Seminario DAS: Protostellar Outflows, Explosions, and Feedback

Speaker: Dr. John Bally
Affiliation: Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder

Abstract: Most  stars power jets and bipolar outflows during their formation.    But some experience, powerful but short-lived explosions.    I will discuss recent JWST observations of protostellar outflows and the OMC1 region in Orion.   OMC1 experienced a 10^48 erg explosion about 550 years ago, triggered by an N-body interaction  which resulted in the formation of a compact binary or led to a stellar merger.    The binary or merger remnant and two other stars were ejected with speeds of 10, 30 and 55 km/s.     Fossil remnants of explosions have been found in several other Galactic star forming regions.   Orion-like events occur roughly once a century in the Milky Way.    Explosive outflows are a particularly powerful feedback mechanism on the lowest rung of the "feedback ladder" in the self-regulation of star formation.