APOD: Fast Stars and Rogue Planets in the... (2017 Mar 21)

[APOD Robot]

Fast Stars and Rogue Planets in the Orion Nebula

Explanation: Start with the constellation of Orion. Below Orion's belt is a fuzzy area known as the Great Nebula of Orion. In this nebula is a bright star cluster known as the Trapezium, marked by four bright stars near the image center. The newly born stars in the Trapezium and surrounding regions show the Orion Nebula to be one of the most active areas of star formation to be found in our area of the Galaxy. In Orion, supernova explosions and close interactions between stars have created rogue planets and stars that rapidly move through space. Some of these fast stars have been found by comparing different images of this region taken by the Hubble Space Telescope many years apart. Many of the stars in the featured image, taken in visible and near-infrared light, appear unusually red because they are seen through dust that scatters away much of their blue light.

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[bystander]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=36968

[ta152h0]

Well, ORION looks the part, chaotic, like a 20 year old garage

[Coil_Smoke]

Lamb? Lama? Alpaca with a long neck? camel? What animal do you see in lower right of image?

[Joe 25]

Any chance of doing a 'past to present' photo comparison on the Orion Bullets ? I've been wondering how they have moved since the first photos of them were taken. I recall there was a comparison done in 2012 or so. Might be time to do another update on this ! Thanks in advance.

[neufer]

Any chance of doing a 'past to present' photo comparison on the Orion Bullets ? I've been wondering how they have moved since the first photos of them were taken. I recall there was a comparison done in 2012 or so. Might be time to do another update on this ! Thanks in advance.

The comparing different images of this region does just that at high Hubble resolution.

However, even on the expanded scale of the embiggened version of today's APOD
the motion over 17 years only amounts to ~1 pixel for fast stars (whose overexposed images cover many pixels).

[ta152h0]

it was impossible to discern differences when in the past two images of the horsehead nebula, years apart, were posted here in the recent past.

[neufer]

it was impossible to discern differences when in the past two images of
the horsehead nebula, years apart, were posted here in the recent past.

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 00#p265400

[burk]

D'oh- you should have titled this post "Fast stars and loose planets".

[sunson]

Any comments on the star surrounded with what seems to be a THICK layer/disk of dust at the 3-4 (clock wise) position on the image?

[geckzilla]

Any comments on the star surrounded with what seems to be a THICK layer/disk of dust at the 3-4 (clock wise) position on the image?

One of the many proplyds of the Orion Nebula.

[Ann]

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=36968

Click to view full size image

Stars fleeing from their birthplace in Orion.
Credit: NASA, ESA, K. Luhman (PSU), M. Robberto (STScI)

Hubblesite wrote:
(In) a nebula far, far away, a cluster of stars was waging a real-life star wars, with the stellar members battling each other for supremacy in the Orion Nebula. The gravitational tussle ended with the system breaking apart and at least three stars being ejected in different directions.

Astronomers spotted two of the speedy, wayward stars over the past few decades. They traced both stars back 540 years to the same location and suggested they were part of a now-defunct multiple-star system. But the duo's combined energy, which is propelling them outward, didn't add up. The researchers reasoned there must be at least one other culprit that robbed energy from the stellar toss-up. Now NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has helped astronomers find the final piece of the puzzle by nabbing a third runaway star, which was a member of the same system as the two previously known stars. The stars reside in a small region of young stars called the Kleinmann-Low Nebula, near the center of the vast Orion Nebula complex, located 1,300 light-years from Earth.

This is so interesting!

I can't help thinking of three stars that ran away from the Orion Nebula some 2-3 million years ago. The stars are AE Aurigae (the picture is by Adam Block, Mu Columbae (from Palomar Observatory/WikiSky), and 53 Arietis (from Sky and Telescope). These are all massive stars, 53 Arietis some 7.5 solar masses, Mu Columba about 12 solar masses, and AE Aurigae about 17 solar masses.

What about these new runaways, though? They look quite small to me. Is anything known about their spectral classes?

And by the way, is the running away of these three stars believed to have anything to do with the putative black hole in the Orion Nebula?

Ann

[sshea]

Boy, with the title of "fast stars and rogue planets" and then a 2nd sentence of "Below Orion's belt is a fuzzy area....." I was wondering for a second where you were going with this
Maybe I've been working with college students and their mindset too long!

[Boomer12k]

So...um.... where are some rogue planets in this image??? Would like to know...

Plus... my shot of the area... probably my favorite off planet place... bit over exposed on the stars because of cheap camera.

If tonight is decent, might get the scope out...
:---[===] *

[Ann]

So...um.... where are some rogue planets in this image??? Would like to know...

