The Orion Nebula is at the top of the sword of the Orion constellation. This famous nebula is one of the most popular celestial attractions for amateur astronomers. The obtained colorful images reflect the intense UV illumination of the interstellar gas by a generation of young massive stars nicknamed The Trapezium. The presence of massive stars is also the reason why this region is one of the most studied by professional astronomers. Located at 1350 light year from Earth, this is indeed the region of formation of massive stars closest to Earth. Astrophysicists thus observe this region in the prospect of revealing the secrets of formation of these monster stars that deliver about 200 000 times the solar luminosity!
Javier Goicoechea explains: "Up to now, we had an extremely static view of what happens to the molecular gas in this transition. This has changed drastically with ALMA. We obtained an image of exquisite sensibility with a precision of 0.1 arcsecond, i.e., roughly the angular size under which the solar system would be seen at the distance of Orion."
However, as any interferometer, ALMA alone would have only been sensitive to the small scale structures at the edge of the Orion Bar. This would have given a biased view of this edge. To correct for this, the team used single-dish observations obtained with the IRAM-30m telescope and combined both data sets to get the right answer. Jerome Pety adds: "Basically, we took a picture of the skin of the hunter, while ALMA alone would have only been sensitive to the skin pores!"
Javier Goicoechea continues: "This combination reveals that the edge of the molecular cloud is composed of small filaments and globules more or less organized in periodic patterns at the edge of an extended molecular cloud. The explanation for such patterns is counter-intuitive. Indeed, in a static view, the intense UV radiation from the Trapezium stars should only dissociate molecules and ionize atoms. However, in a dynamic view, the UV field brings so much energy to the edge of the molecular cloud that it shocks it and it compresses its outside layers, to form the thin filaments and small globules."
Jerome Pety enthousiastically finishes: "This compressed layer could help to protect the rest of the cloud from the harsh UV radiation. Behind the compression zone, the cloud temperature decreases fast and the cloud becomes quiet enough to continue forming new generation of stars."
Reference
Javier R. Goicoechea, Jérôme Pety, Sara Cuadrado, José Cernicharo, Edwige Chapillon, Asunción Fuente, Maryvonne Gerin, Christine Joblin, Nuria Marcelino & Paolo Pilleri. Compression and ablation of the photo-irradiated molecular cloud the Orion Bar. Nature. Doi: 10.1038/nature18957