This spectacular image of the Orion Nebula star-formation region was obtained from multiple exposures using the HAWK-I infrared camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. This is the deepest view ever of this region and reveals more very faint planetary-mass objects than expected. Credit: ESO/H. Drass et al.
HAWK-I infrared instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has revealed the deepest and most comprehensive view of the Orion Nebula to date. It has revealed a great abundance of faint brown dwarfs and isolated planetary-mass objects. The very presence of these low-mass bodies provides an exciting insight into the history of star formation within the nebula itself. The famous Orion Nebula spans ~24 light-yrs in constellation of Orion and is visible from Earth with the naked eye, as a fuzzy patch in Orion’s sword. Some nebulae, like Orion, are strongly illuminated by UV radiation from the many hot stars born within them, such that the gas is ionised and glows brightly.
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. The wealth of very-low-mass objects suggests the Orion Nebula may be forming proportionally far more low-mass objects than closer and less active star formation regions.
Astronomers count up how many objects of different masses form in regions like the Orion Nebula to try to understand the star-formation process. Before this research the greatest number of objects were found with masses of ~1/4 that of our Sun. 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 distribution of star counts.
These observations also hint tantalisingly that the number of planet-sized objects might be far greater than previously thought. Whilst the technology to readily observe these objects does not exist yet, ESO’s future European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), scheduled to begin operations in 2024, is designed to pursue this as one of its goals.
Lead scientist Holger Drass enthuses: “Our result feels to me like a glimpse into a new era of planet and star formation science. The huge number of free-floating planets at our current observational limit is giving me hope that we will discover a wealth of smaller Earth-sized planets with the E-ELT.” http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1625/
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