Plus... my shot of the area... probably my favorite off planet place... bit over exposed on the stars because of cheap camera.

If tonight is decent, might get the scope out...
:---[===] *

That's a really nice shot with a cheap camera!

I really like the colors! The white stars, the ever so greenish tinge of much of the nebula, and the reddish "ridge" of dust and gas in the nebula!

Ann

[BDanielMayfield]

So...um.... where are some rogue planets in this image??? Would like to know ...

Yeah, where are they? , because of course they would be quite invisible in this apod, but ...

Stars are clearly forming here, and planet formation is a natural byproduct of star formation, and rogue planet formation by planet interactions in young systems could be common, so ... there would be at least some rogue planets in the image.

But, where, he asked are they? Well, some have claimed that there could be as many as 100,000 rogue planets for every star in our galaxy. If that is true then this Apod is packed with planets They're everywhere!

This rogue asks then, what is the rough rate of rogueness in the galaxy?

Bruce

[neufer]

[b][color=#0000FF]NYPD rogues gallery, July 1909.[/color][/b]

---

<<rogue (n.) 1560s, "idle vagrant," perhaps a shortened form of roger (with a hard -g-), thieves' slang for a begging vagabond who pretends to be a poor scholar from Oxford or Cambridge, which is perhaps an agent noun in English from Latin rogare "to ask." Another theory traces it to Celtic (compare Breton rog "haughty").

In playful or affectionate use, "one who is mischievous," 1590s. Meaning "large wild beast living apart from the herd" is from 1859, originally of elephants. Meaning "something uncontrolled or undisciplined" is from 1964. Also common in 17c. as a verb. Rogue's gallery "police collection of mug shots" is attested from 1859.>>

[DavidLeodis]

In the information brought up through a http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1705a/ link that is in the information brought up through the "featured image" link in the explanation it states of the image used as the APOD "This composite image of the Kleinmann-Low Nebula, part of the Orion Nebula complex". I thought (hope ) this may be of interest to anyone that has not noticed that information.

[Case]

In Orion, supernova explosions and close interactions between stars have created rogue planets and stars that rapidly move through space.

So...um.... where are some rogue planets in this image??? Would like to know...

The rogue planets in the description seems to come from the press release, but aren’t mentioned in detail or as discovery.

Actually found candidates for being rogue planets in Orion, are S Ori 52 (mentioned in the list on the wiki page) and possibly S Ori 56, S Ori 60, and S Ori 70 (not close to S Ori at all for some reason), part of the σ Orionis Star Cluster, in the general direction of Alnitak (ζ Ori) and the Horsehead Nebula.

[BZR99] S Ori 52: (05h40m09.32s,-02°26'32.6")
[BZR99] S Ori 56: (05h39m00.79s,-02°21'41.8")
[BZR99] S Ori 60: (05h39m37.52s,-02°30'41.9")
[BZR99] S Ori 70: (05h38m10.10s,-02°36'26.0")

[Ann]

This is so interesting!

I can't help thinking of three stars that ran away from the Orion Nebula some 2-3 million years ago. The stars are AE Aurigae (the picture is by Adam Block, Mu Columbae (from Palomar Observatory/WikiSky), and 53 Arietis (from Sky and Telescope). These are all massive stars, 53 Arietis some 7.5 solar masses, Mu Columba about 12 solar masses, and AE Aurigae about 17 solar masses.

What about these new runaways, though? They look quite small to me. Is anything known about their spectral classes?

Ann

Click to view full size image

Older runaway trio AE Aurigae, Mu Columba and 53 Arietis.
Source: Procyonsystems/Kissimmee Park Observatory.

I just had my question mostly answered!

Monica Young of Sky & Telescope wrote:

The astronomers collected an infrared spectrum of the object, which shows that the protostar weighs in at 2 or 3 solar masses, lower than its runaway companions. (BN is probably 20 solar masses and Source I is 7 solar masses).

Wow! This makes the new runaway stars in Orion quite comparable to the older runaway trio, AE Aurigae, Mu Columba and 53 Arietis!

Click to view full size image

The proper motion of Source x in the Orion Nebula.
NASA / ESA / K. Luhman (Penn State University)

BN, the Becklin-Neugebauer object, at approximately 20 solar masses, would be perfectly comparable to, or even more massive than, 17 solar mass AE Aurigae. There would be no counterpart to 12 solar mass Mu Columba, but Source I at 7 solar masses would be an almost perfect match for 7.5 solar mass 53 Arietis. The newly discovered object, Source x, at 2 or 3 solar masses, would be a star similar to Sirius or Vega.

Wow! That makes the three new runaways a hefty lot, at (future) spectral classes late O or early B (BN), early or mid B (Source I) and early A (Source x).

Ann