The discovery of a plethora of new objects with masses far lower than this in the Orion Nebula has now created a second maximum at a much lower mass in the distribution of star counts. Before this research the greatest number of objects were found with masses of about one quarter that of our Sun. This new image has caused excitement because it reveals a unexpected wealth of very-low-mass objects, which in turn suggests that the Orion Nebula may be forming proportionally far more low-mass objects than closer and less active star formation regions.Īstronomers count up how many objects of different masses form in regions like the Orion Nebula to try to understand the star-formation process. We now realise that the way these very low-mass objects form depends on their environment." The relative proximity of the Orion Nebula makes it an ideal testbed to better understand the process and history of star formation, and to determine how many stars of different masses form.Īmelia Bayo (Universidad de Valparaíso, Valparaíso, Chile Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl, Germany), a co-author of the new paper and member of the research team, explains why this is important: " Understanding how many low-mass objects are found in the Orion Nebula is very important to constrain current theories of star formation. Some nebulae, like Orion, are strongly illuminated by ultraviolet radiation from the many hot stars born within them, such that the gas is ionised and glows brightly. The famous Orion Nebula spans about 24 light-years within the constellation of Orion, and is visible from Earth with the naked eye, as a fuzzy patch in Orion’s sword. The very presence of these low-mass bodies provides an exciting insight into the history of star formation within the nebula itself. Not only has this led to an image of spectacular beauty, but it has revealed a great abundance of faint brown dwarfs and isolated planetary-mass objects. This discovery poses challenges for the widely accepted scenario for Orion’s star formation history.Īn international team has made use of the power of the HAWK-I infrared instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope ( VLT) to produce the deepest and most comprehensive view of the Orion Nebula to date. The spectacular picture reveals about ten times as many brown dwarfs and isolated planetary-mass objects than were previously known. ESO’s HAWK-I infrared instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile has been used to peer deeper into the heart of Orion Nebula than ever before.
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