar system

Explosion energy estimated to be about 20 times that of Orion BN/KL

Abstract

Sensitive high angular resolution ($\sim$ 2$"$) CO(2-1) line observations made with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) of the flow emanating from the high-mass star forming region DR21 located in the Cygnus X molecular cloud are presented. These new interferometric observations indicate that this well known enigmatic outflow appears to have been produced by an explosive event that took place about 10,000 years ago, and that might be related with the disintegration of a massive stellar system, as the one that occurred in Orion BN/KL 500 years ago, but about 20 times more energetic. This result therefore argues in favor of the idea that the disintegration of young stellar systems perhaps is a frequent phenomenon present during the formation of the massive stars. However, many more theoretical and observational studies are still needed to confirm our hypothesis.