The researchers report that the jet complex
emanates from SSV 63 — a Class I protostar
system, which high-resolution infrared imaging reveals to have at least five components.
More sources are found in this region, but
only at longer, submillimeter wavelengths of
light, suggesting that there are even younger,
and more deeply embedded sources in the
region. All of these embedded sources are located within the dense molecular cloud core.
A search for dim optical and infrared young
stars has revealed several faint optical stars
located well outside the star-forming core.
In particular, GMOS found a halo of five faint
hydrogen-alpha (H-alpha) emission stars
(which emit large amounts of red light) surrounding the HH 24 Complex well outside
the dense cloud core. Gemini spectroscopy
of the H-alpha emission stars show that they
are early or mid-M dwarfs (stars with very low
mass), at least one of which being a borderline brown dwarf.
The presence of these five stars well outside the star-forming cloud core is puzzling,
because the gas there is far too tenuous for
star formation. Instead they are likely orphan
protostars ejected shortly after birth from
the nearby star-forming core. Such ejections
occur when many stars form closely together
within the same cloud core. The crowded
stars start moving around each other in a
chaotic dance. This ultimately leads to the
ejection of the smallest ones.
A consequence of such ejections is that pairs
of the remaining protostars bind together
gravitationally. The dense gas that surrounds
the newly formed pairs brakes their motion,
so th W