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Astrophysics

Waves on Orion's shores

Nature volume 466, pages 928–929 (2010)Cite this article

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Waves have been discovered in the molecular cloud surrounding the Orion nebula, generated by shearing flows in the cloud. This finding provides clues to the way filamentary substructures form in the interstellar medium.

Massive stars have a profound effect on evolution in the cosmos. Their brilliant light can outshine all other stars in star-forming galaxies, and their cores are the source of most elements other than hydrogen and helium. Their intense radiation, stellar winds and supernova explosions sculpt surrounding interstellar gas clouds and determine the clouds' state. The Orion nebula1,2, located about 400 parsecs from the Sun, is the nearest site of ongoing massive-star formation. It is one of the best-known environments in which interactions between massive stars and the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM) can be studied in detail. Orion continues to provide new insights into the physics of the ISM, particularly into the interactions between massive stars and the surrounding clouds that gave birth to them. Reporting in this issue (page 947), Berné et al.3 provide evidence for a new class of such interactions — waves at the interface between the nebula and the background molecular cloud.

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Figure 1: The constellation of Orion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. John Bally is in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0389, USA. john.bally@colorado.edu,

    John Bally

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  1. John Bally
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Bally, J. Waves on Orion's shores. Nature 466, 928–929 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/466928a

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