High Angular Resolution Mid-infrared Imaging of Young Stars in Orion BN/KL

Abstract

We present Keck LWS images of the Orion BN/KL star forming region obtained in the first multi-wavelength study to have 0.3-0.5" resolution from 4.7 to 22 microns. The young stellar objects designated infrared source-n and radio source-I are believed to dominate the BN/KL region. We have detected extended emission from a probable accretion disk around source-n but infer a stellar luminosity on the order of only 2000 Lsun. Although source-I is believed to be more luminous, we do not detect an infrared counterpart even at the longest wavelengths. However, we resolve the closeby infrared source, IRc2, into an arc of knots ~1000 AU long at all wavelengths. Although the physical relation of source-I to IRc2 remains ambiguous, we suggest these sources mark a high density core (10^7-10^8 pc^-3 over 1000 AU) within the larger BN/KL star forming cluster. The high density may be a consequence of the core being young and heavily embedded. We suggest the energetics of the BN/KL region may be dominated by this cluster core rather than one or two individual sources.

arXiv comment13 pages including 3 color figures. Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal Letters pending slight reduction in length. High resolution figures (jpeg) may be found at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~lincoln/keck.bnkl.midir.ppr/

References in corpus (9)

• Massive Stars: Their Environment and Formation
• Constraints on the Stellar/Sub-stellar Mass Function in the Inner Orion Nebula Cluster
• X-ray emitting young stars in the Orion Nebula
• The Initial Mass Function of Low-Mass Stars and Brown Dwarfs in Young Clusters
• On the Interferometric Sizes of Young Stellar Objects
• A dusty torus around the luminous young star LkHa 101
• Coexisting conical bipolar and equatorial outflows from a high-mass protostar
• A new mid-infrared map of the BN/KL region using the Keck telescope
• Massive Stars: Their Birth Sites and Distribution

Cited by in corpus (42)

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• Submm line imaging of Orion-KL with the Submillimeter Array
• Proper Motions of the BN Object and the I Radio Source in Orion: Where and When Did BN Become a Runaway Star?
• Monitoring the Large Proper Motions of Radio Sources in the Orion BN/KL Region
• The ALMA View of the OMC1 Explosion in Orion
• A line confusion limited millimeter survey of Orion KL. II: Silicon-bearing species
• A Multi-Epoch Study of the Radio Continuum Emission of Orion Source I: Constraints on the Disk Evolution of a Massive YSO and the Dynamical History of Orion BN/KL
• Imaging the Ionized Disk of the High-Mass Protostar Orion-I
• A new mid-infrared map of the BN/KL region using the Keck telescope
• Thermal Dust Emission from Proplyds, Unresolved Disks, and Shocks in the Orion Nebula
• Sub-arcsecond sub-mm continuum observations of Orion-KL
• Unveiling Sources of Heating in the Vicinity of the Orion BN/KL Hot Core as Traced by Highly Excited Inversion Transitions of Ammonia
• Resolved 24.5 micron emission from massive young stellar objects
• Maser emission from SiO isotopologues traces the innermost 100 AU around Radio Source I in Orion BN/KL
• The Orion Nebula in the mid-IR
• Submillimeter Array 440$\mu$m/690GHz line and continuum observations of Orion-KL
• Subarcsecond mid-infrared and radio observations of the W3 IRS5 protocluster
• Herschel observations of Extra-Ordinary Sources: H2S as a Probe of Dense Gas and Possibly Hidden Luminosity Toward the Orion KL Hot Core
• Dynamical Evidence for a Magnetocentrifugal Wind from a 20 Msun Binary Young Stellar Object
• Identifying the outflow driving sources in Orion-KL
• Far-IR Excited OH Lines from Orion KL Outflows
• Complex Organic Molecules at High Spatial Resolution Toward Orion-KL I: Spatial Scales
• ALMA Imaging of Millimeter/Submillimeter Continuum Emission in Orion KL
• A 3D view of the outflow in the Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC-1)
• Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS Polarization Measurements of OMC-1
• First Science Observations with SOFIA/FORCAST: 6 TO 37 micron Imaging of Orion BN/KL
• ALMA Images of the Orion Hot Core at 349 GHz
• A High Spatial Resolution Study of the λ=3 mm Continuum of Orion-KL
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• NICMOS Observations of Shocked H_2 in Orion
• Physical Relation of Source I to IRc2 in the Orion KL Region
• The complexity of Orion: an ALMA view III. The explosion impact
• The mid-infrared molecular inventory towards Orion IRc2
• Disk and outflow signatures in Orion-KL: The power of high-resolution thermal infrared spectroscopy
• Proper Motions of the Radio Source Orion MR, Formerly Known as Orion n, and New Sources with Large Proper Motions in Orion BN/KL
• Circumbinary disc survival during binary-single scattering: towards a dynamical model of the Orion BN/KL complex
• ALMA Observation of the 658 GHz Vibrationally Excited H${}_2$O Maser in Orion KL Source I
• Probing Turbulence with Infrared Observations in OMC1
• Keck Adaptive Optics Observations of the Protostellar Disk around Radio Source I in the Orion Kleinmann-Low Nebula